With not a bird, a tiny insect or a green leaf on-site, the fabulous Story Museum was in need of a bit of ‘wilding’. At NaturEscape our brief was to install planters with underplanting to create a pocket-sized whispering wood as the first stage of the greening up project. With no vegetation between Christchurch Meadow and the Castle, the hope is that this mini wood will become a stop-off point for bugs, bees and butterflies and bring nature into the urban space.
We looked back in time to previous uses of the building which at various times since the 17th century has functioned as a sorting office, a telephone exchange, a pub and college dwellings, and has now become the award winning Story Museum. We designed three large movable planters, each with brightly painted handles,using UK Larch, a sustainable wood. With a nod to the building’s past as a sorting office, one was made with a pallet dolly as its base.
Each planter houses a mini-eco system. One houses a Strawberry tree (Arbutos Unedo) and is underplanted with wild strawberries and native ferns, providing plenty of evergreen interest and foraging potential. The second contains a contorted hazel with twisty branches and hazelnuts and early pollinator-friendly Pulmonaria, Helleborus, hearts tongue fern and Sweet Woodruff. Lastly, the third features a spring blossoming tree and the autumn fruits of a crab apple, with underplanting of grasses, Verbena Bampton and Erigeron for long lived flower power and pollinators.
We have definitely seen an uptick in biodiversity with the addition of the planters and they are loved by staff, children and adults alike. The whitefly were also very happy in the low relative humidity but hopefully the ladybirds have also benefitted. As well as bringing nature into the museum, this tiny green corridor will inspire storytelling and the playful imagination.
