AWARDS​

Silver Merit Award

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Nature Captured explored the hidden wildlife of our gardens and the technologies that allow us to observe it.

Created for BBC Gardeners’ World Live 2025, the garden brought together naturalistic planting, water, meadow, trees and discreet camera equipment to reveal the lives of birds, mammals and insects that often go unnoticed.

The garden was designed as both habitat and observatory. Visitors followed a winding route through layered planting, across a bridge and towards a timber shelter from which the surrounding landscape could be watched and heard.

Nature Captured received a Silver Merit Award in the Showcase Garden category.

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A garden for watching and listening

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Many of the animals that use our gardens arrive when we are not there to see them. Camera traps, sound recorders and wildlife cameras can reveal an entirely different view of a familiar space. Within Nature Captured, these technologies were integrated quietly into the design. They were not the focus of the garden, but a tool for understanding the life already present within it. The garden encouraged visitors to slow down, remain still and pay closer attention to movement, sound and seasonal change.

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Creating connected habitats

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A wildlife pond and wet planting created an important source of water, while meadow areas supported pollinators and seed-eating birds. Trees and shrubs provided height, berries and shelter. Log piles, hedgehog homes, bird boxes and feeders introduced places to nest, rest and forage. Each element was designed to work as part of a connected habitat rather than as an isolated wildlife feature. Together they demonstrated how gardens can support a much wider range of species when food, water, shelter and nesting opportunities are considered as a whole.

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Wildlife beyond the garden

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Nature Captured also connected British garden wildlife with conservation work in the Colombian Andes.

Images and recordings highlighted the richness of species found within both landscapes and the value of observation in understanding environmental change. The garden showed that technology does not have to distance us from nature. Used thoughtfully, it can help us become more curious, informed and protective of the living world around us.