I so feel for you in your anxiety in leaving your garden, and its residents, for a new space. You can but hope what you leave will be respected and cherished as much as it has been. And your next garden will be safe now you’re arriving to take it on.
Lovely piece, thank you. My old garden has been left to go even wilder by my successors, so good in some respects, but I worry that the orchids in the lawn might disappear if it grows too long!
Is there a link for buying books? Sorry if I’ve missed it.
Oh that's nice! Maybe that will happen here, to a degree, but then I'll worry about the roses as you do iwth your orchids! No link to buy books, but I'll message you, thanks!
Hi Kate! I would like to buy One gardener against the world, paper back, and the last copy of the Pond Book, if you still have it and if you could send them to me in Sweden. :)
I was at the Wild Garden conference in Manchester and I really enjoyed your talk, even if it was too short....
I felt the same when I sold my house. However, new owners have put in a large pond and let everything go bit wild, which is cool. I didnt have a missing hedgehog though...I would delay the completion date.
The phrase 'climate change' is now overused and losing is meaning. I wish the bbc news and reporters would say 'climate breakdown' or 'crisis' becasue that is what it is
Hi Kate, first comment here, but I've been reading your pieces for a few months after finding your Substack via a community biodiversity group I'm in (over here in Ireland). I feel all of what you wrote there. We're in a quiet estate in a village on the outskirts of Dublin. Many lovely little gardens, but you know the type - precise, curated, cut and restrained. And a few wild-looking ones like mine that are generally agreed by the majority to be messy and making the estate look bad. Those of us with wild gardens advocate for leaving some of the green area at the top of the estate go wild. It is a battle for every inch there. Entrenched tradition and the fear of long grass being too difficult to cut trumps any concern about starving pollinators. People don't know AND don't care, and sometimes even seem proud of their own ignorance. Bemusing. I try to engage on the local level, listen to all concerns, and all the while nag constantly about how preserving nature is so important. We might gain an inch or two. But even at that I am always on the lookout for the estate mower coming out in case the "wild area" gets conveniently forgotten about and gets shredded. God. It is draining.
And having spent the last few years trying to bring life into my back garden and digging up half the concrete of the "front yard" to make it into an actual front garden, and watching neighbours go in the exact opposite direction, I too might be faced with having to move soon. It's so hard to let go of a sanctuary where wildlife is treated as a co-habitant in a world where "human first" is the default mode of almost everyone everywhere. Yes of course, many people "care about climate change" and might even give "biodiversity loss" a polite nod, but if it jeopardises "human first" then suddenly the the reaction changes. "Well the kids have to have space to play" ... "of course, but they never use that section, and look at all the bees flitting between the wildflowers that have poked their heads up" ... "ah don't worry about the bees, sure there'll go somewhere else and the neighbours will only be complaining that it looks messy". And so after a wonderfully peaceful five weeks of "No Mow May" suddenly dozens and dozens of bees lost nine-tenths of their food source in our estate, because the green area must look tidy and gardens must be paved for convenience.
Sorry, just moaning about my own situation. :-) But I wonder how many times the same conversation is being had all around the world, the same struggle for nature first, the same obliviousness of the ecological debt that humans owe. Anyway I just want to say that I feel all the same aspects of the grief and loss that you feel. You did what you could and change is inevitable. I hope you find peace again in your new home.
Thank you so much Lyall, yes, I often wonder how much this anxiety, and these conversations, are taking place over the world. One of the nicest things about doing what I do is that sometimes people from different parts of the world get in touch and tell me what they're doing for wildlife, and I have friends in Japan and Canada as a result. That said, I'm really sort avout your estate. I know how heartbreaking that is x
Hi Kate, don't lose heart. We recently had a newcomer two doors down. They took over a garden that hadn't been touched in 30+ years. Literally brambles, nettles, birch & sycamores from back door, to back fence. I was convinced that they were going to strip it out and replace with slabs & plastic grass. Instead, they've put some real turf down, sown loads of wild flowers, & planted climbers all along the fences. It's all I can do not to go & throw my arms around the new occupier!! I'm hoping to share some of my plants from seed with her next year, now I know she's a proper gardener ☺️
So many thoughts… but my main one is more of a request/beg - reading about you leaving your sub (?) urban wildlife-friendly home to a less cars + brick + concrete location and your feelings about it is so interesting to me. Every time I think about leaving London (and our hog/fox/wood mouse/bee/butterfly/moth/bird/bat-friendly garden I get severe ‘urban wildlife deserter guilt’ (my name for it). My bet is that a lot of wildlife-friendly people get this and it would be great to figure out how to make it ok/better for both the wildlife being left behind and also a person’s peace of mind. No one should feel guilty for leaving a space that has been made a wildlife haven in a city… but without doubt we feel guilty! So I look forward to reading how you navigate it. (Also, will you be able to resist going back to check on things in a year or two’s time? Or asking neighbours if the new person has paved over and put in artificial grass?! It would be better not to know I think 👀)
Thanks Siski. I don't think I'd be able to come back and check, and I did stipulate to the agents that I wouldn't sell to anyone who wanted to pave/plastic turf it, but really, once we've exchanged, there's no control or guarantees. And I've got things in place that will reduce the anxiety, but also a new garden to play with that will take up my time. It's a balance! But yes, I'll write an update on how that anxiety is going! Cheers!
