As the UK’s leading gardening charity, the Royal Horticultural Society (the RHS) promotes excellence in horticulture, to “enrich everyone’s life through plants, and make the UK a greener and more beautiful place,” a sentiment echoed by the team at BioScapes.
Since it was established in 2021, BioScapes, part of the Rolawn® group, has been driven by a desire to help reverse the issue of biodiversity loss, with its innovative range of specialist wildlife planters. Having deliberately designed the collection of self-contained units to contain multiple integrated habitats, BioScapes products support a wide range of UK flora and fauna, including much-loved species on the decline in the UK, such as hedgehogs, butterflies and bees.
In an exciting new development for the BioScapes team, two units have recently been installed at RHS Garden Harlow Carr, in North Yorkshire, to help boost biodiversity. The RHS chose a WildPod Mini® and a NatureArk® for the Harrogate site.
Terry Smithson, Biodiversity Manager at BioScapes, commented, “The RHS is an inspiration to gardeners, so we are obviously delighted to be able to work with them at Harlow Carr. When we began designing the planters, we conducted several trials so we know these units can quickly enhance the biodiversity of an area and we’re excited to see exactly what they will attract at RHS Harlow Carr.”
Developed as a collaboration between ecologists and horticulture specialists, to have maximum impact and to quickly boost biodiversity in even the most inhospitable places, the four planters in the range accommodate differing site needs to provide a net gain in biodiversity.
The one-of-a-kind planters, range from WildPod Mini® and WildPod®, suited to a small garden or balcony, through to NatureArk, ideal for medium size spaces such as schools, and BioCube®, which has been designed for a more commercial setting. Many of the units have already been installed in locations around the UK from new homes to shopping centres.
Fiona Slight, Garden Manager at RHS Garden Harlow Carr said of the collaboration with BioScapes, “At RHS Harlow Carr we’re consistently making improvements throughout the gardens to promote biodiversity and we are always seeking new ways to help people enhance their own gardens, so we are excited to be working with BioScapes to help us on this journey.”
Time will tell what variety of wildlife will be attracted to the two recently installed BioScapes planters, but the units are already generating a lot of interest from visitors.
