News: March 2003

Two of the six programmes from the recently completed series of the BBC's Ground Force were centred on the idea of wildlife gardens: The Wildlife Garden (10th February) and The Really Wild Garden (13th March). This proportion reflects a growing desire to bring more wildlife into our gardens.

In previous series, Alan Titchmarsh was always keen to incorporate wildlife-friendly features into the gardens they created. Of course Charlie Dimmock presented the series Charlies' Wildlife Gardens with the help of Chris Baines, so perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that now she's 'in charge' at Ground Force there's even more emphasis on wildlife in the garden.

Let's hope that if there's another series, the trend continues and is developed further. It would be nice to see features which promote biodiversity/wildlife being incorporated as a matter of principle into gardens of all styles in the next series. It's important to avoid the mistaken impression that when you design a garden it must be either a 'wildlife garden' or a garden of some other style.