Creation of a wellbeing garden that reflected the peace and reconciliation aims of the organisation located in a historic City of London church.
Client
St Ethelburga’s Centre for Peace and Reconciliation
Location
London
Date
2011 – 2019
Award winner – Community Engagement 2015. Flowers in the City Campaign.
St Ethelburga’s had reached a turning point in its journey and having secured their new direction asked me to reflect that change with an immediate shift in their most visible asset, the garden.
Based on the colourful quilt that hangs in reception, the garden planting design sourced all their plants locally and combined immediate colour to signify the change with long term perennial planting that was attractive to birds, bees and butterflies.
The garden change was worked on by members of the centre itself and with volunteers who created the planting layout from the plants supplied from Columbia Road flower market to an overall concept. In line with the centres aims and objectives this was about bringing people together to create something beautiful and build something joyful for others. It was based on the principles of creating a mandala with the cleansing of space as the preparation, the perennials as the structure, the foundation and then the annuals as the beautifying element that created the whole.
It marks an important point in the centres history and has done much to visibly ground and reflect the changes that many committed people have bought about. My on going involvement is about embedding the garden into the organisations goals and how it will continue to make an active and positive contribution to their work. It is maintained and run by volunteers who have all been part of the garden designs evolution.
Jeremy Rye 