We were delighted this year to be donated the Chelsea award winning, A Rewilding Britain Landscape garden designed by Urquhart & Hunt in support of Rewilding. With this incredible donation, we have been able to create a new conservation pond and landscape with a purpose built hide in The Clare Foundation Nature Reserve at Lindengate.
The Clare Foundation Nature Reserve runs over an acre and a half and with a variety of supporters, including BBOWT, Chiltern Rangers, Chiltern Society and the Butterfly Conservation Trust, we have been working to teach skills to our volunteers and participants in order to create a balanced ecosystem within the conservation area. The new pond landscape that will showcase the stunning plants, trees and shrubs used in the Rewilding Britain Landscape is positioned at the entrance of the Nature Reserve. The management of the Nature Reserve is hugely supported by young people. At Lindengate the young people are regularly involved through their groups, Green Volunteens (weekly volunteer group for 13–18’s), Budz (short programme over 6 weeks for schools) & Action4Youth, working with the National Citizen Service (Summer initiative for 16-17 years) in sympathetically managing the nature reserve. With our participants, staff and volunteers under the supervision of our Hort, Site and Conservation Manager, the young people are now working to create our own rewilding landscape through the generously donated A Rewilding Britain Landscape.
Working with people from our local community not only enables people to nurture nature but nurture themselves by connecting to nature. We are also passionate about bringing real environmental change by gathering people together. Rewilding can succeed through positive human intervention. Thanks also to the team at Charterhouse Accountants, who came and volunteered as part of Lindengate’s Corporate Volunteering programme.
Having the opportunity of being able to plant the native species; meadow plants, wildflowers, sedges, aquatic marginals, woodpiles, trees and shrubs from A Rewilding Britain Landscape enable us to support a greater diversity of insects, birds and mammals within our nature reserve. We are delighted to have the decomposing wood as it returns important nutrients to the soil supporting new growth whilst creating habitats for insects, mammals and birds. The endangered stag beetles can also complete their life cycles in the decomposing wood habitats. The wildflowers donated provide pollinators and insects with food and spaces to breed.
Wildflowers are valued throughout Lindengate. The wildflower beds create insect pathways across the site, benefitting butterflies, bees and insects, and host other wildlife. The essential wildlife corridors enable wildlife to respond to climate change making it easier for them to feed and move around.
Having the opportunity to plant the Urquhart & Hunt A Rewilding Britain Landscape’s plants in the new Lindengate pond and landscape is helping us to restore and create balance for our delicate ecosystems enabling nature to thrive.