The awards celebrate the most passionate gardeners among Surrey residents, communities, schools and corporates who are helping to support wildlife from bees and bugs to hedgehogs, birds and bats. The awards ceremony is taking place at Nower Wood Educational Nature Reserve, near Leatherhead, on 26th September 2019.

The army of nearly 200 wildlife gardeners who entered the awards and won either bronze, silver or gold awards are leading the way in restoring Surrey’s gardens for wildlife. There are over 20,000 hectares of gardens in Surrey, equal in size to 12 per cent of the county and an area greater than all of Surrey’s nature reserves put together. Restoring this network of gardens is vital to wildlife’s recovery in Surrey.

This year Gold Award winners received a garden plaque made from recycled plastic alongside their certificate.

Victoria Pinder, Wildlife Gardening Officer at Surrey Wildlife Trust, said:

“Surrey is one of the most nature depleted counties in the country.  We are seeing huge losses in everything from insects to hedgehogs, but changing the way we garden can have a big impact on nature’s recovery.”

The award winners had created an array of innovative water, food, shelter and management features for gardens of all sizes.  Some of the wildlife-friendly features that impressed the judges were bucket ponds, bigger wildlife ponds, bird and bee feeding stations, wildflower patches for pollinators, hibernaculums, insect hotels, bee hives, compost heaps and rainwater recycling.

Sarah Squire, Chairman of Squire’s Garden Centres said:

“The Wildlife Garden Awards are brilliant as they get people enthused and excited about gardening with wildlife front of mind. It’s great to work closely with Surrey Wildlife Trust to encourage people to attract more wildlife into their gardens.  As many of our garden centres are located in Surrey, it really has a very local resonance for us. It can be as simple as planting beautiful flowers that will invite bees and butterflies, or including some wildlife-friendly features such as a pond or a bug house. So congratulations to the winners and to everyone who entered this fantastic competition.”

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