We will host this virtual community gathering on the topic ‘Rewilding Gardens: Bringing nature home’ on Wednesday, May 17th at 5:00PM CET/4:00PM BST/8:00AM PDT. The duration of the event will be of 90 minutes.
The Rewilding Community of Practice aims to build a network of rewilding enthusiasts and professionals who can exchange ideas and information to help build a better world.
This is a fantastic opportunity for budding and more experienced rewilders to learn more about creating beautiful, resilient gardens – and how to attract bees and other insects – from four experienced practitioners who take different approaches to but all share a passion for creating wild gardens in which biodiversity is thriving .
We hope you will join us in our effort to scale our collective impact and rewild our planet!
The Speakers
Chris d’Agorne (How to Rewild), Brandy Williams (Garden Butterfly), Wankja Ferguson (Vlinder er Bij Natuurtuin), Eva Makandi (Light On A Hill)
Chris d’Agorne, Founder of How to Rewild
Chris is the Communications Lead at Ecosulis, which works to deliver nature-positive solutions for partners such as the Wildlife Trusts, Environment Agency, and Severn Trent Water. Chris comes from a family of ecologists and has a mosaic of experience across wildlife TV production, genetic research, teaching, photography and web design. They founded howtorewild.co.uk in 2021, a website that guides landowners through rewilding projects and has since applied this rewilding theory on a 3.5-acre field in Somerset. Chris continues to share insights from scientific articles and practical experience for Ecosulis and How to Rewild.
Brandy Williams, Founder of Garden Butterfly
Brandy Williams founded Garden Butterfly, a boutique landscape company focused on creating small-scale and highly-curated ecologically friendly gardens and pollinator habitats in the Los Angeleas area. Brandy’s creations include botanically diverse succulent, native and drought-tolerant mosaics for residential and commercial landscapes. Her work blends horticultural expertise with an artist’s eye to create permanent gardens and bespoke installations. Featured on LA Times, KCRW, KTLA and the Theodore Payne Foundation Native Plant Garden Tour, Garden Butterfly is on a mission to show Los Angeles that it can be a more beautiful, environmental and pollinator-friendly city.
Wankja Ferguson, Founder of Vlinder er Bij Natuurtuin
A landscape ecologist by training, Wankja has over 30 years of experience in ecological design, planting, and general nature conservation work. For the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) she worked on projects in nature conservation in her home country the Netherlands and places such as Kenya and Chili. She now heads Vlinder er Bij Natuurtuin, a design and ecological gardening firm focusing on animal-friendly gardens. Wankja focuses on creating garden environments honouring the relationships between plants and wildlife such as bee-friendly gardens lush with edible wild plants.
Eva Makandi, Founder of Light On A Hill
Eva Makandi is a community developer and peacebuilder and holds a BSC in community development. She is the founder of the Light On A Hill (LOAH), a community-based organization focusing on environmental conservation/restoration, as well as on education and talent development. She was named a 2022 Global Landscapes Forum Restoration Steward and is a 30 under 30 class of 2022 fellow of the North American Association of Environmental Education (NAAEE).
Wild Garden: Featured project of Katie van Munster – one of the Rewilding Community of Practice members – and presented by Wild Garden members Lori Eich and Kelsey Kaszas
Wild Garden is a tool that helps everyday people transform their gardens into something both wild and beautiful, full of native plants and wildlife. They aim to enhance the world’s biodiversity, one garden at a time.
Further event information
Following the speakers’ conversation, there will be time for questions from the audience. The event will be a participatory event taking place on Zoom. The Zoom link to join the event will be shared with all ticket holders via email on the day of the event.