As a passionate bird lover for many years, it is a real joy to be providing specialist garden media pr support to SongBird Survival, a charity which celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2025, with a garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

UK songbird populations have dropped by 50% in just two generations, so the urgency to raise awareness and act has never been greater. SongBird Survival is the only charity in the UK dedicated solely to halting and reversing the alarming population decline of songbirds and other small birds. It does this by supporting scientific research into the causes of decline and offers practical expert advice on how we can all help to protect and support birds and wildlife, including in our own gardens and green spaces.

The SongBird Survival Garden is being designed by award winning designer Nicola Oakey. It is an innovative family friendly garden in the ‘All about Plants’ category. It is sponsored by Project Giving Back, the unique grant-giving charity that funds gardens for good causes at RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The SongBird Survival Garden will focus on the three key elements of shelter, water and food, that are vital in supporting bird life. Nicola has cleverly designed this playful, immersive garden, from the perspective of a bird foraging for food and water, with two meandering paths mimicking a bird’s movement through the garden’s countryside-inspired planting scheme that offers food, nesting material and shelter.

The garden’s focal point is a distinctive human-sized Birdhouse Den created from reclaimed materials. The den is decorated with hand-crafted metalwork motifs which have been commissioned for the Garden by Cambridgeshire-based artist, Jeni Cairns. The intricate circular motifs are plasma-cut from repurposed oil drums. The designs depict six key songbirds – greenfinches, starlings, yellowhammers, skylarks, willow tits and house martins, all of which are currently on the UK’s ‘red list’ following their population decline over recent years.

Multi-stemmed trees provide spring blossom to attract insects and berries in Autumn/Winter and the abundance of branches offer places for birds to perch, nest and shelter. The structural hedging creates ‘highways’ that birds can use to safely navigate through the garden. Trees and Shrubs used include Crataegus persimilis ‘Prunifolia’, Ribes nigrum ‘Ben Connan’ and Taxus baccata which have all been chosen for their fruits in the form of berries and hips.

Although this will be her first RHS Chelsea garden, Nicola  has plenty of design experience, having run her own successful design studio in Rutland for five years and in 2018 she was a finalist in the RHS Young Designer of the Year. Nicola said: ‘It has been a long-held dream to design a garden at RHS Chelsea. Partnering with a cause I feel so passionate about is really important to me and I’m delighted to be working with SongBird Survival to help raise awareness of the charity’s vital work and to share our love of songbirds.”

Susan Morgan, CEO of SongBird Survival said: ” The decline in songbird numbers is devastating and we simply cannot allow gardens to fall silent. We know people want to do more to help in their own gardens to ensure songbirds have a future. Thanks to the sponsorship from Project Giving Back, we want our beautiful RHS Chelsea garden to inspire visitors, giving them advice about what to plant and grow for birds, while also motivating them to encourage the next generation of songbird champions in their children and grandchildren.

We want people to know that everyone can make a difference to the survival rates of songbirds and that by taking positive action together we can ensure that future generations are able to enjoy the dawn chorus that we were privileged to grow up with.”

Following RHS Chelsea, the Songbird Survival Garden will move to its permanent home with the Neighbourhood Network Charity, who manage a bustling community centre, based in Bransholme, Hull. This community centre will be a well-loved resource for all ages to learn about the natural world, gardening and enjoy the wellbeing benefits that come from spending time in nature, listening to birdsong.

Hattie Ghaui, CEO of Project Giving Back, says: “There is something quite magical about thinking about a garden or green space from a bird’s perspective so I’m really looking forward to seeing this garden come to life at RHS Chelsea in May. Encouraging and inspiring people to plant with birds in mind is a joyful concept for the show and the joy doesn’t stop there – the garden will go on to relocate to an urban community in Hull, creating an oasis for birds in the city.”