It’s been my thinking for quite a while that gardens are spiritual places. Most people, when they talk about the benefits of having a garden, talk about being able to have a place of escape; a place to find a bit of P&Q in a place where they can think and reflect and simply ‘be’. Gardens are also places where we can literally get to grips with nature and start to develop our own relationship (perhaps love/hate?) with a force outside ourselves.  | | Capel gardeners with Susan (right) |
Certainly, the faiths of the world, relate to gardens. Judaism, Christianity and Islam, the Abrahamic faiths, all have their roots in a culture in which the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were reputed to have been one of the Seven Wonders of the World. And in the ancient texts which make up the Torah, the Bible and the Qu’ran, there is the symbol of the Garden of Eden, the ultimate paradise. There is a whole tradition of Islamic gardens - cool oases in hot lands where water played a big part, and where the weary traveller could rest in a place of greenery and quiet. The Baha'i faith relates to gardens: their Terraces in Haifa are 18 terrace gardens on Mount Carmel in Israel. Japanese Zen gardening is another ancient and modern tradition and a real art, producing gardens of peace and stillness and meditation. Christian monasteries had and still have gardens which go back centuries and which were used as much for cultivating medicinal and food plants as for decorative flowers and even vines in many countries! Some synagogues, like the Maidenhead synagogue, have gardens of plants which relate to the Jewish faith planted in the grounds, picking up the tradition within historical Judaism. And of course, in paganism, both a respect for, and working with, nature are fundamental. The multi-faith garden | | Capel College |
As a faith producer for BBC local radio I have contact with all the major faiths and felt that there ought to be a way to express this common strand of a love of gardens. I found that my colleague, the Rev Canon Chris Bard of BBC Essex, was not only completely sympathetic to this view of gardening but, like me, was also an RHS trained horticulturist and is chaplain at Capel Manor Horticultural College. So, together we approached Capel Manor with a suggestion for harnessing some of the diverse people of faith who are students at the college, to build a multi-faith garden. Capel felt this was a grand idea… and why didn’t we take it to the Chelsea Flower Show? Who were we to argue?And so, a year later, the Growing Together into Faith Garden has been constructed in the Lifelong Learning section of the great pavilion at the Chelsea Flower Show, where it has a been a focus of much interest and debate - causing RHS judges to discuss well into the evening, and even drawing the attention of the Royal party who came to see it on Monday evening, 21st May, 2007. And the reward? Julie Phipps the designer, Roger Sygrove, head gardener at Capel, a group of students, Chris Bard and myself have been awarded a silver gilt medal, which is one below a gold for the Growing Together into Faith Garden. | 
