Last Wednesday, we celebrated Dorset’s most wildlife friendly gardens at the annual Wildlife Friendly Gardening Awards Ceremony at Castle Gardens, and we’re delighted to say that it was a record breaking year all round. The awards, which are organised by Dorset Wildlife Trust, saw 75 gardens entered – the most to date, the youngest ever entrant picked up an award and 165 people attended the ceremony in The Butterfly House.
Kicking off the evening with a fascinating ‘warts and all’ talk was Kate Bradbury, who took us through her journey to creating a bustling habit for birds, bees and bugs in her Brighton garden. It was an inspiring and engaging talk which left the audience buzzing about gardening with wildlife in mind.
This is an exciting time to be creating wildlife friendly habitats and this year’s competition is a sign of changing attitudes towards gardening and giving us wildlife friendly gardeners a sense that we no longer need to hide in the dark… Each year the bar is raised even higher and I’m already looking forward to seeing what creations the gardeners of Dorset create next year – well done to everyone and keep up the wildlife friendly gardening!
Mike