The secret garden
Hidden behind Faversham’s finest medieval street, next to the churchyard of St Mary of Charity, and adjoining the 1587 Grammar School, now a Masonic Hall, is an extraordinary half-acre walled garden, of singular beauty and vitality. As with all the best secret gardens, one enters by an unassuming door in an ancient brick wall. A modest sign encourages passers-by to come in.
Abbey Physic Community Garden, when I first visited, even on a muddy, cold January day, was buzzing with activity. Volunteers were engaged on a range of tasks including clearing out a pond and adding clippings to a ‘dead hedge’ made of woody stuff that won’t compost down. The garden invites involvement and participation but it also has a potent spirit of place that enfolds volunteers (who are all members), and visitors, in peace and serenity.
Leased from the Freemasons for a peppercorn rent of £2 a year, the garden was established 20 years ago by the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, now renamed Rethink Mental Illness. A registered charity since 1997, the Abbey Physic Community Garden is influenced in all its activities by a belief in the therapeutic benefits of horticulture. The University of Essex has recently conducted independent evaluation of ecotherapy, defined by Mind, the mental health charity, as a range of programmes that promote mental and physical wellbeing through outdoor activity in a green environment. The research demonstrated that there are measurable mental health benefits.
This life-enhancing and healthgiving place has also won a number of gardening accolades – for the best community wildlife garden from the Kent Wildlife Trust and an ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ award from RHS South East in Bloom. Committed to best practice on all fronts, it is a Land Learning Centre with the Permaculture Association.
Formal training opportunities include a CVQ in volunteering and NVQ Level 1 in Horticulture with Hadlow College. Members can also learn willow weaving, green woodworking, and get involved in plant propagation, bread and pizza making in the clay oven, and throwing pots on the renovated potter’s wheel. Jam and chutney are made from produce, supervised by Liz, a retired chef who also makes wonderful cakes.
Discrete areas of this productive garden are dedicated to different horticultural techniques as well as plants. There are rose beds and pergolas, a herb garden, no-dig raised beds for vegetables, over 30 fruit trees, including damsons, apples and pears. There is a hugelkultur (meaning ‘hill culture’) bed, built up from logs and branches, other organic material, and topped with soil. Nearby are grapevines, soft fruit, a wildlife garden, several gorgeous bug palaces and wooden bins for leaf compost. Well-rotted horse manure is supplied by a neighbour. A grassed area makes a quiet classroom and the pond is popular with local schools for pond dipping. Pride of place is taken by a large, odour-free composting loo.
Suzanne Campbell is the garden’s part-time manager. She combines a strong grasp of the day-to-day practicalities with a clear vision for the future. Plans include a polytunnel, the widening of paths for wheelchair users and a week-long programme of activities for the Chelsea Fringe, which runs alongside the Chelsea Flower Show. ‘Everyone’, she says, ‘has a part to play. If there’s something people want to do, we can do it. We can absorb people, and the more areas we have in the garden, the more people we can absorb’.
Abbey Physic Community Garden, Abbey Place, Faversham: 01795-539915, www.faversham.org/community/clubs/abbey_physic_garden
Abbey Physic Community Garden, when I first visited, even on a muddy, cold January day, was buzzing with activity. Volunteers were engaged on a range of tasks including clearing out a pond and adding clippings to a ‘dead hedge’ made of woody stuff that won’t compost down. The garden invites involvement and participation but it also has a potent spirit of place that enfolds volunteers (who are all members), and visitors, in peace and serenity.
Leased from the Freemasons for a peppercorn rent of £2 a year, the garden was established 20 years ago by the National Schizophrenia Fellowship, now renamed Rethink Mental Illness. A registered charity since 1997, the Abbey Physic Community Garden is influenced in all its activities by a belief in the therapeutic benefits of horticulture. The University of Essex has recently conducted independent evaluation of ecotherapy, defined by Mind, the mental health charity, as a range of programmes that promote mental and physical wellbeing through outdoor activity in a green environment. The research demonstrated that there are measurable mental health benefits.
This life-enhancing and healthgiving place has also won a number of gardening accolades – for the best community wildlife garden from the Kent Wildlife Trust and an ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ award from RHS South East in Bloom. Committed to best practice on all fronts, it is a Land Learning Centre with the Permaculture Association.
Formal training opportunities include a CVQ in volunteering and NVQ Level 1 in Horticulture with Hadlow College. Members can also learn willow weaving, green woodworking, and get involved in plant propagation, bread and pizza making in the clay oven, and throwing pots on the renovated potter’s wheel. Jam and chutney are made from produce, supervised by Liz, a retired chef who also makes wonderful cakes.
Discrete areas of this productive garden are dedicated to different horticultural techniques as well as plants. There are rose beds and pergolas, a herb garden, no-dig raised beds for vegetables, over 30 fruit trees, including damsons, apples and pears. There is a hugelkultur (meaning ‘hill culture’) bed, built up from logs and branches, other organic material, and topped with soil. Nearby are grapevines, soft fruit, a wildlife garden, several gorgeous bug palaces and wooden bins for leaf compost. Well-rotted horse manure is supplied by a neighbour. A grassed area makes a quiet classroom and the pond is popular with local schools for pond dipping. Pride of place is taken by a large, odour-free composting loo.
Suzanne Campbell is the garden’s part-time manager. She combines a strong grasp of the day-to-day practicalities with a clear vision for the future. Plans include a polytunnel, the widening of paths for wheelchair users and a week-long programme of activities for the Chelsea Fringe, which runs alongside the Chelsea Flower Show. ‘Everyone’, she says, ‘has a part to play. If there’s something people want to do, we can do it. We can absorb people, and the more areas we have in the garden, the more people we can absorb’.
Abbey Physic Community Garden, Abbey Place, Faversham: 01795-539915, www.faversham.org/community/clubs/abbey_physic_garden