Garden Wild is a CIC dedicated to community climate action via wildlife orchards and forest gardening projects.
By showcasing the benefits of orchards and food forests grown in combination with native wild flowers and plants, and embedded within the local community and economy, we aim to share knowledge and ideas with related projects across the UK.
Martin pruning, up in the canopy of an apple tree
We are available for select consultancy work, particularly if there is a community element involved. Martin has years of experience planning, planting and pruning orchards, with a particular emphasis on community orchards and outreach work, and incorporating wildlife features; Jake is adept at designing, planning and overseeing landscaping of wildlife forest gardens.
CAD design of Hope Garden by Jake
The first Ysgol Cilgerran workshop at the Hope Garden, with ecologists Brioney and Kate
The Hope Garden outdoor classroom and community meeting space at the heart of a wildlife forest garden, the Hope Garden in north Pembrokeshire, Wales, is the site of pruning and gardening workshops and edible perennial plant library. The local school, Ysgol Cilgerran, pays regular visits to the garden and the surrounding grassland and woodland.
The Hope Garden is available for hire for a small donation toward the running costs, please email Jake at hello@gardenwild.org.uk
An illustration of the Tŵr Coedwig Fwyd / Food Forest Tower
Tŵr Coedwig Fwyd / Food Forest Tower, is simultaneously a site of multiple wildlife habitat, raised beds for a perennial edible showcase, and a piece of land art. It is an extension of the original idea of Tŵr Gwyllt / Wild Tower, by artist Rebecca Wyn Kelly and Jake, into the edible realm. Tŵr Coedwig Fwyd illustrates how a garden space can be beautiful, functional, edible and good for wildlife all at the same time.
We will be building the first one in 2026/2027 at a site in Fishguard, centred around the idea and practise of an orchard.
Community enterprise agroforestry scheme in Pembrokeshire
Our vision is an experimental agroforestry showcase which increases biodiversity by supporting a diversity of long-term, ecologically viable livelihoods and strengthening ecological and cultural education.
The key principle is that biodiversity enhancement does not have to cost agricultural productiveness.
This aligns with the Welsh Government‘s Net Zero 2035 group, whose recent reports call for “deliverable pathways to achieve positive climate and nature outcomes with and for their citizens”.
The objective is to secure grant funding to establish the organisational and physical infrastructure, partner with low-impact land-based stakeholders and establish a long-standing ecological study. The stakeholders‘ cooperation, management practices and nominal rent would ensure long-term site management.
Food Forest Garden Designer
Jake has been designing and creating forest gardens since 2015, with a particular interest in the theory, policy and practise of sustainable food systems England ecosystems. He works part-time as a Biodiversity Assistant at Ceredigion Nature Partnership and lives in Cilgerran, north Pembrokeshire.
Orchardist & Community Liaison
Martin has been pruning, planting and advising on orchards for 40+ years. He was co-chair of Gloucestershire Orchard Trust and has worked extensively with community groups, in West Wales and England. He lives in an art gallery in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire.
Please get in touch for more information.