10 January 2026

We visited the V and A in Dundee recently to see the exhibition, ‘Garden Futures: Designing with Nature’. It has been running since May and finishes at the end of this month. It  was expedient that we went before it was too late.

I enjoyed seeing the parterre gardens which featured at Versailles and the geometrical blocks which were drawn up by the designer. The garden carpets came in traditional and contemporary designs and created a magical interior garden for nurturing the inner life and communing with friends.

There was an impressive photograph of a garden created by a couple in a bomb crater in London. It looked large and mesmerising. I couldn’t work out how they had the wherewithal to seek permission and to make something beautiful out of  this lamentable wound in the wartorn city.

But by far the most inspiring part of the exhibition for me were the Ethiopian Forest Churches. If Armenia was first to become a Christian nation, Ethiopia was second. Because of its geographical isolation, its worship, liturgy, customs and structure developed in a unique way.

A church was always surrounded by trees to create a Garden of Eden. As a result of deforestation and the need for agricultural land, the country has been denuded of forest except where there is a church. Because of free grazing, there is now a need to build walls round these remaining forests.

One way in which the forests can be re-established is to create green corridors between the churches and their forests. There are 35,000 Ethiopian Orthodox Churches. Only 70 have walls to protect the trees from animal grazing. Connecting churches together  will not only celebrate the unity of the church but also create a greater paradise.