Rewilding is a powerful approach that restores natural ecosystems to boost biodiversity and improve pollination, which is crucial for healthy fruit production in our orchard. By embracing rewilding, we create a thriving environment for bees and other pollinators, enhancing honey production and ensuring abundant, high-quality fruit harvests.
In our orchard, we’ve incorporated rewilding practices by planting native wildflowers, shrubs, and trees that provide continuous nectar and pollen throughout the seasons. This diverse range of plants attracts a variety of pollinators like honeybees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects. The increased pollinator activity boosts fruit tree pollination, leading to higher yields and healthier plants. Honeybees thrive in rewilded environments, where they have access to a variety of nectar sources and natural habitats for nesting. By encouraging a natural balance of plants and wildlife, we strengthen our bee colonies, resulting in more honey production and better pollination for fruits such as apples, pears, and plums.
To support honey production and pollination, we’ve taken simple steps:
- Promoting Native Wildflowers: These attract bees and other pollinators while providing year-round nectar. We don’t till and remove these essential wild flowers that are wrongly classified as weeds.
- Zero Pesticide Use: We avoid chemicals to protect our precious pollinators.
- Creating Habitats: We’ve set aside areas for wild grasses and shrubs that serve as natural habitats for pollinators. We even have a small pollinators’ hotel. We leave around dry branches from pruning to let pollinators make their homes in these.
- Providing Water: Shallow water sources help attract bees and other insects. We have kept some ceramic empty pots here and there that serve this purpose.
The Benefits of Rewilding
- Better Pollination: A variety of pollinators ensures better fruit set and higher yields.
- Healthier Ecosystem: Rewilding supports biodiversity, improving soil and plant health.
- Sustainable Honey Production: A diverse environment leads to more honey and healthier bees.
- Climate Resilience: Our orchard becomes more resilient to changing environmental conditions.
Here’s more about our ReWilding efforts – ReWilding the Garden
Learn More – Our Farming Methods
