An award-winning sustainable water garden designed to inspire and educate has opened at WWT Washington Wetland Centre.
Part raingarden and part outdoor classroom; the colourful new ‘Working Wetland garden and Waterlab’ demonstrates how we can better manage our own green spaces during both flood and drought, as well as helping children discover the vital role wetlands play in our lives.
At its heart is the recycled Waterlab building, designed so that rainfall runs off its roof into a series of pools and channels before soaking into the garden itself, which produces waves of summer flowers and attracts waterlife like frogs and dragonflies.
The exhibit was lovingly transplanted in its entirety from the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show 2016 – where it clinched a gold medal and the Best Show Garden title – and reimagined at WWT Washington thanks to funding from HSBC’s Water Programme.
Excited to be at the Waterlab’s grand opening were children from Hudson Road Primary School in Sunderland, who got their hands wet absorbing fun facts about the water cycle. Pupil Mahfuz Ahmed, aged eight, said: “It was the best day ever. It was very exciting. I loved learning about water and I had fun.”
The Working Wetland garden has been kindly donated to WWT Washington by HSBC as part of their Water Programme. HSBC originally commissioned Jeni Cairns of Juniper House Garden Design to create the garden for last year’s RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show where it won Best Show Garden and a gold medal.
School activities at the Waterlab will include sessions made possible by WWT’s Inspiring Generations scheme to provide outdoor learning to disadvantaged school pupils. Funded by the HSBC Water Programme, more than 60,000 children at WWT wetland centres across the country are receiving free outdoor learning sessions including hands on activities like pond dipping and bird feeding.