Rewilding is capturing imaginations and changing our landscapes.

Rewilding is a word we’re becoming increasingly familiar with. In its truest form, it refers to the large-scale restoration of ecosystems and native habitats, and the revival of lost indigenous species, such as wolves, lynx and beavers. It forgoes human interference (for purists, that means conservation too) and instead allows nature to restore its own processes. It’s not geared toward reaching any defined end point – it goes where nature decides to take it.

Isabella Tree’s much-referenced 2018 book describes the process of returning to nature 3,500 acres of unproductive farmland in East Sussex. Like other garden designers who care about the environment, I have read and re-read the book, enthralled by the idea that we could have both wilderness and ecological restoration on our doorstep. But I have stopped short of rewilding my own garden (pictured), preferring instead to