What is Wild Your Space?
Digital Toolkit
As a nature restoration charity (based here, in the Scottish Borders), Bright Green Nature hope to help you to restore nature – both in your school grounds, and in the minds of our younger generations. We want children, of all ages, to understand and appreciate the natural world around them by experiencing it first hand, and in a truly holistic way.
We see outdoor learning, at every possible opportunity, as absolutely vital in this journey. The more children learn about nature, the more they will care about it. And by nurturing this care and passion, many of them will look to make a difference, now and long into the future.
But we know that getting started is not always easy, that’s why we have set up this digital toolkit. The Bright Green Nature Team have done this work, so that busy school teachers don’t have to.
Everyone knows that the internet offers an infinite range of websites, articles, videos, images and much more, but not everyone has an unlimited amount of time to carry out searches, or to identify the good from the bad, and the right from the wrong. It can also be a challenge to find material on the world-wide-web that is actually even relevant in The Scottish Borders.
Hopefully, as you explore this unique, and totally bespoke, digital toolkit you will find enough information to inspire rewilding projects and outdoor learning activities. We aim to give you a useful amount of detail, without making things overly complicated and swamping you with unnecessary blurb. Many additional links are also provided throughout, so that you have recommended additional information – but remember that we are always just a phone call or an email away.
For the foreseeable future, we expect this will be continually evolving and very much work in progress. So, please don’t hesitate to contact Fraser ( fraser@brightgreennature.org ) with honest and genuine feedback along with any ideas for useful additional content. This is your toolkit and we want to get this right for you!
2. What is Rewilding
Undoubtedly, rewilding means different things to different people, and almost everyone you ask will give you a different definition.
3. Small Ponds
Putting it simply – ponds are magnets for wildlife, and as such can be another key part of your nature restoration goals.
4. Bog Gardens
A garden without a pond (or a wetland area) is like a theatre without a stage.
5. Brash Hedges
Brash hedges are growing in popularity everywhere you look (woodland areas, gardens, farms, etc.), and it’s easy to see why.
6. Native Hedges
Either planting a new hedge, or simply doing less cutting of an existing hedge will greatly assist any nature restoration goals that you have.
7. Wildflower Meadows
Whether you have space for a large meadow, a short narrow strip or good sized bank, one thing is for sure – it all counts
Coming soon…
8. Grass Margins
9. Sensory Gardens (Including Herbs)
10. Native Climbing Plants
11. Spring Bulbs and Wildflowers
12. Trees and Orchards)
13. Living Willow Structures
14. Butterflies and Moths
15. Bees and Other Pollinators
16. Composting
17. Wormeries
18. Bug Hotels
19. Bird Nesting Boxes
20. Hedgehogs (and Trail Cameras)