Workshop: Gardening for Wildlife
This forward-thinking workshop is an opportunity to rethink our approaches to garden design, 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 wildlife 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 Danny
Danny has worked across a wide range of schools in East London, changing careers to become a maintenance gardener, and, later, a community gardener with the RHS at Wisley. He is now Education Manager at Walworth Garden, where he will often be found totally absorbed in the minute detail of the flora & fauna it is home to. Danny has a deep and long-standing relationship with plants, and loves nothing more than bringing their fascination closer to other people. He is constantly on the lookout for new and radical approaches to gardening and design, whether it be using alternative materials, unusual cultivars or simply fresh approaches to what a garden can be. Danny loves to cook a weekly vegan masterpiece for our staff lunch in the garden, and outside of work he also volunteers at a range of community growing projects in Hackney.
Price: £85
Note for Southwark residents: Looking to book a free place? Unfortunately, our limited quota of free places for the 2022-23 academic year have now been claimed. We will be releasing a refreshed number of free places, along with a new calendar of workshops, in Autumn 2023 so please check back then. Subscribe to our newsletter or follow us on social media, at the bottom of this page, to be notified.