Knepp Walled Garden near Horsham

Located in the old Victorian walled garden of Knepp Castle in West Sussex, the Rewilded Walled Garden is a unique horticultural experiment inspired by the lessons learnt from rewilding Knepp's 3,500-acre estate.

Designed by Tom Stuart-Smith and James Hitchmough, the garden provides a mosaic of habitats, allowing nature to thrive and find its own way. A monoculture croquet lawn has been transformed into a 3D surface by dumping 400 tonnes of crushed brick and concrete onto it. The ridges and hollows provide a range of microclimates, with wet, dry, sunny and shady patches encouraging a huge range of plants and insects.
In the three years following the rewilding of the garden, biodiversity has increased by 34%. It is now home to 434 insect species, many of them nationally rare, and over 1,000 plant species chosen to suit warming temperatures and water scarcity. The complexity and dynamism of the garden makes it more resilient to disease, drought and unpredictable weather. Though wilder to look at than conventional gardens it is also incredibly beautiful - a wonderful place to sit and embrace the wonders of nature.
Visitors can learn how to design and garden a wilder garden on workshops led by Knepp's gardeners, and explore the ecosystem of the Rewilded Walled Garden and its wildlife with one of Knepp's ecologists. Regular garden tours led by Knepp's team of garden guides are suitable for professional and amateur gardeners, or those simply curious about how rewilding smaller green spaces can work.
The tours provide insights into habitat creation, the complex lifecycles of insects, predator-prey dynamics, the world of pollinators beyond bees, and how to attract more birds into gardens by providing natural sources of food and protection for them all year round.
Visitors can also explore the magic of the garden at their own pace with a self-guided tour, assisted by an explanatory map and QR codes positioned at strategic points around the garden. Knepp's Rewilded Walled Garden has featured in Monty Don's British Gardens (2025), Gardener's World (2024), and David Attenborough's The Wonder of Song (2022) on BBC TV, and countless gardening books, magazines, newspapers and podcasts. It's changing the way we think about gardening, inspiring gardeners of the future.
The Rewilded Walled Garden is open for visitors from April – October. All tours, workshops and self-guided tours must be booked in advance online.