Rebecca Chesney
I May Never See You Hospitalfield, Scotland 2024 - 2026
Hospitalfield House and Gardens is located in Arbroath in Scotland. As Art and Horticulture Artist in Residence in 2024 I spent my time on site documenting insect species and the plants they were feeding on throughout the gardens and surrounding grounds.
Above: studio view with drawings and sound equipment 2024
Following on from this time on site I have developed the project I May Never See You, to create a kidney vetch seed bank.
Kidney vetch (Anthyllis vulneraria) is the sole food plant for the small blue (Cupido minimus), a scarce butterfly with small colonies found along the coast in Angus. Kidney vetch grows along the coast, but with habitat loss and coastal erosion any threats to kidney vetch have a direct effect on the small blue butterfly.
I am growing kidney vetch in the walled garden at Hospitalfield to collect the seeds to give / distribute to sites along the coast nearby to encourage and support the butterfly colonies.
In May 2026 I put a call out for local volunteer growers to help grow a kidney vetch plant in their garden, collect the seeds and add them to the seed bank.
All the collected seeds will be given to Buglife, a conservation charity working to save all invertebrates. The seeds will go towards planting at East Haven SSSI, where there has been significant dune erosion, decimating the kidney vetch population.
Collectively we will become advocates for the plant and guardians of the butterfly in the hope we can help to stop the decline in its numbers.
Above: Kidney vetch seeds, and the section of the walled garden at Hospitalfield dedicated to kidney vetch, February 2025.
Above: my kidney vetch plot in its first year in September 2025. Kidney vetch is a perennial plant, flowering from its second year.
Above: my kidney vetch plot in June 2026, in full flower. (Left-hand image courtesy of R Foreman)
Above: In May 2026 an event was held at Hospitalfield to give out kidney vetch plants to local volunteer growers. Over 40 people signed up to be involved in the project.
Above: Along with a kidney vetch plant, each volunteer grower has been given a kit, explaining how to collect the kidney vetch seeds for the seed bank. I also made a hand screen printed, hand stitched notebook for each of the kits.
This project is still continuing and future updates will include seed collecting and distribution to Buglife later in 2026.
Pollinator Corridor 2025 onwards
In parallel to the planting of the Kidney Vetch seed bank, I worked with Joseph Burns (gardener), Kristina Aburrow (Community Coordinator) alongside a dedicated group of volunteers to develop an L-shaped strip of Hospitalfield’s land into a corridor for pollinators and wildlife to share with the community. It is a threshold or piece of land at ‘the edge’, left behind when parts of the estate were sold for housing. Over the next months and years the hope is to see this space transformed to form a place for pollinating insects and birds with wildflowers and early flowering trees and shrubs, and become a place to enjoy for the surrounding neighbours and community.
Above: the pollinator corridor before development in early spring 2025
Above: volunteers helping to dig over, weed and plant seeds for the pollinator corridor in spring 2025
Above: some of the flowers starting to come up on the pollinator corridor in July 2025 (photo above right R Foreman)
Above: Images taken in September 2025.
Above: Image taken in September 2025. The annuals on the pollinator corridor have given a really colourful display this year, with lots of the perennials beginning to come up and establish.
Above: the pollinator corridor in May 2026. The perennials are establishing well, with some annuals self seeded from last year.
Above: the pollinator corridor in May 2026.
Hospitalfield
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