Wildlife Gardening Award

A graphic of a wildlife friendly garden with bird feeders, bird houses and plenty of wildflowers.

Go wild for wildlife in your garden this year and apply for our Wildlife Gardening Award!

Whether you have a large garden or a small balcony, your outside space can provide a vital stepping-stone across the landscape for wildlife, and form part of a network of natural havens linking urban green spaces with the countryside.

With an estimated 24 million gardens in the UK, the way we care for our outdoor space can make a BIG difference to the natural world.

Our new Wildlife Gardening Award will inspire and reward more people taking action in gardens for wildlife!

We’d love to receive applications from different types and sizes of garden. Whether you look after a garden at your home, in a community space, school, workplace, or care home.

Apply here!

Qualifying gardens will receive a certificate and, for a small donation, a plaque that can be proudly displayed in your garden!

How can I make my garden a haven for wildlife?

Gardening for wildlife doesn’t need to be complicated; neither does it mean abandoning your secateurs and surrendering to a bramble invasion! There are many simple ways of inviting wildlife in, some of which can be found in our toolkit.

Learn more

“Whether they’re big or small, gardens are amazing places where we can interact with wildlife, watching a buzzing bee or listening to the cheerful singing of birds. By making small changes to how we look after our gardens we can play an important role in improving and maintaining habitats for all kinds of wildlife, from ponds to drink, leaving seed heads to eat and fallen leaves for birds and frogs to rummage for slugs. Help your garden come alive and you might find it has the same effect on you.”

Jack Wallington
author of A Greener Life, living near Hebden Bridge

Visit Jack's website

WildNet - Tom Marshall

Gardening with wildlife, snail on gardening gloves with pot plants behind

Tom Marshall

Photo taken from behind the flowerbed border where the borders have been left to grow with wild plants around the lawn.

Wild garden - Sara Holden

Tom Marshall

Wildflowers in a wild garden. They are tall and colourful with red white and pink flower heads and a clear blue sky in the background

Pollinating wildflowers (c) Kippax Wildlife Corridor

Credit: Gill Day

A wildlife garden with pink flowers in the forefront of the picture, a garden bench to the right and a wig wam for plants to grow up. There are trees and bushes int he background.

Wildlife Garden - Charlene Thomas

A beautiful garden pond surrounded by plants and lined with white pebbles around the edge. There are tall reed plants and lily pads on the water. There are other plants in a bed behind and in pots on decking in someone's back yard.

Wildlife garden pond - David Craven

A big back garden in amongst tall trees left to grow wild during no mow may. There is a children's slide which is also green going into the grass

Amy Baylisss - Wild Garden

A fenced off area showing a log pile covered in leaves and ivy, creating a perfect habitat for wildlife.

Sleeper Path Community Garden - New Earswick, York

Child with frog on his hand with his armoutreached in front, knelt down over small garden pond with his left hand resting on the floor next to a dipping pond net.

An area in the garden showing a ‘tangle’ (a wild corner where brambles and nettles have been left to thrive)

A ‘tangle’ (a wild corner where brambles and nettles have been left to thrive) (c) Jo R

Assortment of colourful flowers in a row in a bed on an allotment. There is a glass greenhouse in the background and 2 people tending to the flowers.

Open Country Allotment Group

close up shot of a wildlife pond with a frog in it

Kippax Wildlife Corridor

A wild garden full of mature colourful plants and flowers.

Rachel Field

Wild garden with winding path running through it. Lots of mature plants and trees line the path on either side.

Bedford Fields Wildlife Garden

Wildlife Gardening in Action

To help inspire your wildlife gardening even further, we will be adding examples here, of what other people around Yorkshire are doing in their outdoor spaces for wildlife.

A man and woman in an allotment, the man is smiling at the camera holding a tub of raspberries

Case study

How do I enter?

To qualify for our Wildlife Gardening Award, you must have installed at least 10 of the features below and at least 2 from each area (food, shelter, water, management and connectivity)

Are you experiencing technical difficulties or need a hand filling out our form? Please contact supporter.services@ywt.org.uk for support.