Garden adds taste of Canadian wilds

An award-winning garden that mimics the Canadian wilderness has opened at the WWT centre in Lancashire.

Winner of a gold medal at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show, the garden includes mature pines, glacial boulders and a copper lined, burnt larchwood canopy reminiscent of the shelters created by hunters and those exploring the riverside.

Designer Charlotte Harris’s garden at Martin Mere Wetland Centre in Burscough was funded by the Royal Bank of Canada, which hopes the centre will give visitors a flavour of the North American wilds.

The garden draws inspiration from the boreal forest – the world’s largest land-based biome and one of the planet’s main sources of unfrozen fresh water. It provides a diverse habitat for thousands of species of flora and fauna and plays an important role in the reduction of carbon dioxide. Samantha Herbert