Why not 'rewild' your garden? (June 2024)

Come for a wander around my "garden jungle", and get some ideas for making your garden a wilder place. Gardens can brim with life, given half a chance. Nature just needs a gently nudge or two. I highlight some of the best flowers for bees and other pollinators.

[@lindamurns1245]

I just found you for the first time and I absolutely LOVE your natural garden ! Just stunning 😍 love mother nature at her finest! Thanks for the wonderful example!

[@DJSupaflyguy]

The Garden is awesome 👌👌👌👌 I’m also trying to trim the garden less, a bit more of a wild look and I know the neighbours probably commenting but sod em.. 😂

[@cerridwencottagediary9194]

I have added over 100 species of wildflowers to my cottage garden here in Wales and I love them. "Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them." A.A.Milne

[@pauldurkee4764]

Congratulations, that's quite an achievement to have that many natives in one garden.

[@cerridwencottagediary9194]

@@pauldurkee4764 Thank you. 108 and counting!

[@mvo5720]

I started rewilding my garden about five years ago and have sown masses of wildflower seeds so it great to see that someone else is doing the same. Like you in your recent video I'm not seeing many insects, bees, or wildlife in my garden this year despite masses of flowers. I used to have crickets and grasshoppers but no sign of them last year or this year yet. I can't remember seeing any butterflies either yet. Great video I really enjoyed it, thank you.😀🍷

[@anthonydavies6021]

Ive read two of your books and applaud you for your commitment and dedication to the smaller creatures that share our gardens and countryside. Your garden is fabulous, I must say, showing that you walk the walk as well as talking the talk.

[@cumbrianrambler7715]

We had cinnabar red moth visit our tiny (in comparison) weed-filled garden in spring. We allow our grass to grow v long . It's amazing the variety of fascinating stuff that grows alongside it.

[@maireadharkin5124]

Dave now i know why you are wearing glasses😇 wow that was so inspirational, the T V people need you , the schools also need you Thank you

[@klmrk9961]

Very nice with a tour of your garden. You forgot to show us how your orchid is doing though ;)

[@michellesleaford4748]

Thankyou for sharing your beautiful garden

[@CoffeeTeaAndPotpourri]

Thank you for sharing your extensive gardens. God made an abundance with lots of variety. I love it. I never saw a totally Blond Bumblebee until yesterday, I narrowly missed stepping on it as it was barely crawling on the dirt. I offered it my pointer finger and it climbed up passed my shoulder, and on my ear. I got nervous and tried to nudge it down. It fell and I rescued it again and put it in a safe place to rest. I added watered down honey to the side of the dish and got her to drink. I covered her with a net screen. She revived enough to crawl up the cloche screen and nap. She liked to sit on my hand. No predators got her. She didn't leave each time I offered her the world. Last night she passed away. I felt sad but brought her still little body into my kitchen to rest on a faux and dried arrangement of summer flowers. There she rests with a small collection of other bees in my Apiary memorial cemetery. It's beauty lasts as a simply tribute to bees. Bee-kind and don't sting...the cost is great. Darla age 75, retired from city life to the Appalachian mountains in the Beautiful Blue Ridge...southeast USA. Gheers.

[@dotnelsie]

Thank you for a delightful video naming some of the plants which are valuable for pollinators. Your yellow rattle colony is impressive!

[@h0llytr0n]

Found it so interesting that you said ragged robin prefers damp and shady, my local patch is growing between the paving stones in the sun! Always so neat to learn more about what i can find out and about, every time i think i must come back and make notes. Thanks for sharing :)

[@h0llytr0n]

Also you can't leave us hanging on the dot counting thing!

[@jessegee179]

Glad to have found your channel, a real pleasure and inspiration to listen to, relaxing or pottering in the garden. I'd happily listen for hours.

[@843thebear]

Great video, lovely to have a tour of your wonderful garden, thanks

[@nickiramsay2421]

I’m making a few changes to my front garden and I’ve just planted catmint up the side of my path, hoping it attracts lots of bees and not all the neighbourhood cats 😄 I’ve had lots of summer and winter flowering heather for years which are absolute bee and butterfly magnets of all varieties but they are starting to go really woody so I might have to replace them with younger plants soon. I live in between a lot of Surrey heathland so I like to think of my heather as a pitstop for insects travelling between them. Interesting hearing about the secondary nectar robbers, I knew about nectar robbing but didn’t realise some utilised ready made holes, very clever. Thanks for the tour, always love seeing what is growing in your beautiful garden.

[@REWILDLIFEVLOG]

I’m starting to rewild an old farm! Thanks for the inspiration

[@elliotlane3225]

Should the title be June 2024?

[@Aethuviel]

I thought I had clicked on a really old video but thought "It's probably good anyway"

[@jerryarmitage206]

Thank you for these videos they are really uplifting.

[@atticbrowser9698]

Thanks Dave!

