UK’s ‘Forgotten Forests’ to be brought to life at Chelsea

UK’s ‘Forgotten Forests’ to be brought to life at Chelsea - Woodland Trust

Sunlight between dark tree trunks in a lush green woodland. — The Forgotten Forests garden aims to show how careful restoration can gradually nurse damaged ancient woodlands back to health. Credit: Ben Lee / WTML

An “inspiring and immersive” garden created by the Woodland Trust for this year’s RHS Chelsea Flower Show will expose the crisis facing the UK’s ancient woodlands.

The Forgotten Forests garden is the brainchild of award-winning designer Ashleigh Aylett, and leads visitors through a replica of a damaged ancient woodland’s restoration journey.

The garden highlights the Trust’s urgent work to revive rare, centuries-old ancient woods that were cleared for plantations of fast-growing, non-native trees to boost the nation’s timber supply after the Second World War.

Today, more than 900 square miles of the UK’s original broadleaf forests lie buried beneath timber plantations.

These plantations support far less wildlife than ancient woodland, and although the original soils and seeds of these ancient habitats are still lying dormant, they won’t survive another cycle of harvesting and replanting of commercial conifer crops.

Designer Aylett said the project is a chastening reminder of the plight so many of our ancient ecosystems are facing.

“It’s about amplifying an urgent regeneration story,” she said. “Designing at RHS Chelsea gives you the chance to influence domestic and commercial garden making and wider conversations about ecology and conservation. Partnering with the Woodland Trust for this RHS Chelsea garden felt especially meaningful. Trees and woodlands have shaped my design philosophy from the very beginning of my career, so when the opportunity arose to work with them again, I couldn’t refuse.”