Weatherwise, the first half of this month proved to be disappointing being cold, windy and wet. Fortunately the second half of the month redeemed itself with some warm, sunny days and both the plants and volunteers perked up.

The spotlight this month is on an area of the Gardens known as the Middle Terrace. It consists of a long border 111 metres long, ranging from 1.2metres to 6 metres wide. In 2016 to prepare this area for planting a single volunteer double dug the ground removing stones, roots, rotting tree branches, brambles and weeds. Gradually over the past years it has been planted with hardy perennials, mostly propagated from volunteers own gardens. The planting scheme has evolved so that there is a succession of plants providing colour, texture and form throughout the year.

The Middle Terrace is cultivated and maintained by volunteers Kath and Elizabeth. Not only do they look after the long border they also take responsibility for the maintenance of the Versailles Planters (built by Geoff mentioned earlier this year) containing phoenix canariensis. They also look after the Fairy Glen which joins the Formal Garden area to the Middle Terrace. The whole terrace is 120 metres long from the top of the Fairy Glen steps to the arbour at the eastern end of the terrace. Kath and Elizabeth have no difficulty reaching their individual step targets for the day!