And also YES on the weather. Insanity. Trees dropping limbs, dead/exhausted bees on the ground all over the place and that’s just what I can see easily. It’s catastrophic but we’re all ‘wish the weather would make its mind up hahahaa’ 🫣
Thank you for the comment on the weather. I’m in north wales and it’s so cold and wet but particularly it’s windy. The burst of warm that brought everything out is a distant memory and nothing is growing! Not even radish. I’ve never failed to grow radish before. 😢
Thank you for writing this. It’s reassuring that other people are worrying about the same thing. I’ve seen quite a lot of swifts this year, so maybe all your usual ones are up here to Yorkshire?
Good luck with the move.
I’d love a paper copy of your books please - let me know how to order?
where can i message you to buy books please? i have relatively recently moved house after 27 years of just about getting it how i loved it. horse files wild and with wildflowers, dragon flies, swallows in the barns etcetc. i still worry about it and love my new place less as a result. thanks for this essay although i did cry.
Kate, I am so sad about Houdini. I hope he turns up for a proper “good-bye.” But I am especially sad about your job. AI is ruining everything. And GW needs you. What a loss for them and for us all! Sending you hugs from someone in the same struggle 🩷
I think we should all go and sit in the road after scrapes and await rescuing
Honestly, works a treat.
This is the best idea I’ve heard in ages.
I so feel for you in your anxiety in leaving your garden, and its residents, for a new space. You can but hope what you leave will be respected and cherished as much as it has been. And your next garden will be safe now you’re arriving to take it on.
Thanks Nicola! Next garden is a total blank canvas so lots to do and plenty of opportunities for the wild things. Fingers crossed!
Lovely piece, thank you. My old garden has been left to go even wilder by my successors, so good in some respects, but I worry that the orchids in the lawn might disappear if it grows too long!
Is there a link for buying books? Sorry if I’ve missed it.
Oh that's nice! Maybe that will happen here, to a degree, but then I'll worry about the roses as you do iwth your orchids! No link to buy books, but I'll message you, thanks!
Hi Kate! I would like to buy One gardener against the world, paper back, and the last copy of the Pond Book, if you still have it and if you could send them to me in Sweden. :)
I was at the Wild Garden conference in Manchester and I really enjoyed your talk, even if it was too short....
Thanks Kisse I'll message you!
I felt the same when I sold my house. However, new owners have put in a large pond and let everything go bit wild, which is cool. I didnt have a missing hedgehog though...I would delay the completion date.
Ha! I fear I'd be waiting forever. And that's nice about the new owners...
The phrase 'climate change' is now overused and losing is meaning. I wish the bbc news and reporters would say 'climate breakdown' or 'crisis' becasue that is what it is
Yes! Also 'climate destabilisation' is a good one...
Hi Kate, I would love to buy a signed copy of your wildlife gardening book, how do I go about that please?
Thanks Wendy, I'll message you!
Hi Kate, first comment here, but I've been reading your pieces for a few months after finding your Substack via a community biodiversity group I'm in (over here in Ireland). I feel all of what you wrote there. We're in a quiet estate in a village on the outskirts of Dublin. Many lovely little gardens, but you know the type - precise, curated, cut and restrained. And a few wild-looking ones like mine that are generally agreed by the majority to be messy and making the estate look bad. Those of us with wild gardens advocate for leaving some of the green area at the top of the estate go wild. It is a battle for every inch there. Entrenched tradition and the fear of long grass being too difficult to cut trumps any concern about starving pollinators. People don't know AND don't care, and sometimes even seem proud of their own ignorance. Bemusing. I try to engage on the local level, listen to all concerns, and all the while nag constantly about how preserving nature is so important. We might gain an inch or two. But even at that I am always on the lookout for the estate mower coming out in case the "wild area" gets conveniently forgotten about and gets shredded. God. It is draining.
