Needed some positivity in life, so just upped and decided to rewild our front garden.
My wife and I have talked about making the front garden a wildflower meadow (which will be step 3 or 4), but my wife likes frogs so I thought I'd gamble on the chance that a little pond might attract some - as well as being a boon for wildlife in general.
We used the kids' old paddling pool, as you can see, and I'm following guidance found on various websites (e.g. rewildingbritain.org.uk, RSPB, etcetera).
Step 2 will be buying some native pond plants once we've got some rainwater in.
Once we've got the meadow going, I'm planning on seeing if I can recruit any neighbours. (First target is next door who has never once used their garden and only goes out to strim it down. I'm hoping I can tempt them with an offer of turning it into a meadow for free, seeing as they paid for our shared fence.)
Breeding ground for all sorts of flying fuckwits
I'm hoping to make it healthy enough that the flying fuckwits (presuming you mean mosquitoes) are kept under predation. We already have a mosquito problem via our back garden as a neighbour has a (I think) neglected pond. Might try and help them get it sorted if all goes well.
We're also not far from a fairly small and sluggish river so... ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Ah alright so you're fucked with them already then haha
Yeah meant mosquitoes and horse flies
You're not wrong, but those flying fuckwits are an important and valid part of the ecosystem. Rewilding is all about doing away with some of our human conveniences that have made life difficult for all types of wildlife.