For his debut at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show, Martyn Wilson (founder of Wilson Associates Garden Design) is teaming up with the RSPCA (the largest animal welfare charity in the UK) to create a contemporary take on a wildlife-friendly Sanctuary Garden.
Martyn tells Country Living that many people assume a wildlife garden has to be wild and untidy. “You can have a wildlife-supporting garden but it doesn’t have to be scruffy. A lot of our clients want stylish and low-maintenance,” he says. “I’m aiming to show that it’s possible to achieve this and attract and protect wildlife, too.”
The RSPCA Garden will celebrate the charity’s forthcoming 200th anniversary in 2024. It’s funded by Project Giving Back, a platform founded in 2021 by two anonymous RHS Life Members, to give financial support to charities and non-profit organisations who want to raise awareness of their work by staging a garden at Chelsea.
“Wildlife is at breaking point, and we want this garden to inspire people to take action at this critical time,” Chris Sherwood, Chief Executive of the RSPCA, tells Country Living. “We all can help wildlife. Tiny actions make a huge difference. Whether that’s creating a hedgehog habitat out of a cardboard box, litter picking in your local area or knowing how best to help if you find a wild animal in need.”
What inspired The RSPCA Garden design?
Martyn tells us that speaking with the RSPCA and learning (to his surprise) that 50% of the charity’s work involves wildlife rescue, was his design hook. Talking about a visit to the RSPCA’s centre at Staveley Grange in Cheshire, he said: “They were rescuing a couple of otter cubs at the time, so I started thinking about the spaces that otters would like. There was also a really amazing photo of a fox cub in a pre-release pen, in amongst some English bluebells in a wood, and that really inspired me too.”
RHS Chelsea’s Sanctuary Gardens are designed to harness the healing power and serenity of nature, and Martyn is including a stunning water feature and pool in his design, made from recycled plastic. Water will gently flow through the garden, cascading into a pool and creating movement and a feeling of tranquillity.
“Throughout the garden, there are these little ideas and little vignettes which highlight different aspects of nature,” Martyn tells us. “These include nesting boxes arranged to support sparrows (which nest as a colony and are in severe decline), a couple of bat boxes, hedging, and a canopy of native trees and shrubs vital for birds and wildlife. There’s naturalistic planting in shades of green, whites and blue, with pollinator-friendly plants.”
Hornbeam has been selected for hedging. “Hornbeam hedges also work as great windbreaks in gardens, and protect butterflies,” Martin tells us. “Yew cubes provide structure to the garden throughout the year and provide a hiding place for birds fleeing predators.”
Martyn adds that he has chosen natural and vernacular materials to ensure that his garden will fit neatly into a British landscape, including Cotswold limestone, Yorkstone paving and UK-grown fir. Larch cladding is used for the garden’s two-storey wildlife hide.
Design features
- Two-storey wildlife hide with a green roof, featuring self-seeded plants, logs, crushed up aggregates and soil mounds for bees to burrow into. It’s designed to be a refuge in nature for an RSPCA volunteer after a busy shift.
- Water feature made by Smile Plastics from recycled plastic waste. It highlights the sad fact that the charity helped 4,000 animals trapped in, or injured by, litter, in 2022.
- A ‘dead hedge’ of brash (recycled offcuts of foliage and wood) housed in neat laser-cut Corten steel boxes, made by York-based designer John Hollington, to create a habitat for hedgehogs, birds and insects.
- Bronze wildlife sculpture created by Dorset-based contemporary sculptor Simon Gudgeon.
What will happen to the garden after Chelsea?
The garden will be taken to Stapeley Grange in Nantwich, Cheshire – one of four RSPCA wildlife centres based in England which support the rehabilitation of sick, injured, orphaned and confiscated wildlife. The RSPCA says Stapeley Grange is also a sanctuary for young people, families and vulnerable adults, who visit for support with emotional wellbeing and resilience.
Who is Martyn Wilson?
After serving in the RAF (including stints in Germany and Sicily as part of NATO operations) Martyn obtained a degree in Geography and Environmental Management at the University of Worcester and a Masters in Spatial Planning at Birmingham City University. Marytn lives with his wife and their beloved cocker spaniel Poppy in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
Following his studies, he worked for Worcestershire County Council, specialising in green infrastructure, climate change, sustainable drainage and flood risk management. He gained Chartered Membership of the Royal Town Planning Institute.
Nowadays, Martyn is also a Pre-Registered Member of the Society of Garden Designers and a designer member of the Association of Professional Landscapers. He honed his horticultural skills working in garden maintenance at Sudeley Castle in Gloucestershire and for domestic clients in the Cotswolds and the Vale of Evesham, and has also worked in amenity maintenance.
A Gold Medal-winner at RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show, RHS Malvern Spring Festival and BBC Gardeners’ World Live, Martyn works with both domestic and commercial clients.
Planting choices
(final decision to be made nearer the show)
Trees
- Acer ginnala
- Betula albosinensis
- Betula jacquemontii
- Cornus mas Malus ‘Red Jewel’
Hedge and Topiary
- Carpinus betulus
- Taxus baccata
Shrubs
- Corylus avellana
- Sambucus ‘Black Lace’
- Sarcococca hookeriana
- Viburnum opulus
Herbaceous, Grasses, Ferns
- Actea simplex ‘Brunette’
- Alchemilla mollis
- Angelica dahurica
- Anthriscus sylvestris ‘Ravenswing’ (front edge)
- Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata ‘Black Barlow’
- Aquilegia vulgaris var. stellata ‘White Barlow’
- Aruncus ‘Horatio’
- Asarum europaeum AGM
- Aslpenium scolopendrium
- Astrantia major ‘Alba’
- Astrantiamajor ‘Roma’
- Beesia calthifolia
- Bergenia ciliata
- Blechnum spicant
- Briza media
- Brunnera macrophylla ‘Betty Bowring’
- Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’ PBR AGM
- Cardamine pratensis
- Carex acutiformis
- Cenelophium denudatum
- Chaerophyllum hirsutum ‘Roseum’
- Cornus canadensis
- Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Pixie Fountain’
- Deschampsia flexuosa
- Dianthus armeria
- Digitalis albiflora
- Dryopteris erythrosa
- Dryopteris felix-mas
- Epimedium ‘Sulphureum’
- Epimedium x rubrum
- Euphorbia palustris
- Euphorbia robbiae
- Geranium phaeum ‘Raven’
- Geranium phaeum var. phaeum ‘Samobor’
- Geranium pratense ‘Mrs Kendall Clark’
- Hakonechloa macra
- Hosta ‘Devon Green’
- Iris sibirica ‘Tropic Night’
- Kirengeshoma palmata
- Lamium galeobdolon
- Liriope muscari
- Luzula nivea
- Matteuccia
- Melica altissima ‘Alba’
- Myrrhis odorata (sweet cicely)
- Osmunda regalis
- Persicaria bistorta ‘Superba’
- Polygonatum x hybridum
- Polypodium vulgare
- Polystichum setiferum ‘Herrenhausen’
- Ranunculus aconitifolius
- Ranunculus acris
- Rodgerisa pinnata
- Rodgersia ‘Irish Bronze’
- Rumex hydrolapathum
- Sanguisorba tenuifolia var. alba
- Silene fimbricata
- Silene flos-culi
- Silene flos-culi ‘White Robbin’
- Tellima grandiflora ‘Forest Frost’
- Thalictrum ‘Elin’
- Thalictrum lucidum
- Trillium cuneatum
- Uvularia grandiflora
- Valeriana officinalis subsp.
- Sambucifolia
