CONTENTS

Acknowledgements ix

Introduction 1

HOME TURF

House guests 13

Growing the lawn 20

Garden rewilders 30

Dabbling in management 41

To feed or not to feed 49

The turning of the Earth 57

VENTURING OUT

Signs of life 73

Fellow-travellers 83

Wild browsing 90

WAYS OF SEEING

Reminders of wilderness 111

Wild nights out 117

Going with the flow 124

The gentle art of tramping 131

CONNECTIONS

Tragedy on the common 145

Fleeing humanity 153

Rain, forest 160

Green unpleasant land 165

The amateur naturalists 176

Wintering 189

Index 199