The popular outdoor Easter Garden at Salisbury Cathedral has returned for a third year, a collaboration between the Cathedral’s Works Yard and Hampshire-based award-winning horticultural designer Andy McIndoe.
Created alongside the west front of the Cathedral, the planting is based on the native plants of the Holy Land, including drought-resistant aromatic trees and shrubs that burst into flower when there is sufficient rainfall early in the season. Plants from other areas with a warm Mediterranean climate are also included to complete the picture.
The display includes three crosses mounted behind a symbolic tomb made of Chilmark stone (the stone used in the cathedral's building). The tomb stands amongst an array of Mediterranean plants—including rosemary, laurel, olive, and santolina—all reminiscent of the landscape and story of Jesus. The crosses and tomb were made by the Cathedral’s Works Department.
This is the third year Andy McIndoe has returned to create the garden, and he comes with a wealth of experience. He has won 25 consecutive Gold Medals at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show and received the prestigious Veitch Memorial Medal (one of the Royal Horticultural Society’s highest accolades) in 2017.
The Revd Dr Kenneth Padley, Canon Treasurer, who has oversight of the Easter Garden, said: “Our team have been receiving enthusiastic compliments and encouragement from passers-by as they have constructed the Garden this week.
"Like a Crib at Christmas, the Easter Garden is a simple way of visualising what God does for us through the death and resurrection of Jesus, overcoming our faults and guilt with the hope and joy of eternal life. We offer this Garden to worshippers and visitors as a sign of this holy and happy season.”
On Easter Day the sealed tomb will be opened to represent Jesus being raised from the dead, three days after he was buried. The Easter Garden will stay in place until Pentecost on 8 June, the day when Christians recall how God’s Holy Spirit was given to the disciples after Jesus’ Ascension.
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