We're delighted to announce that our team of volunteer gardeners at Gosling Sike, led by site manager Adam McGinley, has been recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society’s Cumbria in Bloom Awards this year.

For the first time, the award ceremony was held at Gosling Sike, our northern office and community hub near Carlisle. The Gosling Sike volunteer gardeners received no fewer than four awards:

• RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood Award - National Certificate of Distinction 2023
• RHS It’s Your Neighbourhood Award - Outstanding - Level 5 
• Cumbria In Bloom Special Award For Biodiversity 2023 – Gold
• BBC’s The One Show and RHS Growing Together Award 2023 for Community Gardening 

Adam McGinley, Gosling Sike Site Manager said: “This is a fantastic achievement and recognises the skill and hard work that has been invested in creating such a fantastic wildlife garden over the last few years by all of our volunteers and staff. We’re also delighted that Danny Poland, one of our Trustees, received a Special Award for the RHS Tatton Park Show earlier this year. These awards are a recognition of all of the hard work, dedication and passion of the volunteers at Gosling Sike, who have created this fantastic wildlife garden from scratch.”

Cumbria in Bloom is part of RHS Britain In Bloom and is the county’s premier campaign to encourage people to work together in their own area, show pride in their community and keep it waste and litter-free.

Ronnie Auld, Cumbria In Bloom Chairman thanked Adam for hosting the Cumbria in Bloom Awards Ceremony at Gosling Sike, saying: “I think that it will go down as one of the most successful we have ever held. Your facilities at the Centre are wonderful and ideal for our northern event. Everyone enjoyed hearing about the Centre from you and they much enjoyed walking out and viewing the gardens, seed bank and polytunnels.”

The judges’ comments included: “We were extremely impressed with our visit and have only admiration for Adam and all his enthusiastic volunteer group.”

Cumbria in Bloom also thanked us for providing wildflower plants for the community plot designed by Danny Poland at RHS Tatton Park, and were grateful to the Gosling Sike volunteers for their support at the show.

We established the wildlife garden at Gosling Sike in 2020. Since then, volunteers have worked hard to make it a haven for wildlife, creating a number of varied habitats to attract a wide range of species. This includes pollinators such as bees, butterflies and dragonflies, and many different birds and mammals.

The garden has a mixed planting scheme with native wildflowers, complemented with ornamental shrubs and grasses, sensory plants, an orchard with wildflower meadow, log piles, native berry-rich hedges, bird feeding areas, a pond and bog garden, composting area and vegetable plot – all important when developing a community site for people and nature. The volunteers also take time to record wildlife sightings in the garden and there has been a huge increase in biodiversity over the past three years.

Gosling Sike is also home to an important seed bank, set up in 2022 with funding from Cumbria Waste Management Environment Trust (CWMET). The charity collects seeds and grows plants here for local sites.

The seed bank also collects seeds for Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Partnership, which provides guidance and training. Volunteers help with seed collection, processing, storage and data. The seeds are used to grow plants for conservation projects - rarer species are kept for longer-term conservation. Visitors can visit the seed bank when staff are on site.

In addition, Gosling Sike is forging creative arts connections with the local community. Recent arts events have included workshops by artist-in-residence Julia Garner and other artists, and Carlisle Contemporary Arts held an exhibition in September as part of the Eden Valley Arts Trail. There’s currently an exhibition of Cumbria Wildlife Trust’s 2023 photography competition at the site. It is now also home to Carlisle’s first Men’s Shed, a community workshop for people to learn practical skills while making friends.

Gosling Sike is in the village of Houghton, near Carlisle. It’s open all year round. In addition to visiting the wildlife garden, you can follow a farm trail around the surrounding farmland that was given to Cumbria Wildlife Trust in 2012 by Susan Aglionby. It’s a working organic farm, with ponds, hay meadows and grazing cattle and sheep.