About us

The ‘Friends of Helen Rowett Memorial Garden’ in Dousland, was set up in 2024.

We look after a small plot of land, which was left to the Parish Council in 2012 by Helen Rowett, a local resident. Over the years people stopped using the garden.

Dousland is unusual, in that it has no shop, school, church or public building, so we felt it was important to maximise the potential of anything we do have.

We approached the Parish  Council and got permission to enhance the space for residents and to increase the biodiversity in the garden, which was largely overgrown shrubs and tightly mown grass.

Working with the Devon Wildlife Trust, we have built a bug hotel and dead hedge, alongside planting a pollinator friendly border. The mowing regime has been altered to include No Mow May and to allow areas of longer grass to flourish. We have carried out ongoing wildlife surveys and seen a positive increase in the number and diversity of plants and insects,

Volunteers have restored the benches and signage, to make the garden more usable and attractive to people.

We run a very popular Spring seed and plant swap, which has really raised the profile of the garden in the local community.

Although now the garden is used much more, there are still huge areas of improvement to be made, and we are keen to think of new ways to attract people to visit and support us.