Isabella Tree on rewilding a garden

Today we are at the Knepp Estate - a huge rewilding project across 3500 acres of land, undertaken by the writer and conservationist Isabella Tree and her family. As she outlines so beautifully in her bestselling memoir Wilding, when Isabella moved into Knepp, then her husband’s family estate, she inherited more than just a castle. A crumbling property and a financially precarious farm were part of the package too. By the late 90s the couple found themselves in debt and realised they needed to stop farming - but what to do with all this land? Well that’s when they decided to try an experiment to bring back wildlife that would become their life's work. 25 years later the result is Knepp Wildland. The site, part of which is open to the public, now plays host to all sorts of species including roaming pigs and ponies alongside some of Britain’s rarest animals: turtle doves, nightingales and purple emperor butterflies. We join Isabella among the golden fields of ragwort and beneath nesting storks to learn what makes a woman tear up a rule book for the sake of ecology’s survival - before being taken to one of the estate’s best-kept secrets: the walled garden at the castle. As the sun sets, she tells us about the courage and conviction needed to make real change. If you’d like to find out more about Knepp, head to for information on how to visit and to sign up to the Knepp newsletter for events, the Rewilding Garden Blog, safaris and the Knepp Wilding podcast, which Isabella hosts. This podcast is inspired by my book, ⁠Why Women Grow: Stories of Soil, Sisterhood and Survival⁠ , which is available in all good bookshops. We’ve also been photographing our guests and their gardens and you can see the beautiful images captured by India Hobson on my ⁠website⁠ and instagram account @⁠ ⁠⁠alicevincentwrites⁠⁠⁠ . Use code WWGAUTUMN at ⁠ ⁠⁠Crocus.co.uk⁠⁠ ⁠ 's checkout to save 20% on full priced plants. It is valid when you spend a minimum of £50 on full priced plants and / or bulbs. Cannot be used in conjunction with any other codes or offers.

You can listen to Isabella Tree on rewilding a garden online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Isabella Tree on rewilding a garden is an episode from Why Women Grow by Alice Vincent.

This episode is 00:35:52 long.

This episode was published on Sep 30, 2025.

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