The Church Gardens

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Our grounds are viewed by us as a community resource for the whole village of Colinton and we encourage people to come in and enjoy them. However, we ask that you keep to the designated paths. The flower borders are maintained by a band of volunteers who work for two hours on the morning of 2nd and 4th Monday of the month. Any large garden area is very much set off by its lawns, and these are maintained by our resident caretaker.

We are especially proud of our fine specimen of the resplendent Chilean Firebush, (Embothrium Coccineum). Originating possibly in Tierra del Fuego on the very tip of South America, the bush has narrow evergreen foliage and bears a profusion of vivid scarlet flowers in June and July in clusters along each branch. It is sometimes seen in the West of our islands, where it benefits from the warm Gulf Stream. Our specimen would appear to be unusual for its capacity to survive in the East of Scotland

The flower beds are planned on a low maintenance basis, but hopefully with some floral interest in most months in the year. Like any other garden, we have to make compromises. Most of the borders are north facing or have overhanging trees and therefore require shade tolerant plants, the soil is uncompromising Colinton clay, snails and slugs are in superabundance and we have the usual conflict with the thugs of the plant world, so that the more interesting less invasive ones can flourish.

Although probably not sufficiently delineated from the rest of the Church grounds, an area has been set aside as a Garden of Remembrance where former church members' ashes have been interred.   A large boulder bears the inscription, "Garden of Remembrance - Please respect this area".  We are grateful to Mr Mark Porteous, the funeral director at Juniper Green, for donating this.

The everlasting fascination of looking after a garden is the hope that one day it will all look perfect, despite the fact that deep down we know it never will, so things never stand still, and we are constantly introducing new plants and making changes.

In addition as we are an eco-congregation, we have a Wildflower Garden to promote wildlife. This is now in its third year and still evolving, as such natural havens to be successful are far from easy to set up.

Our wildflower area is a small symbolic gesture in recognition of the importance of biodiversity. The "meadow" was planted in a bitterly cold wind on the 5th April 2006, with the help of 14 intrepid volunteers of all ages. We were particularly pleased to welcome our Edinburgh City Councillor, Mr Jason Rust, who participated enthusiastically in the work.

We planted about 90 plug plants, of 10 different species, and more plug plants were added in spring 2007 with seeds of other species sown in autumn. We now have a variety of flowers from cowslips in early spring to mallow and meadow sweet later in summer.

The area is left undisturbed through the spring and summer, until after the flowers have set seed. It is mown in early September and after mowing, the cut grass and flower stalks are left to lie for a short time to let the seeds drop into the ground. Then the grass is raked up and removed, in order to impoverish the soil. This weakens grass growth and allows more space for the wild flowers.

We express our thanks to the "Action Earth" project, supported by Scottish Natural Heritage, for providing a grant covering the full cost of the plants and the "Wildflower area" sign.