Rooting For Change

The concept of the 'environmentally healthy' garden is something we should all be embracing - and top designers have the intel on how to get it right

- Fleur Britten

If there was an award for a garden that's given the most back to nature, Knepp Castle's walled garden in West Sussex would be a likely contender. 'We took out the lawns, put in layers of sand, limestone and crushed concrete from demolished farm buildings, created wet hollows, sunny banks and sandy areas, and unleashed a vast plant genome with 2,000 different taxa,' explains the award-winning landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith. Three years later, the 1.5-acre garden's invertebrate biodiversity had increased by 35%. 'It's fascinating to see,' says Tom.

The big new concept in gardening is about prioritising nature. The London based garden designer Tomoko Kawauchi at Charlotte Rowe Garden Design says it's about creating environmentally healthy gardens' - ie, those that are 'environmentally friendly to the core, she explains. To be clear, this is not rewilding - leaving nature to its own devices this is about planting and landscaping in nature's best interests.

What's key, adds Tom, is 'viewing everything in your garden as a potential habitat it's about maximising biodiversity. It must have wet bits, dry bits, shady bits, sunny bits - you can't do that in a flat garden with a lawn."