A fresh approach is needed. The latest research from The Wildlife Trusts reveals that although nature-friendly gardening has made great progress in recent years, action for wildlife must be even bolder to halt the frightening decline in biodiversity. It is also vital that it involves whole communities to benefit wildlife and humans alike.
The wildlife gardening survey results to date come from 8,700 online submissions made over 4 years. They reveal that 88% of gardeners who took part plant nectar rich flowers, 81% provide food for birds and 80% avoid using slug pellets or pesticides (both of which are harmful to wildlife).
Yet, despite these promising results, only 16% of people collaborate with their neighbours over connectivity between gardens, which would allow wildlife a greater range to roam, and just 6% are members of community gardening groups. Ecologists believe that creating larger areas of habitat and linking existing wild gardens together is key to boosting nature’s chances of revival. This can only be done if communities work together to help make this happen across housing estates, back yards, private gardens and even balconies.
Craig Bennett, chief executive of The Wildlife Trusts, is set to give the keynote speech at the conference. He says:
“It’s music to our ears that the British public have such a deep commitment to wildlife gardening. But now it’d be great to see people thinking wilder and looking beyond their garden fences and their front doors. The wildlife gardening buzz words for 2026 need to be connectivity and community.”
Connectivity
Since 1970, UK species have declined by an average of 19%, with nearly 1 in 6 species now threatened with extinction. Gardens have great potential to help nature and in so doing, bring health and wellbeing benefits to people too. Think like a bee, butterfly, hedgehog, frog, bird or even a vole. All these creatures need to move about to find adequate food, water, shelter and mates. Once people have created wildlife-friendly oases, think about how your garden can connect to others. Help hedgehogs by putting holes in fences, for example, and plant climbers on trellises to act as a ‘bridge’ to another garden, as do shared hedges and overhanging trees.
Community
Isolation, loneliness and a lack of access to green spaces are signs of our times. But it is proven that when people come together to work for wildlife, great results can be achieved for humans, too. The Wildlife Trusts’ Natural Health Services report found that helping nature flourish where you live through gardening led to mental health improvements of 95% of participants and a trebling of their physical activity. The Trusts’ 2022-2024 Nextdoor Nature programme, which focussed on just this, was so popular that 1,600 community groups were formed – the projected had aimed to create 200 groups.
The joy of wildlife gardening
Over more than a decade, the British public have pledged to add many such features to their gardens, though the annual Wild About Gardens campaign run by The Wildlife Trusts and the Royal Horticultural Society. In 2019, 3,300 people pledged to add a pond to their gardens and a further 660 pledged to build a pond in a small container. In 2020, 2,400 people added butterfly-friendly plants to their borders or balconies and in 2022, more than 10,000 planted wildflowers.
The Wildlife Trusts’ gardening experts advise that the best features to include in a nature-friendly garden are ponds (which can even be hosted in buckets), native hedges, small trees, compost heaps, patches of long grass, wildflowers, nettle patches, undisturbed log piles and fence holes to allow access for hedgehogs.
Wilding Gardens Conference
The inaugural Wilding Gardens Conference on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 January 2026 at The University of Manchester, will bring together leading voices in rewilding, horticulture and environmental science for two days of radical thinking, practical inspiration and community action.
This bold new conference aims to transform how we think about gardening and green spaces – turning everyday landscapes into powerful tools for biodiversity, climate resilience and ecological recovery.
A defining moment for the future of our green spaces
Renowned garden designers and horticulturists James Hitchmough, Adam Hunt, Lulu Urquhart, Charlie Harpur and Tom Stuart-Smith have joined forces with rewilding champions Isabella Tree and Charlie Burrell alongside The University of Manchester to host the Wilding Gardens Conference.
Wilding Gardens will bring together some of the most inspiring gardeners and ecologists, practitioners and thinkers to show how we can garden to save wildlife and resources, create resilience and combat climate change. It’s a step beyond ‘nature-friendly’ gardening – a vision that can create wilder, more dynamic green spaces in our towns and cities and our own backyards, while at the same time providing places of beauty and joy.
Isabella Tree, best-selling author and conservationist of the pioneering Knepp Estate, said:
“There are 23 million private gardens in the UK covering an area four and a half times larger than the land designated to National Nature Reserves. Imagine if every one of those gardeners (over 80% of whom live in urban areas) thought differently – if they put away the pesticides and weedkillers and began to think of themselves as the keystone species at the heart of an ecosystem. As gardeners with a shared love of the natural world, we can bring about a new era of recovery for wildlife across the UK.”
Featured speakers include:
- Isabella Tree – Conservationist and author of Wilding
- Craig Bennett – CEO, The Wildlife Trusts
- Professor James Hitchmough – Prof of Horticultural Ecology, University of Sheffield
- Tom Stuart-Smith, Adam Hunt, Lulu Urquhart – award-winning garden designers
- Fergus Garrett, Alys Fowler, Jason Williams (aka The Cloud Gardener) – inspirational
And forward-thinking gardeners:
- Poppy Okotcha – ecological home grower and community gardener
- Dave Goulson – bestselling author and Professor of Biology at University of Sussex
- Professor Kathy Willis – Professor of Biodiversity, University of Oxford
- Charlie Harpur – Head Gardener, Knepp Estate
- Anna Gilchrist – Senior Lecturer in Environmental Planning, University of Manchester
- Mike Edwards – sustainability consultant, Chief Listening Officer at Sound Matters
- Dr Katherine Baldock – Associate Professor of Ecology, Northumbria University
- Charlie Burrell – conservationist and founder of Knepp Wildland
Key themes of the conference
- Gardening for the planet – how gardens can lead global change
- What Does ‘Wilding a Garden’ mean? – beyond sustainable and nature-friendly
- Darwin’s Tangled Bank – understanding food webs and habitats
- The enemy at the gate – confronting peat, pesticides and harmful practices
- Wilding grey spaces – from schoolyards, balconies and rooftops to urban parks
- Running out of water – how to create dry gardens and rain gardens
- We’re doing it! – inspiring stories from communities already greening their spaces
A range of ticket prices are available, including an allocation of free tickets for students over the age of 18 in full time education, undertaking environmental or land-based studies in higher education settings. Wilding Gardens CIC is seeking donations to support this initiative.