At the Cheltenham Gardens for Nature event last Saturday, we wanted to bring some of the ideas from the day to life – so we created a little pop-up nature garden at The School House Café.
It wasn’t intended to be a perfect garden or a finished design. Instead, it brought together lots of different ways of making space for wildlife, showing how they can work alongside the things we already enjoy having in our gardens.
Take a wander around the garden
There was a bird box, providing nesting space for birds, alongside a bug hotel and ladybird house, each offering different kinds of shelter for small garden wildlife.
An apple tree brought blossom, fruit and the promise of a future harvest – Claire brought a tree in a pot boasting a delicious eating variety of apple called Scrumptious..
There was also a mini patio pond, showing that you don’t need a large garden to bring water into your outdoor space, as well as a water station with pebbles and soil to provide safe places for insects to drink.
A hedgehog house offered another example of how a garden can provide shelter for wildlife, while a log pile and dead hedge demonstrated how natural materials can be left to become habitat rather than being cleared away.
There was even a compost bin, reminding us that some of the things we might think of as garden waste can have another life – either as compost or as habitat.
And, of course, there were plants – chosen with wildlife in mind and showing some of the different ways planting can provide food and shelter throughout the year.
The garden brought together lots of small ideas in one place, giving visitors the chance to see them, ask questions and imagine how some of them might work in their own outdoor spaces.
And it was lovely to see the garden being used by wildlife too. During the day, pollinators came to visit the plants, giving us a little real-time demonstration of the garden doing what it was designed to do.
A garden made by many hands
The pop-up garden was very much a team effort. A huge thank you to Claire Piper for planning the garden, sourcing the plants and then keeping them alive and looking their best through some seriously challenging weather!
And thank you to Andy Parnham, Sarah Trimarco, Steve Watts, Sarah Payne, Alison Samways and the Butterfly Conservation team for giving their time to be part of the drop-in sessions and sharing their knowledge, ideas and enthusiasm with visitors throughout the day.
Inspiration to take home
You don’t need to recreate the whole pop-up garden. The idea was simply to show what is possible and offer inspiration – whether that’s a pond in a container, a few wildlife-friendly plants, a log pile tucked into a corner or somewhere for birds and insects to shelter.
We’ve now started adding some of the ideas and practical guides from Cheltenham Gardens for Nature to our resources page, so you can find out more about some of the things featured in the garden – including plants for wildlife, patio ponds, gardening without pesticides and gardening in a changing climate. We will keep adding more resources as we create them!
The contents
Here are some of the plants and features that were included in the pop-up garden.
