We are so lucky at St John's to have such a wide range of habitat spaces within our grounds, and all of these areas are beneficial to an equally wide range of consumers!
For our Flower Team we have a range of well-established shrubs that are used in displays. For example, both yew and ivy are an all-year staple - try cutting them down and you might have a fight on your hands! Yew is often used to give texture, and trailing ivy is perfect for creating soft lines in a pedestal display. You may have also seen our variegated Pittosporum (growing by the Lady Chapel), with its beautifully curled leaf margins, outlined in cream, peeping in and out of the flowers to give light to a dark display.
For our church users, regular and new, we have a mixture of planting at the front of the church bringing joy to the eye - daffodils, tulips and grape hyacinths in the borders and dotted on the lawn, which are just beginning to flower; geraniums, roses and lilies in the summer; and the bright orange berries of pyracantha in the winter. The roses behind the bench provide a heavenly space of scent and colour and are a perfect backdrop for any bride or groom waiting for their wedding.
For wildlife we have areas of untouched undergrowth which support a variety of invertebrates such as woodlice, spiders, beetles, slugs, snails, worms. Our ivy provides a much-needed feeding stop-off for hoverflies, wasps and bees in the late summer and a safe space for birds to build their nests in spring. Last year a group of children from Hook Infants School did a survey of the grounds, looking for insects and small creatures. Out of all our areas, the corner of the ground on the right as you leave the car park was found to hold to widest diversity of minibeasts. Who would have thought that? What to us looks like a messy corner is a haven for our wildlife.
Our gardens are lovely, and we all appreciate it, but there is more that can be done. More shrubs that we can grow for the Flower Team, more flowering plants that can be appreciated by everyone who walks through the church grounds and more areas that can host an even greater diversity of wildlife.
We are pleased that St John's has have a Eco Church Bronze Award, and the work in the garden has contributed to that, but of course there is always more we can do, as a church we are now working towards the Silver Award. To read more about about our Eco work please see this link.
Amanda and Anna have extended the work of our #Wilder team, and that has become Wilder Hook - we have a facebook group @wilderHook, do talk to us about ways to inroduce biodiversity with in your gardens or your allotments, or to find our what Wilder Hook is doing in locally.
The Weekly Gardening Club meet most weeks on a Wednesday from 10am until 1pm and is open to all – if you would like to know more please speak to Fran, Janine or Anna. What have we learnt over the last year or two - the grounds are big, and its a lot of work! We'd love to have more people join us, whether for a one off maintenance day (typically we hold one each October) or on a more regular basis. You may want to join our Church Garden Whatsapp group (where topics are when/whether we are meeting on wednesday and what the tasks are for the week). If you do not want to commit, please join our Whatsapp group, join the discussion, & pop in when you can (we're always happy to talk to non-gardners, and stop for a coffee), We are posting regular updates & photos in the Garden Photo album.
Our wild flower area over the summer: 
Resources
- https://www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk
- God's Acre: The Flowers and Animals of the Parish Churchyard by Francesca Greenoak
- https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/resources/
