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by claire | Jan 26, 2019 | 0 comments

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Step 5. Embrace the Wild native plants Nature scab

Step 5. Embrace the Wild native plants
Nature scabs over any cuts in her skin with her first aid plaster which is known as the ‘weed seed bank’. Leave them do their important work as they emerge. They provide vital food for insects and pollinators, they shove their feet deep into the soil and draw up minerals from deep down up into their leaves. Once they die back then they re-mineralise the soil as they rot into the earth. Such an important job they have! They are healing the soil. We should encourage and admire them.
Embrace these native plants. They are the front line of nature’s army. Instead we have been trained to nuke them at any sign of emergence, see them as messy, unwanted and useless.
We need to rebrand these important plants as the native wild plant seed bank. The term ‘Weeds” is far to derogatory and negative, especially considering the vital part these plants play in rebooting an ecosystem. They are Natures foundation stones.
www.wearetheark.org

An Ark Meadow is a Co-creation. Working with the s

An Ark Meadow is a Co-creation. Working with the seed bank in the soil, removing any non-native plants as they emerge. This can be difficult in some continents especially the USA and Canada where non-native invasive plants have run rampant, and are sadly still often being sold in garden centres over there. The heavily flowered and colourful meadows you are being sold in seed packets, are often non-native and are still leaning on beauty rather than nature support. Leave some areas of grassy Arkness which you don’t cut back. Create a five year cycle with your ark meadows. Leaving some thatched thick dead grasses will make perfect homes for Bumblebees, shrews, field mice and many more. They will thank you for the accommodation. Leave the seed heads on everything, as this is the winter and early spring larder and habitat for many wild creatures. Only cut the meadow back as new growth starts to push through in the spring. Leaving dead stems over winter is vital for many insects and larvae to complete their lifecycles and create a new generation of their own species.

There are days when we all feel hopeless. Surround

There are days when we all feel hopeless. Surrounded by people who don’t seem to realise how imminent our own extinction is. These are often people we love and care about, but who don’t seem to care about what we recognise as the collapse of nature around us. Don’t try and convince them. Just keep doing positive actions like building your Ark and inspire them instead. Keeping the faith that we are many, even though we don’t Always feel surrounded by support.
At the moment we are islands, we are the Ark, and the dream is that soon we will connect all these arks together to make a patchwork quilt of hope that will wrap its way around this earth. #islandsofhope #wearetheark

How to build an Ark - Step 4. EMBRACE THE MESSIN

How to build an Ark - Step 4.

EMBRACE THE MESSINESS!
We are losing the magic in the world, in ourselves. We are trained to see wildness in our gardens as ‘messy and lazy’, to see neatness as ‘care’. Neatness in nature means there is an absence of life. There is very little life in a neat garden. There is no magic in a tidy, wall to wall carpet of lawn. There is no hope in those spaces, no sanctuary. Restoring native plant communities allows land to heal and allows life to thrive once more.
Leave the leaves, the standing dead trees, the twigs and branches. Death is an important part of life.
Standing deadwood supports a huge amount of life. A living mature oak, for example, supports over 500 species of life, but a dead or dying tree supports thousands! Leave the dead leaves, branches and old growth. There is a huge range of support for the living, from the dead and dying elements in nature. At least 40% of woodland creatures depend on dead wood at some point in their lives. Intricate relationships exist between many native plants, fungi, insects and other creatures.
Let the land explode into life under your guidance and care. Learn to love every bump and bristle. Watch in awe as it fills up with butterflies, insects, hedgehogs, wildflowers and magic. Surround yourself with life and meaning. Be patient. Every year will see more and more life restored to the land. Nature heals so quickly and word gets around so fast that there is a sanctuary available. Be ready… so many creatures and their families will turn up almost overnight!
You have made an Ark.
You are contributing to the solutions in a real and positive way.
Hope is the harvest.

www.wearetheark.org

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All photos © Mary Reynolds & Claire Leadbitter unless otherwise credited. All artwork © Ruth Evans. Privacy Policy. Contact hello@wearetheark.org. About Mary

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