Call by and enjoy our garden. It is open for all to explore and find peace, inspiration and restoration. If you plan to make a special trip do check first (01235 555486) as very occasionally (maybe half a dozen times a year) the garden is booked for a private celebration. Generally it is a place where many, from near and far, call in for quiet reflection, for a chat with friends or to find out more and get involved.
RIP Simon Love 8th December 2023
We are sad to announce news of the death of Simon Love, one of our volunteer gardeners.
Simon’s dedication, expertise and love of planting have helped create and maintain our beautiful garden. He will always be remembered here, and his work cherished.
You can read his thoughts on gardening at St Ethewold’s if you scroll down below.
St Ethelwold’s Garden Celebration and Appeal
We are delighted with the response of our garden visitors, our volunteers and our supporters to the appeal for help and funds for the garden.
We have ten new volunteer gardeners helping to keep the garden looking lovely, which is really making a difference. It’s great to see how they have fitted into the team, who all look after each other as well as the garden. We welcome them warmly into the St Eth’s community
We have raised money for beautiful planting, for a shredder to help with composting, for a watering system (this has really pleased the volunteer gardeners!) and garden tools.
All this is thanks to your generous donations to our bird box and to our garden account, as well as thanks to the volunteers who have helped with our Pop Up Teas to support the Appeal.
After the amazing Vintage Tea Garden finale, volunteer supporters had made over £2,000 with this venture, a fantastic result. And the Tea Garden has done more than raise funds, it has raised spirits too, and has given visitors a sense of what St Eth’s is about. The volunteer team has been a joy, with mouth watering cakes and cheerful company.
It’s been heartening how many people have gone out of their way to tell us how much they enjoy the garden – giving a warm glow of appreciation, which helps keep us all going.
The garden needs ongoing support, so…
Please don’t feel you’ve missed the boat if you have gardening skills to share – call in at the Office weekday afternoons or email ethelwoldhouse@gmail.com
Please keep feeding our bird box with kind donations towards the Garden Fund. Some visitors give a donation in thanks for a place of peace and restoration, some in memory of a loved one: all help keep the Garden beautiful through all the seasons. You can also call in at the Office on weekday afternoons to give something, or make a bank transfer reference Garden to: The Fellowship of St Ethelwold’s Sort code 30-67-53 Acc No 27739260 We would like to acknowledge any gift, so do email us with your contact details if you make a donation.
And please keep coming to enjoy the peace and beauty of the garden in all seasons.
What the gardeners really think
We asked some of our gardeners to reflect – first Bev:
‘I started in Jan 2012, having met Susie (Trustee and volunteer gardener) on a RHS gardening course at Waterperry in 2006/7. Susie asked for help with a big garden in Abingdon, but I had no idea what to expect…. I have since learned to expect the unexpected at St Eth’s!
It was an eyeopener to see the comings and goings of different people as the garden is very much open to all, and you never know who else might be around or what questions you might be asked. One day I was up a ladder tying in rambling roses surrounded by a large group who were drawing in the garden. I later went for lunch, leaving my tools under a chair, and when I got back there was a group meditating around my tools! I crept in and retrieved them. On some afternoons this last summer we had a choir singing. No two days are the same.
I do whatever jobs I see need doing. I’m an experienced gardener, having enjoyed it since as a child my grandmother gave me a little plot to tend. I like being left and trusted to do what I want to – having scope to use my initiative. I prefer weeding, edging the lawns and tidying up to planting things, which I am not so keen on.
I don’t have a favourite part of the garden, I like the way it all works as a whole, but the yellow border when at its best is beautiful.
I’d tell anyone to have a look and explore the garden, it’s a hidden gem in the middle of town.’
Next are Simon’s thoughts
I’ve known the garden on and off for about 25 years, and got involved as a gardener four years ago. I could see work needed to be done around the walls and the roses and I offered to come and do some ladder work. As time went on I could see more and more possibilities, and a vision forms as you get to know a garden.
There are small changes – moving the stone trough from outside the Hearth to the River Room and planting alpines, and big changes – uprooting the ornamental cherry outside the Hearth. It didn’t have enough garden value, was making the Hearth very dark, and had electric cables through it.
In digging by the cottage we found slabs of thin stone that may have been in place when the cottage was used as stables. Now we’ve made a feature of this on the threshold, with thyme planted to creep around. We have some debate, with different ideas about what to do, but often things just evolve.
My favourite plant in the garden is the perennial evening primrose, it sprawls over the brick path and is lovely. It needs a lot of attention as the flowers only last one day, and so continual deadheading is needed.
The new volunteer gardeners are splendid, they make a difference as there’s a lot to do.
To me, the garden has a sympathetic ambience. People come in crisis or distress, or to rendezvous with friends. Mothers can feed babies, toddlers can play. Yoga classes come, and there’s meditation, French groups too. It’s lovely to see.
I’d like it to have some more little paths that children could explore, it would give us a chance to grow more individual plants that are not part of the bigger scheme. Nooks and crannies.’
Simon’s Gifts: a tribute from Allen, new garden volunteer
And lastly from Victoria, one of our new garden volunteers
‘I’ve known thegarden well over about seven years, since moving to Abingdon. I come with friends and family, and like to show it to people who haven’t found it – a special, almost secret garden. People sometimes hover at the gate wondering “are we allowed in?” and need encouragement to come and explore.
This year I have retired, and just at the right moment I saw the appeal for help in the garden – I responded immediately! It’s great being outdoors, being active and working with a group of other people.
To begin I was told how I could help – pruning, deadheading and weeding. Early on I was given a big job, the pruning of the rose on the wall, which was so satisfying to do. In early summer I love the pale blue iris, so was really happy to be involved in lifting them all, cutting back and replanting, learning from others how to do it properly. In full summer the herbaceous border is beautiful.
I used to work in a school, and am glad to have been given the task of supervising a group of teenage schoolboys who come to help one afternoon each week.
The garden is an absolute little gem with a unique atmosphere. It’s good to be welcomed by the team, get involved and go with the flow.’
Thank you from everyone to all in the gardening team: Susie, Bev, Simon, Victoria, Cath, Linda, Lydia, Liz, Muriel and Allen Thank you to Marion Owen for her lovely paintings of St Ethelwold’s which illustrate these notes.
Inspired by the garden, from a member of the Meditation Group
The flowers of the garden interweave their hues
Glowing in the sunshine and scenting the air
Purples, oranges, soft pinks and bright blues
This myriad of flowers are for all to share.
From the shade of a tree I look past the blooms
To white walls of a house with solid black beams.
And mullioned windows which lighten the rooms
But this old Tudor house is not what it seems.
There once was a brewery established here
And one time a coal merchant plied his trade.
Antiques were sold from a shop at the rear,
And later a nursery where children played.
But now it brings calm to all who seek peace
And the garden of flowers brings a sense of release
– Rosemary Phillips, August 2021