Our Wildlife-Friendly Open Gardens 2026
Discover Gardens Bursting with Wildlife
Be inspired by this unique opportunity to visit some of Yorkshire’s most wildlife-friendly gardens as many of our Wildlife Gardening Award winners open their outdoor spaces to the public for a limited time only.
It’s time to celebrate our wildlife-friendly gardens!
Since we launched our Wildlife Gardening Award three years ago, we have rewarded over 700 green-fingered Yorkshire folk for their incredible work to create wildlife havens in their back yards, gardens and community spaces.
We are immensely proud of how wildlife-friendly Yorkshire’s gardens are. To celebrate them in style our wildlife-friendly open gardens are back for 2026 and we’d love even more wildlife gardening award winners to open their gates to help us celebrate our 80th anniversary and inspire even more people to garden for wildlife to help bring about nature’s recovery.
Our 2026 Wildlife-Friendly Open Gardens will run from Saturday 2nd May to Sunday 10th May.
Click here to download the full programme
Saturday 2nd May
Hosted by our President, Professor Alastair Fitter - booking essential.
The Hayloft wildlife garden.
Sunday 3rd May
Hosted by Professor Sir John Lawton - booking essential.
About the gardens
Find out more about the wildlife-friendly gardens being opened...
North Yorkshire
Saturday 2nd May
- Fossgyl, Huntington Road, York - 12pm to 4pm
Professor Alastair Fitter's long 1 acre garden stretches from Huntington Road to the River Foss. There are perennial borders, an alpine bed and alpine house, a peat-free ‘peat’ bed, a woodland garden, a traditional orchard with apple trees that are nearly 100 years old mixed with more recently planted specimen trees and shrubs, a meadow with fritillaries in spring and orchids in summer, wet woodland by the river with oxlips in spring, and a large wildlife pond fringed with native wetland plants. There are over 1200 species of plant in the garden, including over 250 natives.
On street parking nearby on the Burn Estate. Well behaved dogs are welcome, and the garden is accessible for wheelchairs. Booking essential.
- Hazelgrove Court Care Home, Saltburn-by-the-Sea, TS12 1LN - 12pm to 4pm
Please come along and visit our quirky garden at Hazelgrove Court Care Home, in Saltburn. Our residents were extremely proud to win a wildlife garden award and work hard providing safe havens for our wildlife, including a hedgehog house, butterfly house, squirrel cafe and much more.
Car park on site. The garden is accessible for wheelchairs. Well behaved dogs are welcome.
Sunday 3rd May
- The Hayloft, 12 Holburns Croft, York, YO10 5DP - 12pm to 4pm
Dot and Professor Sir John Lawton welcome you to explore their formal(ish) front garden, more informal back garden, orchard and a new ‘wilding’ area. There are a good variety of interesting plants in beds ranging from hot and dry to cool and damp, plus a small open meadow, a larger orchard meadow, and a two ponds. The whole garden is managed to be wildlife-friendly.
On street parking is available nearby. Booking essential.
Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th May - 10am to 12pm
Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th May - 10am to 3pm
- Sleeper Path Community Garden, Station Avenue, New Earswick, York, YO32 4BN
On street parking. Garden access over the bridge opposite The Hound Lounge.
Wednesday 6th May
- Shandy Hall, Coxwold, York, YO61 4AD - 11am to 4:30pm
Two-acre garden with wildlife at its heart, in the North York Moors National Park. Several garden areas, including a woodland garden in an old quarry, with a wide variety of plants, shrubs and trees. We aim for the maximum diversity of living creatures in the garden - from the microorganisms in the soil to the human visitors! We are happy to chat about wildlife gardening.
Plants for sale: www.laurencesternetrust.org.uk/gardens
There is a small car park and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
Friday 8th May
- Jubilee Allotments, Bilton Hall Drive, Harrogate, HG1 4DW - 11am to 4pm
A delightful allotment which perfectly balances growing food for people with providing diverse sources of food, water and shelter for wildlife. With an array of pollinator friendly planting, two ponds, fruit bushes, log piles, insect homes, and bird, bat and hedgehog boxes, this allotment garden is well worth a visit.
Limited parking on site, please do not park on Bilton Hall Drive. The garden is accessible for wheelchairs and well-behaved dogs are welcome. Refreshments are available and there is a toilet on site.
Saturday 9th May
- 16–18 Albert Street – Sutton-in- Craven, Keighley, BD20 7HU - 10am to 3pm
No parking in Albert St. On-street parking nearby.
- Flat 4, 22 Lawrence Street, York YO10 3WL, 12pm onwards
No parking available. Please walk to view this lovely small city garden.
