Now you won’t have seen THIS in a garden before!

A big date in the RSPB’s gardening calendar is zooming up at alarming speed. No, we’re not at Chelsea this year, but we are as usual taking a ‘feature’ to Gardeners’ World Live at the NEC on 15-19 June.

Now I hasten to add that I can claim none of the credit for this. Our stand is all put together by a team at The Lodge, and I just go along when it all happens.

But they’ve sent me a sneak preview of one part of the feature, and it is not quite what I was expecting!

Yup, it’s a post box.

I’d better explain!

The RSPB feature will be called ‘Taking Steps for Wildlife’. The plot will be in two halves: one will be a ‘traditional’ wildlife garden with a shed, woven willow flower bed, rockery, trees and shrubs, and a lawn; the other an ‘urban wild space’ with lean to, an old bath, worn out car tyres an urban wildlife wall, and…an abandoned post box.

The aim of the feature will be to show visitors how they can make a difference by ‘taking steps for wildlife’ in their garden or in an urban space. The action can be something small like planting some nectar rich plants to something bigger such as building a pond either way it can help wildlife thrive.

Hopefully many visitors will be inspired to copy some of the features of the garden section. The aim of the urban area is to highlight brownfield sites are still important for wildlife.

As ever in RSPB-land, volunteers are at the core of what we do. The feature is being constructed by (left to right) Richard Harvey, Malcolm Martin and Chris Shurlock, and also David Hollin.

David and Chris built the post box out of Forest Stewardship Council-approved flexi-ply, and may have found their calling! (I certainly need their skill sin my garden. Look at how the postbox started out - it's volunteer genius how it finished up!)

Why a post box? Well, they are an iconic feature on our streets. And birds have been known to nest in them!

Of course this will just be a tiny part of the stand. I'm promised more revelations next week.

And my main aim in all this - to tempt you to come along! I'll be there on the Thursday and Saturday, so now you know which dates to avoid too ;-)