The Community Garden Project
Working together to create a flower and vegetable garden to provide for our community and local wildlife.
Inspired by the goals of LiveSimply and responding hopefully to Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si’, a community gardening project has been taking shape at St Dunstan's.
A group of keen gardeners is forming to create a Garden Club and Canon Rob has kindly agreed to the development of a community garden outside the Parish house.
All volunteers welcome - experienced and novice, young and not-so-young as well as families.
Do get in contact via the live simply email address if you would like to join. livesimply@st-dunstans.org
Where: The community garden is located behind the church on a patch of grass adjacent to the presbytery
The aim is to bring together members of our parish community in a project that celebrates the bounty of our Common Home. Of course, the project is by itself a very small act through which we hope that each gardener and each visitor may develop a deepening of understanding of the connection between our actions and the natural world.
In some part also, our project will give our community some solidarity with the vital work being done by the Poor Servants of the Mother of God in Ikutha, Kenya. While our community project in leafy Surrey is of course nothing like subsistence farming in Kenya, we hope that navigating the challenges of growing in our own small way will give us the beginnings of an insight into challenges faced by that community in their micro-agricultral scheme to grow to sustain their livelihood. Unlike us, they face the additional challenges of water scarcity and excessive heat that come with living at the sharp end of the climate crisis.
Also, we hope that our own growing endeavours may provide some practical benefit to the Ikutha project: by raising funds on donations for flowers and produce we are able to grow as well as plants and seeds we can exchange.
While 2025 has seen the establishment of the project and the first flowerbeds dug and planted, Spring 2026 will hopefully see the project take off.
RHS VISIT
THe RHS was invited to come to the garden space and talk to the Garden Club about the plans for creating a workable greenspace for the community to connect, take care of their wellbeing and improve the local biodiversity.
Julie Jowett (Senior Community Outreach Advisor, RHS Wisley) and Claire Davitt (Community Outreach Advisor, RHS Wisley) met with some of the garden Club on site and made suggestions to support the success of the project.
Actions to be considered:
1. The RHS Communities team to email the church with links and contacts to help with ideas.
2. The church to ask its members what they would like to see and learn in their garden spaces.
3. A Garden Club visit to RHS Wisley Gardens for inspiration – to see the World Food Garden and the Greener Skills Garden.
4. The group to communicate effectively with the church community and main gardener.
5. Reach out to other churches/groups who have community gardens for insights and ideas.
2026 Update:
Community Garden
The Community Garden was started in 2025 with three simple objectives:
To provide a space where people who may not have access to a garden, for example those living in a flat, can participate in creating and caring for a garden.
To provide an outdoor meeting space where people can work on the land and garden together, while enjoying the physical and mental benefits of being outdoors.
To grow produce and flowers that can be used for the Live Simply plant and produce swaps and, in the longer term, to provide flowers for the church altar.
Since the project began, many parishioners have made wonderful contributions. These have included bringing manure by car from a local farm to enrich the soil, digging and preparing the beds, hand-watering the garden each day during the hot weather, building a bug hotel and, most recently, restoring a bench so that gardeners can enjoy a well-earned sit down with a cup of tea! All of this has happened alongside the steady development of the garden itself.
Our first year
The history of the Community Garden is still quite short, as the idea first began around this time last year. The area was identified and we started with two flowerbeds, using a generous donation of bulbs and seeds.
Winter was largely a time for preparation. During this period, we created several more flowerbeds, ready for the growing season ahead.
As spring arrived, it was wonderful to see the daffodils and tulips putting on an amazing display and giving us a glimpse of what the summer might bring. The winter beans that had been planted were also growing well and promised a good harvest.
Spring was also the time to decide what we wanted to grow. After discussion, we agreed to create a herb bed, a vegetable bed, a bed for flowers that could be dried, with the remaining beds given over to flowers.
Planting then got underway.
The plants made a good start, but the hot spell brought a real challenge. The valiant efforts of many parishioners, who watered the garden first thing in the morning and again in the evening, helped it survive the heat. As with many gardens this year, however, the flowers and produce were not quite as plentiful as they might have been.
That simply gives us another challenge for next year!
Looking ahead
With our Open Day, we are proud to share what we have achieved during our first year and to celebrate everyone who has helped make the Community Garden what it is today.
We would love you to join us next year — and to tell anyone you know who might be interested or who could benefit from being part of the project.
Together, we hope to extend the garden and create a fantastic, enjoyable and uplifting space for everyone in our community.
Thank you to everyone