Vicar inspires garden

REVD Canon Chris Bard, team vicar of Epping and BBC Essex Faith and Ethics presenter, was the
inspiration behind the awardwinning 'Growing Together in Faith' garden at the Chelsea Flower Show with help from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire's Susan Bowden-Pickstock.

Chris is also chaplain to Capel Manor College in Enfield, which is a centre of vocational excellence for
horticulture, landscaping and garden design.

He encouraged the college to sponsor a multi-faith garden at Chelsea to inspire people to consider the unifying effect of an interest in plants.

Gardens can be spiritual places for many people and the concept of a perfect garden is central to many
faiths.

Jewish and Christian people are familiar with the Garden of Eden, and Christians have two more gardens that figure in their scriptures - Gethsemane and the Garden of the Resurrection.

There are more links between plants, gardening and different faith traditions than many people realise.
'Growing in Faith' looked at the way the rose pervades Hinduism, Islam, Christianity and Judaism providing
common ground and shared roots.

The garden was based on the early Persian style of being quartered with a central water feature in the shape of a rose. Each quadrant represented one of the four faiths and a natural stone path was in the shape of a cross linking the four gardens together.

The main flower for all four faiths is the rose, but other plants that relate to the different faiths were
also used.

The varieties used were chosen either for their name, colour or special feature. For example, in the Christianity garden, Rosa sericea subsp. omeiensis f. pteracantha had spectacular thorns, which glowed
like rubies in the morning and evening light.

This represented Jesus' Crown of Thorns. In the Hindu garden, tulsi, The Holy Power Plant (Indian basil)
symbolised in the Hindu religion.

Chris Bard said: "Those of us who love gardens find them very spiritual places, and you often hear
of people talking of the peace and tranquillity they find there.

"Many find churchyards to be places where they can feel near to God, and indeed some feel His Presence more keenly in the open countryside than they do inside a church!

"But surely the aim of a church is to be a community that enables people to get closer to God, not to
attend a certain building.

"I would encourage you to find God where you can. And I know for many, that place is a garden. So
why don't you try and wait for God there?" The garden won a silver-gilt award in the Lindley range.

● Listen to Chris Bard's ‘Sunday Breakfast' on BBC Essex (103.5 and 95.3 FM) from 6 to 9am.

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