Wildlife gardening is a tree-mendous way to help nature near you thrive. Avon Wildlife Trust were dill-lighted to run the Team Wilder wildlife gardening competition this year to celery-brate blossoming balconies, small urban nature havens, sprawling back gardens, community patches, nature-friendly allotments, school outdoor spaces and everything in between. To enter, green-fingered gardeners shared their actions for nature, wildlife sightings, the absolute joy they experience and a picture to showcase their beloved green spaces.

Avon Wildlife Trust judges marked the 100 entries according to their connection to nature, understanding of the green space and creativity within the space to benefit nature and people. It was a tough call and huge achievement to get selected! An outstanding award went to the entry with the highest marks and finalists were then put to public vote.

We wanted to showcase and champion real, relatable, local outdoor spaces to inspire and scale up actions for nature. And that’s what we got!

The finalists were also outstanding, with an honorary mention to Joanna Pengilley’s allotment plot in BS16, Helen Alloush’s garden in Yate, Geoff Wilmer’s garden in Warmley and Thornbury Orchard Group. School finalists were St Andrews Church School and St Micheal’s Junior school, both in Bath.

All of these fern-tastic gardens were visited by the Team Wilder Community Ecologist and demonstrate what is possible to achieve when sharing green spaces with nature. It captures the heart and soul of wildlife gardening, knowing that all small actions for nature make a huge difference collectively.

A big thank you goes out to Stephanie Chadwick and John Seager for taking the highly professional photos and capturing the essence, the joy, the wildlife and absolute beauty of these gardens.

Take a look at these unbe-leafable gardens and outdoor spaces! Get inspiration and information to make a difference where you live today.

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