- Woodbine House – Newton Le Willows, Bedale, DL8 1TG, 12pm to 5pm.
Some on-site parking and on street parking for this large garden.
East Yorkshire
Saturday 2nd May
- Throstlegate – Burnby, East Yorkshire, YO42 1RS - 10am to 4pm
Some on-site parking and on street parking.
Sunday 3rd May
- 7 The Meadows – Leven, Beverley, HU17 5LX - 10am to 2pm
On-street parking
Sunday 10th May
- 131–133 Keldgate – Beverley, HU17 8JA - 10:30am to 2:30pm
Parking in Beverley town centre car parks.
South Yorkshire
Saturday 2nd May
- St Helena’s Church – High St, Austerfield, DN10 6QU - 10am to 4pm
On-street parking available.
- Home Farm – High Street, Austerfield, Doncaster, DN10 6QU - 11am to 5pm
Kerry and Richard would like to welcome you to Home Farm & Lodge in Austerfield. Enjoy a wander around our wildlife friendly gardens which include flower filled borders, an orchard, water features and a wildlife field with large pond and oak trees.
Please be aware there is livestock on site including chickens, ducks, goats and bees.
On-street parking available.
Sunday 3rd, Monday 4th, Wednesday 6th & Sunday 10th May
- 171 Zetland Road – Town Moor, Doncaster, DN2 5EL - 11am to 4pm
We started developing our urban garden in 2023, having spent previous years maintaining the lawn and planting a few bedding plants every so often.
We now focus on making our garden wildlife friendly and have altered our gardening habits accordingly. This year we are going totally ‘no-mow’ so be prepared to battle through! We choose our plants so that we are offering year round pollinator food stations and are adopting a policy of limited weeding so we can give wildflowers a better chance of establishing and thriving. We are both (Clair and Richard) looking forward to meeting folk with a similar vision so we can share experience and new ideas.
Please do not park in front of driveways. Good bus links.
Sunday 10th May
- 39 The Oval – Tickhill, Doncaster, DN11 9HF - 10:30am to 3:30pm
‘My front lawn was a real mess, so I decided to make it into a wildlife area with flowering plants throughout the whole year. It also provides habitat for creepy crawlies and in the first year a hedgehog made its home under our front window.’
Limited parking. The garden is accessible for wheelchairs and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
West Yorkshire
Eco Friendly Garforth pollinator patch - Moira Flynn
Saturday 2nd May
- Eco-Friendly Garforth, The Lord Gascoigne, 6 Aberford Rd, Garforth. LS25 1PX - 10am to 4pm
Eco Friendly Garforth have created an amazing community garden at the bottom of The Lord Gascoigne pub car park. They brought their community together to create a fabulous blend of plants grown for food and native plant species for wildlife with raised beds, a herb spiral, a pond, bug homes and a hibernaculum. With fruit trees, native wildflowers, and a lovely communal space for families to enjoy connecting with nature, this garden is one not to be missed!
There is a large car park on site, and well behaved dogs are welcome.
Monday 4th, Tuesday 5th & Wednesday 6th May
- 2 Beckfield Close – Crosshills, Keighley, BD20 7TE - 11am to 3pm
Good bus links. On-street parking. Please do not park in front of driveways.
Wednesday 6th May
- St John’s Methodist Church – Settle, BD24 9JH - 10am to 4pm
Small carpark and on-street parking nearby.
Saturday 9th May
- Haugh House – Haugh Rd, Todmorden, OL14 6BU - 11am to 7pm
Please park in the car park at the bottom of the hill and walk up.
Sunday 10th May
- 48 Red Lane – Farsley, LS28 5JE - 1pm to 4pm
Parking is limited. Please park and walk up to the house.
- 1 New Hagg Farm – Oldfield Road, Holmfirth, HD9 6RN - 10am to 4pm
On-street parking.
- 45 Victoria Crescent – Horsforth, Leeds, LS18 4PT - 1pm to 4pm
A suburban garden developed over 30 years to be wildlife friendly. Mixed species native hedge, pond, border with wildflowers, nettles and a fruit tree, lawn being turned into a meadow, herb garden, veg beds, soft fruit, herbs, compost heap, wormery, standing dead wood and a greenhouse.
Parking is available on the street and well-behaved dogs are welcome.
Apply for our Wildlife Gardening Award
Feeling inspired to go wild for wildlife in your garden this year?
Whether you have a large garden or a small balcony, your outside space can provide a vital stepping-stone across the landscape for wildlife, and form part of a network of natural havens linking urban green spaces with the countryside.
With an estimated 24 million gardens in the UK, the way we care for our outdoor space can make a BIG difference to the natural world.