There are movements and organisations in several neighbouring European countries that approximate to our wildlife gardening, but with subtle differences. Their histories are different to that of wildlife gardening in the UK, and reflect different traditions and gardening cultures in each country.
In the Netherlands there is a history of gardens and parks planted primarily of native plant species, influenced by the pioneering work of Jac P. Thijsse from the 1930s onwards. The most famous such garden and one of the oldest is the Thijssepark in Amstelveen, a town close to Amsterdam. This is easy to get to by train from Amsterdam and the garden, which takes the form of an extensive public park built around a wetland area, is well worth visiting if you are staying in Amsterdam.
The main Dutch wildlife gardening organisation is called Stichting Oase, ('Oasis Foundation') www.stichtingoase.nl Amongst various activities the organisation publishes a guide to 160 wildlife gardens, ecological parks and wildflower gardens in the Netherlands and Flanders. Stichting Oase also has members in Belgium.
In Germany, the Naturgarten eV ('Nature-gardens Association') www.naturgarten.org is a membership organisation founded in the early 1980s. They use the wild flora of of west and central Europe as the raw material for designing gardens. My friends in the Nature-gardens Association have taught me much and German nature gardens have provided inspiration for my style of nature-friendly gardening.
The Association's members tend to hold the view that their gardens should be designed to be a place to experience nature, to remedy the deficit in such experience felt by many modern urban dwellers, and so 'naturalism' in design tends to be a prominent feature, as well as choosing plant species to attract wildlife.
The Association runs a residential training and educational event every February. They recently formed an alliance with the organic gardening organisation 'Bioland'. Their chair, Reinhard Witt, is a garden designer and author who specialises in designing 'natural experience' playgrounds around schools. A combination of wildlife garden and adventure playground, These are far more ambitious in scope than any school garden I have seen in the UK. I visited a few of them in 2005 - here are some pictures:
Click on thumbnails for large images:
Secondary School, Dietenhofen (6kb)
Dietenhofen 2 (8kb)
Dietenhofen 3 (12Kb)
Nursery School (7kb)
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