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CHRIS DODD NATURE · LANDSCAPE · HISTORY

Garden & ‘wild’ land

Our garden.

I had not expected this, but aspects of New Wildernesses have become part of our everyday life. Liz and I leave more space in our garden for nature to return. We now have a gentler approach. Still, we were astonished when the garden was chosen for its wildlife to be filmed over the course of a year, that becoming an episode of the BBC series Secret Garden, narrated by David Attenborough.

Flower borders of purple geraniums, red flowers and pansies frame a mown lawn that runs into long meadow grass, with Lake District fields and hills beyond.
The lawn in flower on its 2-week cutting cycle. Beyond the lawn, the little, lower meadow and the pond.

BBC · Secret Garden

The Lake District

Series 1 · Episode 3

Secret Garden turns its attention to the wildlife in our Lake District garden, with narration by David Attenborough.

Watch the full episode on BBC iPlayer.

Watch on BBC iPlayer

Opens on BBC iPlayer. UK viewing only; a BBC account and TV Licence are required. Availability may change.

A dense thicket of gorse, hawthorn and holly rising above russet bracken under a clear blue sky.
Thorn thicket on our wild land up on the valley side. This is full of wildlife, far more than most other habitats. For instance, these few acres are where many, many birds nest. Hundreds of fieldfares and redwing also come here to recover and feed on the hawthorn and holly berries when they arrive after their migration to Britain in the autumn.

Further up the valley side

Fifteen acres, left to nature.

Further up the valley side, above our garden, are fifteen acres of land, for which we are guardians – for our lifetime. There we are letting nature return. Its habitats and wild inhabitants are rarely disturbed by us, although we quietly observe them through the seasons. The acre of 500 hazel trees is however in coppice rotation and has its own distinct wildlife.

New Wildernesses by Chris Dodd: Lost Histories and Recovered Nature

The final chapter

Where the book comes home.

In the final chapter, New Wildernesses comes home to the garden and the ‘wild’ land on the valley side.

Explore the book

Notes from our garden & ‘wild’ land

Read the journal