At Burrow Beck, Lancaster City Council has combined a new solar farm with a programme of habitat creation. Four hectares of previously species-poor agricultural land are being planted with native wildflowers, hedgerows, trees and aquatic vegetation.
Ecologists forecast the work could increase biodiversity on the site by approximately 90%. The scale may be bigger than the average garden, business park or community space, but the principles behind it can be applied almost anywhere. And that is where smaller-scale rewilding gets interesting.
The lesson from Lancaster: make every piece of land work harder for nature
The Burrow Beck project demonstrates that we do not necessarily have to choose between land being useful for people and useful for wildlife. The same land can produce renewable electricity while also providing food, shelter and habitat for wildlife. That principle translates remarkably well to smaller spaces:
A garden can still be somewhere to sit and entertain while containing native flowers.
An office development can still have landscaped grounds while providing hedges, trees and nesting habitat.
A balcony can still look attractive while supplying nectar for pollinators.
A school field, verge, courtyard or communal garden can perform its original purpose while doing considerably more for biodiversity.
The goal isn’t necessarily to abandon a space to nature.
It is to increase the amount of nature that the space can support.
How to rewild a small space: five practical ideas
1. Replace some grass with flowers
One of the simplest changes is reducing the amount of frequently mown grass. Instead, allow a section to grow longer or introduce native wildflowers. Longer grass and flowering plants can provide food and shelter for insects, which in turn support birds and other wildlife. You don’t have to turn the whole garden into a meadow. Start with a strip along a fence, a corner of the lawn or even a large container.
Think less mowing, more flowering.
2. Create layers of habitat
Burrow Beck combines several different habitat types rather than relying on one intervention and you can apply the same principle at home. Try combining:
flowering plants
shrubs
a small native tree
longer grass
dead wood
climbing plants
a small pond or water source
Different species need different things.
A garden containing several layers of vegetation is generally more valuable to wildlife than a garden consisting almost entirely of lawn - even a small space can contain surprising complexity.
3. Add water
Water can be one of the most valuable additions to a wildlife-friendly space. And you don’t need a large pond. A container pond made from a half barrel, washing-up bowl or other watertight container can provide habitat for insects and drinking water for birds and other wildlife. Allow plants to grow around the edges and provide an easy escape route for anything that falls in. Small interventions can create disproportionately useful habitats.
4. Connect your patch to the neighbourhood
Wildlife doesn’t recognise property boundaries. That means your garden becomes more useful when it connects with other green spaces nearby.
Hedges rather than solid fences can create wildlife corridors.
Small gaps beneath fences can help species such as hedgehogs travel between gardens.
Climbing plants can provide vertical habitat where ground space is limited.
Street trees, gardens, allotments, balconies and parks can collectively form a network.
One garden might be small but a neighbourhood full of wildlife-friendly gardens is something much bigger.
5. Manage less
Sometimes rewilding is as much about what you stop doing as what you add:
Leave seed heads through winter.
Allow leaves to gather beneath shrubs.
Keep some dead wood.
Avoid unnecessary pesticides.
Let some grass grow longer.
Allow a few plants to seed naturally.
A perfectly tidy garden often removes exactly the materials that insects, birds and other animals need. Giving nature slightly more freedom can have a surprisingly large effect.
Start with the lowest-diversity part of your space
Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Burrow Beck is where the project started. The council describes the original agricultural land as species-poor. That gives us another useful rewilding rule: don’t necessarily start with the wildest part of your garden. Start with the least wild.
Look around your space:
Is there a bare fence?
A permanently short lawn?
A paved corner?
An unused planter?
A sterile area of gravel?
A wall with nothing growing against it?
These are opportunities.
You are looking for places where a relatively small intervention could create a large ecological improvement.
Where LettsSafari fits in
At LettsSafari, we believe rewilding should be something people can participate in rather than simply something they read about. You don’t need to own a large estate nor do you need to become a conservation expert.
And you don’t need to transform your entire garden overnight.
LettsSafari helps people take part in nature recovery in two complementary ways. First, our subscriptions help support our practical smaller-scale rewilding projects in the UK. Second, we help our community discover straightforward ways to make their own gardens, balconies and neighbourhood spaces more welcoming to wildlife.
The two ideas reinforce each other.
Your small-space rewilding checklist
If you want to begin this week, try just one of these:
Leave a section of grass unmown
Sow native wildflowers
Plant a wildlife-friendly shrub
Add a container pond
Create a gap for hedgehogs
Leave some fallen leaves beneath shrubs
Put away pesticides
Add a climbing plant to a bare wall or fence
Leave seed heads standing over winter
Don’t worry about doing everything.
Choose one patch. Make it slightly wilder. Then see what turns up.