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Chapel Prayer Garden

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The Prayer Garden was officially opened in July 2013 and is affiliated to the Quiet Garden Trust. It is open 24/7  and is much used by both locals and visitors to the area. Especially during the recent lockdowns it proved a place of peace and solace for many.

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The garden has been designed as a wildlife-friendly, low-maintenance space with disability-access which can support a wide range of uses, providing visitors with a place of peace and contemplation as well as a social space and, weather permitting, an opportunity to relax and enjoy the sun. The entrance is down the lane to the right of the Chapel.

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                    Garden Preparations 2012                       The Garden 2013

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The plants in the garden were chosen to provide all year round interest, scent and ability to attract wildlife, whilst being hardy to what is in winter, an exposed, windy location. The planting in each bed has been colour-coordinated and many of the plants have a religious significance.

Wild primroses provide a beautiful spring display, along with Narcissi ‘Thalia’, whose multi-headed white blooms are a focal point around the water feature. Here also is the Shield Fern, its coppery young foliage unfurling.

Look out in July for the Dierama (Angel’s Fishing Rod) whose delicate, arching flower stems bob around in the breeze. Over the summer months butterflies and bees are attracted to the Verbena Bonariensis, Sedum, Buddleia and Honeysuckle – all are good sources of nectar and the Honeysuckle fills the air with its spicy fragrance on summer evenings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Also flowering in summer are Weigela, Fuscias, Hebe and Rock Rose. These shrubs provide part of the backbone of the planting structure along with the evergreens: Holly, Viburnum, Cotoneaster, Laurel, Myrtle, Pittosporum and Mahonia, provide winter interest when the deciduous shrubs have died back.  Bird-feeders, bird-boxes, a log pile etc. all encourage biodiversity.

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A small team of volunteers, ably led by Elaine and David Turnbull, maintain and improve the garden through occasional working parties.

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