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Nature to be the star of the show at RHS Malvern with pioneering exhibit

The Wildlife Trusts’ garden will dazzle with kaleidoscope of surprising features.

The Wildlife Trusts believe gardening has a vital role to play in nature’s recovery, with long-term benefits for climate and people’s wellbeing too. The aim of the stunning garden is to inspire visitors to think differently about the appearance of a garden that is designed for people and wildlife, and to show how we can all nurture nature, no matter what size or style of garden.

Wilder Spaces is full of surprising features, plants and materials that enhance nature and provide eye-catching charm. A watercourse meanders through the plot towards a central pond surrounded by a range of wildlife habitats and climate-positive features:

  • A bee-bench made from untreated timbers drilled with holes, a hoverfly lagoon (a still water feature), leaf-cutter bee towers, a compost channel, and a living roof
  • Pollinator and larval friendly planting
  • A stream, waterfall, pond, bog, grassland and deadwood
  • Recycled materials such as untreated timber, steel and building aggregate
  • Climate resilient planting and landscaping
  • The use of peat-free compost
Mock up of garden to be showcased

Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, says:

“A garden that's alive with nature is a delight to spend time in. Being immersed in wildlife brings joy – whether that’s hearing the hum of bumblebees, catching the dart of a dragonfly over a pond, or the sound of goldfinches chattering in a tree. Nature soothes our souls, brings us pleasure and makes us feel good.

“Nature is also vital for the health of the places where we live because natural habitats absorb water during heavy rainfall, help cool our cities during hot weather and give us shade while also storing carbon. We hope our Wilder Spaces garden will inspire people everywhere to take action for nature and our climate.”

Estelle Bailey, BBOWT’s Chief Executive, says:

“Nature is in crisis and not enough is being done to reverse this terrible decline in the UK’s biodiversity. We want to see 30 per cent of land well managed for nature by 2030 and our gardens are a vital part of that wild jigsaw. Wilder Spaces will show that any garden can have wildlife habitats at its heart, with recycled materials and nature friendly planting, yet still be beautiful to look at and provide relaxing spaces to spend time.

“Private gardens make up a bigger area than all of Britain’s nature reserves combined – they can provide a mosaic of mini-habitats that support a diverse range of species, so they are key to helping create more nature everywhere. RHS Malvern Spring Festival will be a great opportunity to showcase to people everywhere what they can achieve in their own gardens for nature, for climate and for themselves.”

A pavilion, created in conjunction with Charlie Luxton Design, is constructed from reclaimed steel joists and grating and will be topped with a living roof. The garden is created by Oxford Garden Design and led by experts at BBOWT’s ecological consultancy Future Nature WTC.

Once the RHS Malvern Spring Festival is over, the garden will be distributed across various Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust nature reserves and projects.

Notes to Editors

Images are available in this DROPBOX. Please note that the images are for one-time use only in connection to this story and The Wildlife Trusts. All images must be credited to the photographer.

Contacts:

The Wildlife Trust's media team press@wildlifetrusts.org

For more information or to arrange an interview contact Lis Speight, BBOWT’s Head of Communications & Media | lisspeight@bbowt.org.uk | 07887 574838

For more information about the garden contact Sheena Marsh – Oxford Garden Design | sheena@oxfordgardendesign.co.uk | 01993 813721

Further Information

Wilder Spaces is sponsored by The Wildlife Trusts, led by Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) and its ecological consultancy Future Nature WTC. Working with experts from Oxford Garden Design, the team will demonstrate how wildlife habitats can be designed into the structure of a garden, using building waste, reclaimed material and untreated timbers. With biodiversity designed into the garden, hopes of winning a prestigious RHS medal are high.

Additional quotes:

Jamie Langlands, Lead Designer from Oxford Garden Design, said: “I love creating spaces that are wild and untamed whilst having a little wonder within them. Having the opportunity to work with the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust gives us the opportunity to showcase the amazing work they are doing improving the biodiversity and ecology within the local area. It also offers us the opportunity to showcase how to improve wildlife habitats within visitors’ own gardens.”

Sheena Marsh, Owner and Founder of Oxford Garden Design, which is also building the garden, said: “We are delighted to be working with BBOWT on The Wilder Spaces Garden, bringing together our learnings from BBOWT with Jamie’s creativity. We hope that this garden will inspire home owners to create wilder spaces in their own gardens.” 

 RHS Malvern Spring Festival runs 11-14 May 2023 at Three Counties Showground in Malvern, Worcestershire. For information and tickets visit: rhs.org.uk/shows-events/malvern-spring-festival

The Wildlife Trusts

The Wildlife Trusts are making the world wilder and helping to ensure that nature is part of everyone’s lives. We are a grassroots movement of 46 charities with more than 900,000 members and 38,000 volunteers. No matter where you are in Britain, there is a Wildlife Trust inspiring people and saving, protecting and standing up for the natural world. With the support of our members, we care for and restore special places for nature on land and run marine conservation projects and collect vital data on the state of our seas. Every Wildlife Trust works within its local community to inspire people to create a wilder future – from advising thousands of landowners on how to manage their land to benefit wildlife, to connecting hundreds of thousands of school children with nature every year. www.wildlifetrusts.org

Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) is one of 46 Wildlife Trusts across the UK working to achieve the shared aim of securing a better future for wildlife. BBOWT has a wilder vision of more nature everywhere and aims to put nature into recovery on 30% of land across the three counties by 2030. BBOWT has over 52,000 members. BBOWT brings people and nature together to protect our environment. Our experts work with more than 1,800 volunteers to look after over 80 nature reserves, four education centres and run hundreds of amazing events. We rely on the generosity of individuals, charitable trusts and businesses. www.bbowt.org.uk

Future Nature WTC

Future Nature WTC is Berkshire, Buckinghamshire & Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust’s wholly-owned Ecological Consultancy, providing a comprehensive range of professional ecological and environmental services to clients including local authorities, commercial companies, utility and infrastructure providers and homeowners. Future Nature WTC is one of 23 Wildlife Trust Consultancies (WTCs) operating throughout the UK, and as with all of our WTC partners, the profits from our consultancy work are reinvested back into our local Wildlife Trust. more: www.bbowt.org.uk/what-we-do/future-nature-wtc

Oxford Garden Design

Sheena Marsh founded Oxford Garden Design in 2001 when she changed careers to become a garden designer. She very quickly built up a number of very satisfied clients who increasingly wanted her to also manage the building of their garden. Following some rather unsatisfactory experiences using sub-contractors, Sheena decided that the only way to really bring her designs to life and be able to control the project to her exacting standards, was to bring on board her own landscapers and so Oxford Garden Design was formed. The business now employs a whole team of designers, project managers, landscapers and horticulturalists, but Sheena still leads the business with style and passion.

Jamie Langlands has been interested in horticulture from an early age, with both his grandfather and mother firing his enthusiasm. He claims growing up in Dorset has had a big influence on his design style. Jamie studied fine art at Bournemouth Arts Institute, where he found himself predominantly painting landscapes and plants. This inspired him to study horticulture, completing his Royal Horticultural Society and National Certificate of Horticulture qualifications at Kingston Maurward College before becoming a garden designer. Find out more: oxfordgardendesign.co.uk

A show garden with nature’s recovery at its heart will be premiered by The Wildlife Trusts at this year’s RHS Malvern Spring Festival in May. The Wildlife Trusts: Wilder Spaces garden promises to take wildlife-friendly gardening to a new level with beauty and biodiversity at its heart.

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