New garden at The Methodist Church Dunstable

The project was achieved through a number of small grants: from Central Bedfordshire Council, High Street Heritage Action Zone, match funding from the church and Karl O’Gorman’s memorial fund.

Kathy Doyle, Dunstable Town Council’s Parks and Green Space Development Officer, was a huge driving force behind the initiative both encouraging and enabling. Kathy based the design of the gardens on the Holy Trinity, echoing some architectural features of the building, and using plants such as bay trees which have biblical significance.

A small team of regular volunteers from the church met each week to move the project forward, stage by stage. Many other individuals helped by sharing their skills and energies for particular parts of the works.

The effect is a huge aesthetic improvement to the appearance of our church, drawing comments from local shops, market stall holders, passers-by, Dunstable Town Council workers, and also hugely impressing the judges in the Anglia in Bloom and Dunstable in Bloom competitions.

Late last summer, another assessment of the garden project was made by the Royal Horticultural Society, with the award of a Grade 4 (out of 5) Thriving designation.

We were pleased to welcome Councillor Liz Jones to celebrate and dedicate our gardens in February.

The work goes on, with a dedicated group meeting each week to continue to care for and maintain the planting, sweep, tidy, litter pick, water etc.