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 - a membership organisation based in Beuningen, near Nijmegen in the east of the country, where Stichting Oase has a shop and an interesting garden open to the public. 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 are keen on promoting the wild flora of of west and central Europe as the raw material for designing gardens. This gives them a wide and rich range of plant species to choose from, much wider than the comparable British native flora, which is relatively poor in the number of species it contains. So the debate about whether to incorporate horticultural forms and plant species from other parts of the world into wildlife gardens, which is a long-running debate in the UK, is less of an issue in Germany.
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 produces an informative newsletter and 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 larger images:
Secondary School, Dietenhofen (6kb)
Dietenhofen 2 (8kb)
Dietenhofen 3 (12Kb)
Nursery School (7kb)
In Switzerland the organic gardening organisation Bioterra works towards the goal of getting more wildlife and increased biodiversity in gardens and built-up areas. Its website has a 'Nature Garden' section. www.bioterra.ch
I have no information about wildlife gardening organisations or movements in any other European countries.
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© Marc Carlton 2010.
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