Islamic Gardens by Emma Clarke

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Emma Clarke, a renowned garden designer of Islamic Gardens gave a fascinating talk to Aldersbrook Horticultural Society at Tuesday’s May meeting. Emma has designed a number of Islamic gardens including the garden at the Mosque in Cambridge and assisted in the design of the Carpet Garden at Highgrove.

The beautiful slides, which illustrated her talk, explained how Islamic gardens are developed and the spiritual principles which lay behind them. In the Koran there are many descriptions of the gardens of paradise. Islamic gardens are designed using a number of elements – water; shade; symmetry; enclosure; relationship between the garden and its architecture; balance and harmony of the overall design; aromatic planting and the importance and significance of trees.

A photo of the City of Cairo emphasised the lack of green and underlined the need for green spaces in Cities, this was followed by beautiful slides of the architecture and planting of the Alhambra to show how important green spaces are. Green shade represents the symbolic protective nature of God and green provides rest and calm. Islamic gardens are divided into four symmetrical areas providing a sense of order divided by water or pathways representing the four rivers of paradise. Slides of European monastic gardens laid out in squares showed a similarity with Islamic gardens – the squares giving rest and calm. As Emma said religion should bind us together.

In Mediterranean, Asian and Middle Eastern Countries the importance of water is paramount, providing an oasis in the desert and irrigation to keep the planting green and lush. Water reminds us of our temporary being and the purifying quality of water can nurture us from within. A fountain can be seen also as representing a fire – the heart of the home. The symmetrical nature of Islamic gardens with four squares around a circle symbolise the earth (the squares) around the circle (heaven). As well as Islamic gardens following this pattern some well-known English gardens such as Sissinghurst have similar patterns. Enclosure is represented by walls to give privacy and sanctuary – Emma talked about secret gardens like the walled garden at Rousham.

A slide of the Taj Mahal beautifully illustrated the relationship between the architecture of the building and the four-fold garden with water at the front. Other slides showed perfect examples of the balance and harmony of the overall design with water as the supreme unifying factor such as the Sultana garden, for example. Emma gave examples of the sort of planting that is used in Islamic gardens – roses are particularly loved in Islam and white roses represent peace – peace from the world or peace from our internal thoughts. Trees are also very important– they remind us to look above and beyond – the upright verticality of the Cypress is a good example. Jacaranda and Date Palm as well as fruit trees with blossom are often used.

Emma completed her fascinating talk by showing some slides of the Aga Khan Centre which AHS members will be visiting on Tuesday 2 June – meeting outside at 6.15pm. Please email AHS by 17 May to let us know you’d like to come.

Creating a Bird Friendly Garden by Helen Bonnick

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Helen Bonnick, our AHS Librarian, gave a fascinating talk at the April AHS meeting on Creating a Garden for Birds. 

She talked to us about how her garden had developed through the years to meet the needs of a growing family, and how over the last twenty five years she has re-ordered her garden with a mixture of planting, a pond, high hedges and places to sit – it is, as she said, her happy place.

She showed pictures of birds that come to her garden: starlings, wood pigeons, sparrowhawks, woodpeckers, parakeets & tits.  An aerial view of Aldersbrook showed how green our part of London is, with green corridors which encourage wildlife.  She outlined the different theories that account for the arrival of parakeets. Most importantly, she explained the great benefits of birds in your garden. There is much research showing that gardening has a restorative effect, and listening to birdsong is an added bonus. Just take time to look and listen!  Birds also control pests by eating invertebrates, slugs and snails.  

To attract birds, it is important to develop a healthy garden with food, shelter, healthy soil, a place to nest & good surfaces.  She stressed the importance of mixed planting, planting through the year and successional planting. She said how lucky we are to have the opportunity through our AHS to buy locally raised plants and swap seeds. Helen showed us pictures of her log pile and other ways to attract wildlife, such as a dead hedge, chop & drop, and encouraged us to plant trees even if our gardens are small.  She reminded us that roses support about 200 different insects and baby blue tits need to eat 100 caterpillars a day! Teasels and sunflowers are good plants that provide seeds and shrubs & trees like Yew, Cherry, Privet & Elder will support birds.

Helen echoed recent news items about the spread of disease through the use of bird feeders, which must be kept clean.  There has been a 66% decline in goldfinches & a 40% decline in chaffinches due to disease.  Bird feeders should definitely not be used between May & October when birds should find food in the garden. 

Helen recommended doing more research to find out which plants to plant to attract birds and good designs of bird boxes. She also recommended using the Merlin App to identify bird song.  Here’s to even more birds using our gardens.

AHS visit to Moore & Moore Plants, Billericay, Essesx

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Wednesday 1st April 2026

Report by Annie MacRae

Multi-Chelsea gold medal winner, Lynne Moore, hosted 25 members of The Aldersbrook Horticultural Society at her nursery on what she described as a windswept and muddy farm on high ground (!) outside Billericay on Wednesday 1 April. We were lucky: neither wind nor mud was in evidence. Lynne’s speciality is shade-loving plants, including those which attract pollinators.

Lynne is a natural raconteur. She entertained the group with stories from her early days as she qualified as a garden designer and, later in her career, as someone who set up her own nursery, quickly moving on to displaying – and winning – at major garden shows.

In a sneaky preview of her plans for Chelsea 2026, Lynne talked about some of the plants she’s hoping to take this year (although she won’t know whether the plants have made the grade until a week before the show – nothing less than perfect plants will do!). Her choices include plants such as Eurybia divaricata (white wood aster), Valeriana officinalis, Geranium oxonianum Katherine Adèle, Geum totally tangerine and Tellima grandiflora – plants which fulfil Lynne’s area of expertise: either moist or dry shade, or partial shade. They’re clearly “good doers” – to use the technical term. One member of the group described Lynne’s talk as “a forensic account of plants for shade and prep for Chelsea”. Anyone with a shady or partly shady patch in their garden might want to consider these plants by checking out the Moore and Moore website: Moore & Moore Plants – Specialists in Shade & Woodland Plants https://share.google/JSGt2NqN3YtHJbp6t – and yes, they do mail order.

The group was then shown round the growing areas with Lynne talking through the processes undertaken to ensure the best plants possible. Moving on to the Moore and Moore Nursery shop, the group relished being able to indulge its plant purchasing habit.

We are so grateful to Lynne for welcoming us to her nursery, sharing her expertise and making us laugh. A stop at local café, Bonnie’s, rounded off a perfect morning … perfectly.