Let Your Garden Grow Wild | Rebecca McMackin | TED

I work as a landscape maintence technician currently. I went into this line of work with hopes of learning how to better care for plants. Now i just feel like i'm part of the problem. I spend all my days planting annuals that arent native, pruning exotic shrubs, and laying mulch for rich people who dont care for anything but a unique look and sterile lawn. I do all this for these people who dont care and i have no time to work in my own garden. I'm looking to quit my job, take some classes at the local community college, and maybe becoming a conservationist or landscape designer with the intent of planting native eco-spaces. I want to be part of the solution!

My neighbors spray their lawns, and one even complained that my fruit trees, garden, and berry hedges attract birds! Seeing birds and wildlife is one of my favorite things about gardening. I had found a praying mantis egg sac two years ago. This spring I found two in my hedges and plant stalks I left up. I am so glad I stayed away from HOAs.

I converted part of my backyard into a native wildflower garden with a small pond about 7 years ago. Every year the garden gets healthier and more robust, and attracts so many birds and butterflies!

A good friend of mine, an elderly man doesn’t own a rake. He just chops and drops and says he’s never had a traditional garden. His back yard is like the garden of Eden. One of the most relaxing places to visit.

We have 33 acres in Australia. We took over the property 2.5 years ago. They had used poisons and generally the property was dead. Just stopping using poisons and letting things grow and establishing fruit trees and some animals. We now have beautiful birds flocking in eating our fruit etc. the ground is alive now. We have all sorts of butterflies there now. Ducks and other birds are now returning to our Dam. Things are really getting exciting now.

While on a natural stretch of beach in Dorset, a woman commented that it was lovely, but it was just a shame that the seaweed and debri marking the tide-line was so untidy, and wouldn't it be nice if someone cleaned it up. While in the woods I asked a passing dog walker if they knew why the trees had been cut down, and she said, in a well-meaning attempt to bond over the issue "I know, it's messy isn't it!" So I replied that I hoped they were harvesting the non-native pine crop, so that the native shrubs and trees could recolonise themselves. An old colleague looked at a lawn carpeted in daisies, bright as a smattering of spring snow, and said it was "unkempt" and needed a good mow. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but she missed this because she saw it through eyes trained to see nature as something ever-encroaching that should be cut into squares and bound tight at the borders. Something can be a little loose in looks, a little "untidy" in traditional terms, and still be beautiful. See beneath the surface and you realise that beauty lies not in how something appears, but what that appearance means. Sometimes ugliness is beautiful because it is honest. And sometimes ugliness isn't ugliness at all, but blindness.

I have 3 acres - 1/2 clear, 1/2 wooded with an ephemeral stream bisecting it. I'm meticulously removing invasives and replacing with regional natives. I can't save the whales, or tigers, but I can save butterflies, birds, herps, fireflies, etc. on my little lot of land.

I bought a house with a perfect lawn, and I just let it go. I love it now! My little brother said you have Moles, you need to get rid of them and I asked him why he said because they make holes in the ground, I told him that he is just a grass hole😂

I don't have a garden to grow, only potted plants on balcony. One time a purple butterfly rimmed in yellow visited my balcony and danced around me for a good minute whilst I was doing yoga. It's a magical moment.

A few years ago I was inspired by the back to Eden documentary when I was researching garden styles. Then I visited Paul Gautchi’s garden in person to learn how to prune fruit trees. Because of his teachings our 1/2 acre has about 30 fruit trees & bushes. I’ve spread 25 truck loads of free wood chips to turn the grass into fertile soil for gardening. The front yard is now covered with strawberries. And the vegetable garden is turning into a food forest with chaos gardening taking root. 3 years ago I didn’t know how to grow a thing. Now neighbors are covering their lawns with wood chips and planting gardens. So many have benefited from Paul’s teachings ❤ Working with Mother Nature is so much more rewarding !

Outlaw HOA restrictions on gardens. Federally outlaw them. Then we can have cactus in the desert and forest and grassland yards everywhere else.

I own a small landscaping business in Central Colorado and this is exactly what we encourage our customers to do. People love the results. They find a renewed connection and wonder in their small yards. It is environmental activism when so many people feel helpless. We have a misconception that we have to control our yards so it can be very difficult for some people. A natural or ecological gardener helps to facilitate what nature would do on her own time, we help speed up the process.

i have a tiny 8'x8' cement slab that i fill with 5 gallon containers every summer and grow as much as i can. cucumbers, carrots, lettuce, potatoes, tomatoes, green beans, flowers. not only does it look awesome seeing all that green that started with just seeds and dirt but i love watching all the bee's making their rounds pollinating all my food. it really does make you feel good and appreciate nature.

My gardening style for over 30 yrs. I'm in my 60's now and fear what is happening to our biodiversity. So happy you're advocating Wilding our gardens with native plants.

I love it. I returned my backyard in San Francisco to the wild and bugs, spiders, salamanders, birds, one humming bird, even a red hawk came to find refuge. It's amazing to see the wildlife and the beauty that comes with it.

Thank you for this! I’m from the U.K., and we dedicated a part of our garden as a natural habitat. It has now attracted birds and other insects. We make sure everything we grow in the whole of our garden is native, including the trees and shrubs. We’ve seen a difference just in a year by doing this - more native species. Our vegetable beds also help in this.

I lived in a 4th floor apartment with a large patio for a long time. I had a solar fountain and a bunch of plants. The patio connected to the breezeway and my neighbors often told me how much they enjoyed it. Not only that, I had frequent visits from hummingbirds and butterflies!

Wonderful. I put in a 50 foot by 60 foot pollinator garden and it is so full of life! And less maintenance than regular gardens.

Even though I am over 50, I want to what this lady does when I grow up. I am working on a forest garden in the meantime. It is pretty wild. My ultimate goal is to have an orchard surrounding a small NATURAL fish pond.

My yard is coveted in dandelions and i never try to kill them. Everyone else around me does and look at my yard with disgust. Its frustrating but i have bees, butterflies, moths, and birds. Love them all