It’s a common misconception that wildlife gardens can’t be ‘sexy’ and that growing food in your garden is the reserve of those with land to spare. The Cloud Nine Kitchen Garden put paid to that.
Particularly relevant to small town and city spaces, the garden dealt with issues of food security, wildlife conservation and sustainability in a tiny 6 x 4 metre plot.
This was my first show garden, at RHS Tatton Park in 2015, and my first chance to show the world my passion for gardens. Back then, the majority of garden designs did not incorporate wildlife and ecology but I wanted to showcase how you could marry the two successfully and still have an outstanding contemporary design.
Wanting to create a garden to encourage wildlife does not mean having to go without beautiful design, an area to socialise and high end cooking equipment.
Creating my first show garden was an amazing experience and I quickly got feedback that homeowners were interested in the ecological side of garden design as well as contemporary outdoor living.
Declining insect rates
This is a shocking article I read recently, where studies have shown that insect rates have plummeted by 60% since 2004. This is terrible news for our UK wildlife, but also sadly, the type of news that most people won’t even read.
The article states at the bottom that the most important thing we can do is let grass grow longer in certain areas, sow wildflowers and not using pesticides. Actually all three are really easy to do – we just need every single person with a garden to do them!
What have I been reading?
I found this article on the brilliant Creative Boom where creative agency How & How asked to be paid in 60,000 trees planted for creating a web browser extension for FreeTree. This little extension works with large retailers and plants so many trees for every £1 spent with them, What a great idea!
Read the full article here:
www.creativeboom.com/inspiration/freetree
