This week, I've been at the Hampton Court Garden Festival helping out on the RHS Wildlife Garden. This garden, designed by Jo Thompson, takes the concept of an old industrial landscape and uses a mixture of plants that might be regarded as wild or an as ornamental and cultivated. The key concept is that of curation to attract wildlife and at the same time provide a comfortable space for us humans. This is a concept I have been operating in my own garden for a long time.
In 2011 a garden, “Wild in the City” designed by one of my degree students, Charlotte Murrell, exhibited at Hampton Court and was at the pioneering end of gardens for people and wildlife. It was a garden that I liked so much that it was uplifted and piled into the back of an articulated lorry and rebuilt with modifications for year round interest in my own garden. It still looks great and is just right for us humans and for wildlife.
Shows provide great gardening ideas and I must say that Hampton Court with all its space is a great place to gain such inspiration. This year wildlife attraction, wellbeing and budget friendly approaches seem to be amongst the themes and I am glad to see the increasing relevance of trees too, though last year at Hampton Court I worked on a great garden dedicated to the reverence of trees in a Forest Bathing Garden.
It will be great to hear what St Giles Hill Residents consider as priorities for our precious Hill and I look forward to their Consultation and the subsequent Engagement planned by Winchester City Council.
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