Fall is a transitional time in the garden when most wildlife is preparing for winter. During this time, pollinators require late-blooming flowers to prepare for migration and hibernation. Birds need food, as well. Seeds, insects, and berries are their primary fall food sources. 

Even small mammals, amphibians, and beneficial insects can use some extra help during the fall. Rewilding your garden helps provide food, shelter, and an overwintering habitat to all of these living things. Since they all play a role in maintaining a healthy ecosystem, it’s crucial to meet their needs if we want to keep them around. 

As gardeners, there are many things we can do to support the ecosystem and build long-term biodiversity. By doing so, not only do we support life, but we also make the garden a more resilient place. By rewilding in the fall, we can ensure that beneficial species survive the winter.

Keeping the beneficial species fed and sheltered means they return in the spring. They will be there next spring to control pests, pollinate our plants, and maintain a healthy ecological balance. Rewilding the garden in the fall isn’t just about the fall season. It’s about supporting the ecosystem for a garden that thrives year after year. 

Bokashi Kitchen Compost Bin

Urban Worm Bag

Compost Starter

EM-1 Compost Starter, Concentrate

Leave Seedheads and Berries 

Seed heads left standing feed finches through cold months.

One of the simplest, yet most impactful, things you can do to rewild the fall garden is to leave seed heads and berries. Many birds, such as sparrows, chickadees, finches, and cardinals, rely on seeds and berries as a critical food source in winter. 

This is a time when insects are scarce. Keeping these natural food sources available is vital to birds and other small animals. It helps to feed local and migratory species, sustaining them during the colder months. 

Leaving seed heads and berries is good for adding ornamental value to the fall and winter garden, as well. Standing stalks and berry clusters can be aesthetically pleasing. They can also provide shelter for insects that overwinter in the egg or pupal stages. 

When spring returns, these materials decay and return nutrients to the soil, supporting spring plants. Seed heads left alone will often self-sow, adding more flowering plants to next year’s garden. It helps keep the garden alive and thriving all year, rather than simply falling dormant in the fall. 

Don’t Toss Leaves

Leaf piles shelter pollinators through the cold winter stretch.

Don’t bag those fall leaves! Leaving the leaves is an excellent and easy way to rewild your fall garden. Leaves are free, natural mulch. You can leave them on your beds to insulate the soil, retain moisture, and protect perennial roots. They also break down and release nutrients, which in turn improves the soil structure. 

In addition to the benefits they have for your plants, they are also great for wildlife. Many pollinators and other beneficial insects overwinter in leaf litter. Amphibians and small mammals do the same. Birds also forage through leaf piles when food sources are scarce. 

Bagging your leaves and leaving them by the curb disturbs the food web. It cuts down on pollinators, deprives natural pest controllers of food, and does nothing to build the soil. If you put them in plastic bags, it also takes up space in landfills when leaves would otherwise break down much faster left alone. 

Rather than bagging your leaves, pile them and leave them in a loose layer on empty beds. You can shred them if you’d like, as this will make them break down faster. Otherwise, add them to the compost pile. You feed the soil, sustain wildlife, and reduce waste with this one simple action.

Scatter Native Seeds

Early spring brings vigorous shoots from carefully scattered seeds.

Rewild your fall garden by scattering native seeds. This is a time-tested way to create a more natural, resilient, and wildlife-friendly space. Many native plants drop their seeds in the fall, where they lie dormant in winter and germinate in spring. 

You can gather seeds from one spot and scatter them in another, or purchase native seeds to add to empty spaces. By mimicking the natural cycle of native plants, your seeds get the cold stratification they need. 

The rain and snow of fall and winter help press the seeds into the soil without burying them too deeply. The cool temperatures reduce competition from weeds. In spring, your seeds are ready to germinate and grow vigorously. 

While this won’t benefit wildlife this season, it will provide for them in years to come. Autumn scattered seeds typically germinate earlier and more consistently. They create more resilient and drought-tolerant additions to the garden. 

Native plants then provide an excellent, reliable food source for wildlife in the coming years. Use them to rewild a portion of the yard if you want to keep the rest of the garden neat and tidy. Even a small wild space will go a long way toward supporting the garden ecosystem. 

Avoid Chemicals

Avoid chemicals to protect soil life and wildlife.

If you want to rewild your fall garden, put down the chemicals. This is a particularly important time for this step. However, I advocate for avoiding them whenever possible. 

Fall is a time when many beneficial insects are preparing to overwinter in soil, plant stems, and leaf litter. Using herbicides and pesticides can kill them or disrupt their populations at a vulnerable time. The result will be fewer beneficial insects to help out in the spring. 

Wildlife relies heavily on natural resources in the fall garden. Soil organisms break down organic matter, birds forage on seed heads, and insects and amphibians seek shelter under leaf piles. Chemicals contaminate soil, water, and food sources for all of these living things. 

Runoff from the garden can also contaminate water sources. This harms aquatic ecosystems where many insects and amphibians reproduce in the spring. Focus on organic controls like mulching, composting, and using cover crops instead. 

Build a Brush or Log Pile

Brush piles offer cozy shelter for small wildlife.

Almost as simple as leaving your leaves around the garden, making a brush or log pile is an excellent rewilding project. This simple step creates shelter for many creatures during the colder months. Birds, amphibians, insects, and small mammals can use this spot as a safe place. 

Small creatures need a place to escape from larger predators in winter. When food is scarce, those predators will be on the hunt. A log or brush pile provides prey animals with plenty of nooks and crannies to hide in. 

A log or brush pile mimics natural woodland conditions that many developed areas lack. In a tidy, suburban landscape, there are fewer spots for wildlife to take shelter. 

You can leave or deliberately create a pile of logs or branches and twigs in a quiet spot. This reintroduces this natural habitat, which contributes to a more balanced food web. It not only protects smaller species, but it also helps them proliferate. Doing this provides more food sources for larger animals like snakes, owls, and decomposers. 

Skip Mowing

Wildflowers left standing feed bees and small pollinators.

This is one of my husband’s favorite ways to rewild the fall garden. It’s a powerful way to help your garden and the natural ecosystem in the fall and winter. Stop mowing early this fall and allow wildflowers and grasses to grow naturally. 

By allowing the lawn to get a bit wild in the fall, you do a lot to support small mammals, birds, and pollinators. As food sources are dwindling, allowing these plants to flower and go to seed provides sustenance to these species. 

Many native bees and butterflies lay eggs and pupate in tall grasses and hollow stems. Birds feed on seeds, too. If you skip mowing and cleanup in the fall, you’ll allow more flowers to bloom and go to seed. 

Skipping mowing also helps your soil. It insulates the roots of other plants, reduces erosion, and protects against sudden temperature drops. These plants also break down to feed the soil for spring. It improves the long-term resilience of the garden and creates a refuge for plants and wildlife. 

Add Compost 

Beds recover nutrients slowly while compost breaks down efficiently.

Adding compost to your garden in the fall is another excellent way to rewild, feeding the garden in spring. As your beds wind down and annuals fade, you can work compost into the soil to replenish nutrients. 

The organic material in compost improves soil structure, aerates, and helps sandy soil retain moisture and nutrients. Over the cooler months, compost helps to feed microbes, earthworms, and fungi, which creates a richer, more balanced soil.