Escape the Lawn, Embrace the Wild
It all started with a shovel and a dream. You see, my wife Won-ok and I had just purchased our dream home in the Washington D.C. suburbs, and we were determined to put our environmental ethics into action. The outdated notion of maintaining a perfect, green grass lawn? We were ready to yank it out by the roots and embark on a rewilding adventure.
Like many homeowners, our first instinct was to hire a professional landscaper. But when a landscape architect quoted us $6,000 just to design our new urban oasis – and that didn’t even include the labor – we knew the do-it-yourself route was the way to go. After all, how hard could it be to transform our four-tenths of an acre into a thriving wildlife habitat?
As it turns out, the journey we embarked on would be one of unimaginable joy, not to mention a valuable education in the art of rewilding. So, strap in, because we’re about to take you on a wild ride full of shovels, milkweed, and the occasional visit from a friendly chipmunk.
Diving In, Bit by Bit
Won-ok and I aren’t ecologists, but we were eager learners and fierce workers – middle age be damned! We started small, spray-painting a 10-foot oval-shaped island on the grass and then digging it out. We didn’t have a full-scale landscape masterplan, but we were determined to tackle our yard in bite-size chunks.
Little did we know that those first shovels full of earth would launch a journey of unimaginable joy. Or how greatly our work would transform not just our home, but our lives as well.
Seeking Guidance, Finding Inspiration
Gaping hole in the ground accomplished, we headed to our favorite plant nursery for advice. Finding a nursery staffed with knowledgeable people has been a key to all our gardening and landscaping projects. We asked them, “What can we do for birds and butterflies?” and the nursery staff sent us home with a starter kit of milkweed plants and other native species to attract a variety of pollinators.
Armed with our newfound knowledge, we dove deeper, taking a few online classes and reading all we could about rewilding. The process of “dig first, figure out what to plant later” became our mantra for the next two years. And as we uncovered more resources, our project took on a life of its own.
Backbreaking Beauty
A local rock quarry enabled us to take on even more ambitious projects, starting with a 25-by-15-foot raised-bed garden lined with two tons of hefty garden wall stones. We moved and stacked every single one of them with our own hands. The same goes for a one-ton, crescent-shaped island and the two large dump truck loads of soil that followed.
Lowering and moving these masses across the yard was equal parts Zen and Shawshank Redemption escape. A friend even told us that one hole-in-progress looked like a heart, so we dug the rest of the space in that shape and bordered it with garden rail that we painted bright red. Heart is what this is all about.
A Noah’s Ark of Native Plants
With our islands and beds in place, it was time to bring in the greenery. We populated every inch with a wide variety of native flowers and bushes, sometimes taking the Noah’s Ark approach of bringing two of everything home from the nursery. We later learned that’s not always the best design for Mother Nature, but it sure did make for an impressive starting point.
Discarded objects also found their way into our yard, turning it into a rescue sanctuary for crippled stone, ceramic, and wood-carved wildlife. One of our proudest creations? A rotting fiberglass boat, destined for the landfill, that we upcycled into a raised-bed garden for our favorite friends, the monarch butterflies. We named the vessel “The Magic Monarch” and can’t wait to see if the orange and black miracles will come.
A Wild Archipelago
Seemingly overnight, critters of all kinds began ambling, flying, buzzing, crawling, slithering, and hopping to our little archipelago. We now cohabitate with native plant species that support not only the monarchs but countless other pollinators, birds, chipmunks, rabbits, turtles, groundhogs, and even rotund rat snakes.
One hundred percent of our front yard and expanding parts of our backyard grass are now gone, replaced by wildlife habitat that serves Mother Earth and doesn’t make our neighbors mad. While we made sure not to buy a home with a dreaded Homeowners Association (HOA) that might fight our every move to lend nature a hand, we did fear backlash from our new neighbors. Boy, were we wrong.
Spreading the Rewilding Love
Our neighbors love it! People are constantly passing by our house as they enter a regional park on our street, and a day rarely goes by without at least a few of them stopping to tell us how deeply moved they are by what they see. We know we’ve made the planet proud when they ask us for advice on how to get started on rewilding projects of their own.
And our impact will only multiply in the months ahead when we add an informational kiosk to the front yard. It will include a link to a soon-to-be-created section of a pro-bono website we run to celebrate our beloved neighborhood creek. After all, Reading General Contractor isn’t just about building structures – it’s about building a better world, one backyard at a time.
Finding Our Zen
But it’s not just our yard that’s undergoing a metamorphosis; we’re changing too. I now start every morning by leaning against a beloved red maple tree and looking out across the fruits of our labor. I meditate and offer up a prayer to Mother Earth, asking her to help me be of greater use to her. My ego humbled and mind slowed, I live the day in a more mindful, purposeful, and fulfilled way.
Won-ok joins me for afternoon sitting sessions to admire our ever-ongoing work that, to date, has cost less than the proposed $6,000 design fee – and given us an invaluable education. We greet the birds and the bees and the chipmunks, and the universe occasionally even blesses us with the sight of a monarch flittering across the yard.
Closing Thoughts
So, if you’re feeling inspired to ditch the lawn and embark on your own rewilding adventure, take it from us: it’s a journey well worth the effort. With a little elbow grease, some guidance from the experts, and a healthy dose of creativity, you too can transform your outdoor oasis into a thriving wildlife haven. Who knows – you might even find a little piece of Zen along the way.
