Our Wildlife Trust’s 2020 Wildlife Gardening at Work competition had some adaptations this year to allow as many people as possible to take part and feel the benefits of a connection to nature during lockdown. To this end, we invited entries, not only from workplace grounds, but also from home-workers’ gardens. We received some excellent entries this year and heard great reports of team members sharing gardening tips and working together on ideas for this competition, despite many entries being in physically separate places.  These awards encourage companies and their employees to help make a real difference for wildlife at their place of work and thereby benefit employee wellbeing.

Judge Bernard Hunt, expert wildlife gardener from Hunts Wildlife Landscapes, was impressed as always by all the dedicated hard work giving nature a helping hand. The winners have all been notified and were each awarded a certificate to display their wonderful achievements for wildlife.

The award for Best Wildlife Garden has gone to Levin Sources, for the combined efforts of Victoria, Olivia and Jane in their respective home gardens. They implemented a range of wildlife friendly gardening techniques from leaving patches of lawn to grow and creating deadwood piles as shelter for hedgehogs and invertebrates, to planting native wildflowers and installing insect hotels (see below). The combined impact of the efforts in three separate gardens helped them to scoop their title.

Sarah Wilson from Northamptonshire NHS Trust won the other two categories of the awards. Her entry was chosen as the Best Home for Wildlife, in part because of the excellent documentation of the transformation to her garden following damage from a fire in the summer of 2018; the progress since then to a garden thriving with life is truly inspirational. We especially liked her wildlife pond teaming with invertebrates and frogs (see below). Introducing water to a garden is one of the best ways to help wildlife and Sarah’s pond certainly shows that.

Highlighting the important role that all gardens and natural spaces have played during lockdown, Sarah Wilson said: "Our garden has been the most important thing over the last few months in particular and it is lovely to be able to share it with others."

Our congratulations again to Levin Sources and the Northamptonshire NHS Trust. Thank you to Bernard Hunt for his assistance with the judging of these awards and to everyone who entered, making a difference for wildlife.

To find out more about how we work with companies and organisations or for advice on how to improve a workplace grounds for wildlife, please email corporate@wildlifebcn.org.