[@iangoodridge7712]

Great tour of the garden as it is currently, Dave. I loved the section on yellow rattle in particular. We sowed some of that in an area of grassland opposite our house in Devizes and I'm looking to put some in my 'wild' lawn area. When you say you want to extend that area, will you sow more of the seed or do you plant plugs into the grassy area?

[@thebentzenable]

What a cold and wet June we have had 🫣 I have been quite depressed about it, because I have been waiting so long for everything to become alive. I hope the weather will change soon. Thanks for sharing your beautiful garden 🤗🐝

[@mstainthor1947]

Hello there I think in your books you say you have a heavy clay local soil. You were at the same Beth Chatto Symposium as John Little have you experimented with his sand planter idea, to attract sand nesting bees?

[@RussTillling]

Lovely personality, house, garden and wildlife! What’s not to like?!

[@pauldurkee4764]

I look after my mother's small garden,and we haven't used any fertiliser or chemical control for years. The small front lawn contains Dandelion,Daisy, Buttercup,Hawkbit and Self Heal which all appeared naturally over time. I have added Primrose,Sweet Violet,Cowslip and Ox Eye Daisey also. We have resident meadow ants and i have also noticed grasshoppers in the longer fringes. I'm always interested to see what turns up next.

[@jwillard3603]

Definitely a case of 'A day away from your garden is a day wasted'! - Very lovely! I'd love to see a video like this of your farm in France. Do you still have it? What does the farmland look like now you've rewilded that?

[@helenhawkins4054]

Your knowledge is quite inspirational. I always feel l learn so much from your videos.🤗👍

[@elliotlane3225]

Great video, so much information and ideas. Has the damp weather impacted negatively on the numbers of bees and butterflies this year? It seems to have here in Yorkshire, certainly on butterfly numbers in the garden so far.

[@wildlifegardener-tracey6206]

Great visit thank you 💚

[@suewright1299]

Very many thanks for an Aladdin’s Cave of gems to entice the bugs, bees and all insects Dave. Is it possible to buy Yellow Rattle as hubby and I are unable to get it anywhere locally?? We thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful time spent in your garden, many thanks and take care.

[@dotnelsie]

There are sellers of Yellow Rattle seeds on eBay. Just make sure it is seed less than a year old. I would wait for sellers to put on this year’s fresh seed. It needs a winter before germinating so sow in the autumn. 😊

[@ralfielicious]

Absolutely fascinating, thank you, Dave.

[@MultimediaIreland]

I've had about 20mm of rain in the last month, probably less than that. I've rewilded areas of my garden, today I've had more rain than the last month combined, the garden which was vertical yesterday, is today a horizontal garden.

[@roseannatyrrell4498]

Our garden looks a mess but there was a fox in it this morning

[@bernadetteconnolly512]

Lovely garden and tour thank you - could you list your plants so I can go shopping!!!!!!!!

[@ethanclarke3182]

Fantastic garden Well done

[@the_green_anna]

This was an absolutly lovely video! 💚 Your garden is amazing. My take on this "bewildering" is sooo small in comparison... 😄 It's interesting to see all the species of bumblebee you have, that don't live here in Sweden. This summer is tragicly quiet. We had really cold weather after the bumblebees had woken, and almost all of them seem to have died. 😭 There are none left of the usually most common spiechie. I'm really sad. Will they come back again from elsewhere you think? Thank you!

[@alisonburgess345]

Dave, do you get Apis mellifera (what we in Australia call European honeybees) in England? We mostly get them here - apart from Tasmania where they get an introduced bumblebee. We try hard to plant native flowers here (well I am) to try to encourage our native bees, which are usually solitary and much "daintier" than the European honeybees.. Great video!🎉

[@InkNSap]

I need to plant some vetch ❤ love common carders. I’m also incredibly disappointed with my summer here, it’s 13 degrees. How is that summer?

[@Mig29now]

Good video, interesting. I've never found catmint the best for bees although bees certainly do visit my catmint. I've had far more success with Hysopp for bees, but the the very best for bees by far is jasmine beesianum (excuse spelling). Mine was equivalent to the noise from a local power station for noise, bee noise. I try new and different pollinator plants each year. Marjoram is great for my local bees too, I've found in my tiny garden.

[@fabianrood3942]

Hi Dave, do you still own the french property? I would love to see some similar tours there as well!

[@Tatterdemalion-77]

And yootoob puts an ad for Raid insect killer in before the video…🤬

[@charlesbulman]

With respect to your post about the decline in the number of insects:- has it ever occurred to any academic to count the number of insects destroyed by cars? I washed my car recently and was amazed by the number of dead insects on the bonnet in spite of the extremely low number of insects observed in the environment. We use the car relatively little. I am sure that if the maths were done it would reveal that the true cause of insect decline would be be motor traffic.

[@MrPhelimdoran]

Gorgeous, but hardly rewilding? Excuse me being a pedant please

[@davegoulson6831]

I do more ore less agree, but it depends on how you see rewilding in a garden context - I'd argue that in the absence of auroch, boar, wolves etc. the gardener has to stand in for them.