Workshop: Gardening for Biodiversity in a Climate Crisis
This forward-thinking workshop is an opportunity to rethink our approaches to garden maintenance, planting, and all traditional gardening practices. As gardeners and allotmenteers, we often forget we act as custodians not only of the land but also of its inhabitants. While traditional gardening encourages us to 'sanitise' our spaces by removing a range of ‘threats’, this works to alienate our wildlife and contribute to its decline.
This workshop explores what role gardeners can play in enhancing the miraculous relationship between the plants and animals in our spaces. During the session you will gain insight into simple, achievable actions that can help you to encourage biodiversity in your garden and learn to adopt a more relaxed attitude to the way you manage your space. Alongside practical demonstrations of our own radical ‘nature-first’ approach, we aim to discuss current trends in sustainable gardening, with a critical approach to their impact. The session will leave you confident in moving beyond simply ‘organic’ or ‘chemical free’, into embracing the wild, without sacrificing what is most valuable to you in your space.
‘If something is not eating your plants, then your garden is not part of the ecosystem’: alternative approaches to pest and disease management
Creating habitats, forage, and water
Introduction to some projects for the wildlife gardener: ponds, bee banks, wildflower meadows
Holistic garden practices: dead-hedging, composting and mess!
Meet Vittor (they/them)
Vittor is a London-based artist and Garden Education Officer at Walworth Garden, where they work closely with students and the seasons to nurture both plants and community across the site. For the past two years, they have served as Plant Centre Supervisor and have recently stepped into the role of Garden Education Officer.
With a BA in Fine Art from Goldsmiths University and a Level 2 Work-Based Horticulture Diploma, Vittor moves fluidly between the garden and the studio, using colour and plant life to tell stories of transformation, memory, and belonging. Their work invites slowness, attention, and connection.
Vittor’s passion for gardening began in childhood, learning alongside their grandmother and mother. Growing plants together became a way to connect with the landscape and with one another, weaving care, memory, and tradition into each season. These early experiences nurtured a lasting appreciation for how gardens hold stories, strengthen relationships, and root us in place.
Price: £92
Note for Southwark residents: Looking for a free place? Due to the discontinuation of external funding, our weekend workshops are now offered on a paid-booking basis only. We are working to secure new funding and hope to be able to offer free places for again in the future.