Royal Horticultural Society - RHS Chelsea Flower Show 2008

Inspiring gardeners to help save the water vole, one of the UK's most endangered mammals, is the theme of a new garden - River & Rowing Museum's Ratty's Refuge - at this year's RHS Chelsea Flower Show.

The garden also celebrates the 100th birthday of Kenneth Grahame's classic book The Wind in the Willows, in which Ratty, a water vole, is the star.

Garden sponsor, The River & Rowing Museum - which has a gallery dedicated to river ecology and houses the UK's only The Wind in the Willows exhibition - hopes the garden will inspire and motivate waterside gardeners and those within 1km of a watercourse, to get involved in helping to secure Ratty's survival.

The water vole is Britain's fastest declining mammal. 1990 levels recorded a national water vole population of just over seven million across the UK. By 1998 numbers had crashed to less than 1 million, a decline of almost 90 per cent in just seven years.

Gardeners are uniquely placed to help halt the water vole's decline - and can do so with style. The River & Rowing Museum’s Ratty’s Refuge garden demonstrates how native planting can create a green refuge for water voles and other wildlife as well as creating a beautiful garden. The garden’s ideas and planting scheme are based upon a small urban garden, but can be adopted by a garden of any size.

Ratty’s Refuge is designed by Capel Manor College graduates Angela Potter and Ann Robinson of English Eden, in consultation with The Wildlife Trusts, and is sponsored by the River & Rowing Museum. British Wildflower Plants have supplied a range of plants and Water in the South East is also supporting the project.

This is a small contemporary urban garden (5 x 5m) using naturalistic planting to create a green refuge for people and wildlife. Lush planting contrasts with the geometric simplicity of environmentally-friendly Maine decking, (made of recycled wood flour and plastic film material). The planting is a mixture of native species from postcode CB3 (Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, where the garden was originally designed) together with garden cultivars predominantly green with yellow, together with blue and white in colour.

The Garden’s website - www.rattysrefuge.co.uk - provides planting ideas and tips for water vole-friendly gardens as well as blogs and pictures charting the progress of River & Rowing Museum’s Ratty’s Refuge at Chelsea.

The water vole captured the public’s imagination 100 years ago through the character ‘Ratty’ in Kenneth Grahame’s classic book The Wind in the Willows, which celebrates its publication Centenary this year.

The mild mannered, water loving Ratty is still hugely popular and is the character to whom the famous phrase “There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats ” is attributed. The Wind in the Willow’s 100th birthday provides a perfect opportunity to start inspiring gardeners to help halt Ratty’s decline.

Following the Chelsea Flower Show, River & Rowing Museum’s Ratty’s Refuge will be translated to the River & Rowing Museum’s riverside location at Henley-on-Thames (www.rrm.co.uk).

The Wildlife Trusts’ Top Tips For A Water Vole Friendly Garden: