University takes 'bee-utiful' garden to world's most prestigious flower show

The University has created a show garden for this week's RHS Chelsea Flower Show to show how simple changes can make a positive contribution to the planet.

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The University's garden, designed by Chelsea gold medal-winning designer Martin Walker, resembles a 'typical' northern garden and brings to life research conducted by academics at two of the University's faculties, the Faculty of Environment and the Faculty of Biological Sciences.

Dr Rebecca Slack, of the University's Faculty of Environment, commented: "Chelsea Flower Show (21-26 May) is a fantastic event: every year it captures people's imagination and for a week or so, people who would never usually class themselves as gardeners, are talking about gardening.  What we want to do is capture that enthusiasm and help people relate their garden to the wider environment.  It is estimated that gardens take up between 20-35 per cent of space in UK cities, so what we do in them has a massive effect on the wider environment."

The team of academics working on the project includes Dr Gordon Mitchell, Dr Slack, Professor Les Firbank and Professor Bill Kunin, with support also given by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) which has funded much of the research into ecosystem services.

Dr Slack continued: "There are three themes running though the garden - pollination, water management and carbon management.  We chose these themes because they reflect our research, but more importantly they have a very real impact on people's everyday lives and, crucially, they are things which people can really have an impact on."

Read more about the garden's themes, the researchers involved, and what the garden will look like.

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