Quiet Garden for contemplation

The Quiet Garden at Llanishen Methodist Church is open to all

A tranquil space for reflection and prayer is available at Llanishen Methodist Church in Cardiff.

The Quiet Garden movement was set up by Anglican priest Philip Roderick with the first opened in Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire, in 1992.

Today there are quiet gardens across the world in countries including Australia, Uganda and Haiti.

They are located in churches, private homes and gardens, inner city areas and even prisons.

Priscilla Quinn tells us more about the garden in Llanishen:

In July 2002 a small group from different churches met to explore the idea of a quiet garden in Llanishen. Our first events used our own homes and gardens but from the beginning our vision was to create a Quiet Garden in our local area.

The breakthrough came in March 2003 when the Methodist Church gave us permission to use a piece of land beside the church. It took 16 months of planning and fundraising before we began by digging out the paths.

Llanishen Methodist Church can be found in Melbourne Road, Cardiff

We were much encouraged by the generosity of people who gave their time to help with the work. We were also encouraged by those who gave donations big and small. This enabled us to get some professional help in making the path, putting up screens and not stinting on materials. The planting was all done by volunteers and we tried to follow a colour scheme.

We much welcomed input from some of the children from Coed Glas Primary School. With the cooperation of the Head and one of the teachers one class looked after lavender plants and then came to the garden to plant them and to construct a spiral.

These days we need to balance our active lives with time for quiet and reflection and we hope the garden will provide this for Llanishen.

The garden was opened on June 10th, 2006 with a service of dedication. It is open during daylight hours.

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