And having spent the last few years trying to bring life into my back garden and digging up half the concrete of the "front yard" to make it into an actual front garden, and watching neighbours go in the exact opposite direction, I too might be faced with having to move soon. It's so hard to let go of a sanctuary where wildlife is treated as a co-habitant in a world where "human first" is the default mode of almost everyone everywhere. Yes of course, many people "care about climate change" and might even give "biodiversity loss" a polite nod, but if it jeopardises "human first" then suddenly the the reaction changes. "Well the kids have to have space to play" ... "of course, but they never use that section, and look at all the bees flitting between the wildflowers that have poked their heads up" ... "ah don't worry about the bees, sure there'll go somewhere else and the neighbours will only be complaining that it looks messy". And so after a wonderfully peaceful five weeks of "No Mow May" suddenly dozens and dozens of bees lost nine-tenths of their food source in our estate, because the green area must look tidy and gardens must be paved for convenience.
Sorry, just moaning about my own situation. :-) But I wonder how many times the same conversation is being had all around the world, the same struggle for nature first, the same obliviousness of the ecological debt that humans owe. Anyway I just want to say that I feel all the same aspects of the grief and loss that you feel. You did what you could and change is inevitable. I hope you find peace again in your new home.
Thank you so much Lyall, yes, I often wonder how much this anxiety, and these conversations, are taking place over the world. One of the nicest things about doing what I do is that sometimes people from different parts of the world get in touch and tell me what they're doing for wildlife, and I have friends in Japan and Canada as a result. That said, I'm really sort avout your estate. I know how heartbreaking that is x
Hi Kate, don't lose heart. We recently had a newcomer two doors down. They took over a garden that hadn't been touched in 30+ years. Literally brambles, nettles, birch & sycamores from back door, to back fence. I was convinced that they were going to strip it out and replace with slabs & plastic grass. Instead, they've put some real turf down, sown loads of wild flowers, & planted climbers all along the fences. It's all I can do not to go & throw my arms around the new occupier!! I'm hoping to share some of my plants from seed with her next year, now I know she's a proper gardener ☺️
Oh nice!! There are good ones out there!
So many thoughts… but my main one is more of a request/beg - reading about you leaving your sub (?) urban wildlife-friendly home to a less cars + brick + concrete location and your feelings about it is so interesting to me. Every time I think about leaving London (and our hog/fox/wood mouse/bee/butterfly/moth/bird/bat-friendly garden I get severe ‘urban wildlife deserter guilt’ (my name for it). My bet is that a lot of wildlife-friendly people get this and it would be great to figure out how to make it ok/better for both the wildlife being left behind and also a person’s peace of mind. No one should feel guilty for leaving a space that has been made a wildlife haven in a city… but without doubt we feel guilty! So I look forward to reading how you navigate it. (Also, will you be able to resist going back to check on things in a year or two’s time? Or asking neighbours if the new person has paved over and put in artificial grass?! It would be better not to know I think 👀)
Thanks Siski. I don't think I'd be able to come back and check, and I did stipulate to the agents that I wouldn't sell to anyone who wanted to pave/plastic turf it, but really, once we've exchanged, there's no control or guarantees. And I've got things in place that will reduce the anxiety, but also a new garden to play with that will take up my time. It's a balance! But yes, I'll write an update on how that anxiety is going! Cheers!
And also YES on the weather. Insanity. Trees dropping limbs, dead/exhausted bees on the ground all over the place and that’s just what I can see easily. It’s catastrophic but we’re all ‘wish the weather would make its mind up hahahaa’ 🫣
Thank you for the comment on the weather. I’m in north wales and it’s so cold and wet but particularly it’s windy. The burst of warm that brought everything out is a distant memory and nothing is growing! Not even radish. I’ve never failed to grow radish before. 😢
I’ve failed broad beans so I hear you!
Good luck with the move and I hope it brings you into contact with like minded activists and I know it will become a haven for wildlife.
Thanks so much Diana!
Thank you for writing this. It’s reassuring that other people are worrying about the same thing. I’ve seen quite a lot of swifts this year, so maybe all your usual ones are up here to Yorkshire?
Good luck with the move.
I’d love a paper copy of your books please - let me know how to order?
Thanks I will PM you!
where can i message you to buy books please? i have relatively recently moved house after 27 years of just about getting it how i loved it. horse files wild and with wildflowers, dragon flies, swallows in the barns etcetc. i still worry about it and love my new place less as a result. thanks for this essay although i did cry.
I will message you Chris! Thank you! I’m sorry about your garden…
Kate, I am so sad about Houdini. I hope he turns up for a proper “good-bye.” But I am especially sad about your job. AI is ruining everything. And GW needs you. What a loss for them and for us all! Sending you hugs from someone in the same struggle 🩷
Oh Angela thank you so much, I am PMing you x