Your wild life

PHOTOS FROM TOP TO BOTTOM: Starling murmuration at Hen Reedbeds. Up close with nature aged three. A small patch of woodland close to home.

Your wild self

Rewilding your life

Wilding can be just as much about letting nature into your heart, body and lifestyle as much as bringing wildlife back to landscapes. Before we can truly change our actions, we have to change our mindsets. BY SARAH GROVES

My parents told me that my first spoken word was ‘garden’. Apparently, I was lying on my tummy on the carpet looking through a picture window out towards our small garden. I think in all actuality, it was probably ‘ga-ga’, but the sentiment was clearly there, and Mum was convinced.

I feel grateful that I’ve had a deep connection with wildlife and the natural world ever since I can remember, but recent research by Natural England suggests a decline in the proportion of children spending time outside, particularly independently of adults. For most children, their main experience of the natural environment is close to home, in greenspaces within towns and cities.

Wild at home

Over the past few years, I’ve been wilding my house and garden so that it provides a small, calm and precious patch of beauty and vitality for me, and a home and natural food resource for wildlife. I’ve left areas of grass unmown, dazzling with ox-eye daisies in the spring and chirping with crickets and grasshoppers in the autumn. These little wild patches are home to ants, too, who are left free to build palatial nests within the mini meadow. I’ve had grass snakes visit my tiny wildlife pond, where dragonflies lay their eggs and leave their exoskeletons attached to the rushes as delicate prizes to find. The sight of freshly laid frogspawn never fails to excite in early spring. It’s fun to keep an eye on social media to see where and when nature lovers have spotted their first signs of these little marbles of joy.

The outside of the house is festooned with bird boxes, which shelter generations of blue and great tits, and a shrew has taken up residence in the roof of my conservatory. Wildflowers attract an array of butterflies and moths; the most remarkable for me was an all-toobrief visit by a stunning green hairstreak which decided to ignore the wildflowers to feast upon a pot of dianthus instead. Wasps have a safe nest in my roof cavity Sarah on Hen Reedbeds near Southwold, her local nature reserve.

REWILD YOURSELF

1CONSIDER NATURE IN EVERY

DECISION YOU MAKE

Whether you’re shopping, gardening, cleaning, cooking, commuting or going on holiday, think about nature and how your decisions will have an impact.

2CREATE MINI-HABITATS

WHERE YOU LIVE

A window box of herbs, a mini meadow, a pond made from a washing up bowl: micro-habitats can join to create wildlife corridors.

3READ BOOKS BY WRITERS

INSPIRED BY NATURE

Get the double benefit of a relaxing bedtime read with some wellearned me-time, combined with experiencing a wild place. Sarah's garden is wild for nature, with tamer patches for homegrown veg.

Serenity at Hen Reedbeds.

REWILD YOURSELF

WILDFLOWERS

Wildflowers are magnets for insects, like stunning thick-legged flower beetles.

WILDLIFE POND

Even a tiny pond can provide freshwater and burst with life, including frogspawn in early spring.

BUTTERFLIES

Providing a variety of nectar sources throughout the year attracts lovely butterflies like this comma.

COMPOST

Compost bins provide nutrients for the veg as well as homes for invertebrates and worms.

BUG HOTELS

Build your own bug hotel, buy one readymade or include 'bee bricks' in new builds.

MOTH MAGIC

Ragwort, with its bright yellow flowers, provides the food source for cinnabar moth caterpillars.

"No one will protect what they don’t care about; and no one will care about what they have never experienced"

Sir David Attenborough is a champion for providing accessible and welcoming wild spaces to help everyone, everywhere connect with nature.

and even hedgehogs visit. I never take these fleeting wild gifts for granted. Everything is cherished and I feel grateful that I can provide some space to share with nature. I do wonder if the neighbours think I’m neglectful with my long, unkempt grass and wild, fruit-laden hedges, but they haven’t complained – yet!

Wild every day

Research by the University of Derby revealed the success of The Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild campaign in bringing health benefits – both mental and physical – to people of all ages by simply getting outside and getting closer to nature. For me, nature brings a sense of perspective, of natural change, and the sheer wonder of life in its many forms.

Wilding your life can happen inside your home, too. Using natural cleaning products and being willing to share your space with the odd spider or two is a small step towards living more mindfully. Reducing single-use plastic where I can, growing vegetables in my small garden and making sure that little food is wasted all adds up to living more sustainably. I think a lot more about consumption and how much ‘stuff’ I really need. I find myself questioning whether I can make do with what I have or if I can buy things second-hand (new wildlife books are my nemesis, though).

Little steps, big difference

Everyone’s journey towards a wilder, more natural life will be different. That’s what’s so exciting. It’s not about being perfect! It’s taking little steps and learning more each day, to appreciate the magic in small things all around us; to do our best to make our precious world better for everyone and everything. Life can, and will, throw many things at us but, for me, nature is the solace that keeps me grounded and never ceases to cause me wonder.

Take action for wildlife today

Be part of Team Wilder suffolkwildlifetrust.org/team-wilder