Nurturing Nature in the City

Nurturing Nature in the City is created using affordable, and largely reclaimed materials. Packed full of pollinator-friendly planting, it can be easily maintained by amateur gardeners, igniting their passion for gardening and enticing in the profusion of wildlife that still makes its home in the city.

Taking inspiration from inner city green developments along disused urban railways such as the High Line in New York and Parkland Walk in Highgate, London, the garden distils ideas from these enormous projects into a space where schools or home gardeners on a budget could replicate something similar using unwanted and reclaimed materials

The feeling of being in a wild space is evoked by the use of natural stone, water and an abundance of planting in an urban inner-city environment. There are multiple habitats: gabion walls, mini wildflower strips, pollinator planting, ponds and nest pockets wrapped around a central seating area for people to enjoy the diversity of life that can thrive in a small space.

As well as reclaimed sleepers and scaffold boards, crushed stone is used for the seating areas and waste stone and waste materials are used make the gabions.

Nurturing Nature in the City demonstrates how even with a smaller budget and limited use of brand new materials you can create a beautiful space with multiple habitats that work for people and for wildlife alike.