GARDENS that are normally hidden from sight were able to be viewed by the public as part of last weekend’s Ross Open Gardens scheme

Over 20 different venues across the town took part and included public spaces, the Tudorville allotments and community gardens to celebrate the many facets of gardening in Ross.

This year’s event focuses on wildlife friendly gardening. A number of the larger gardens also hosted pop up art displays, including paintings, by local artists and an outdoor sculpture gallery.

Organisers Wendy and Andrew Leeman, who have been cultivating their garden for 34 years, said that the event was a great success and added: “We are very grateful not only to the gardeners, but also the hidden army of more than 100 people who have volunteered in so many different ways to make the weekend possible this year.”

Kate Robertson at the Quakers Friends Meeting House, explained that the former burial ground is now a garden, a place of peace, which is maintained a team of volunteers with areas being set aside for wildlife.

Ann Johnson from Trenchard Street said that her garden was work still in progress, but it still attracts a variety of wildlife. She has already planted eight berry trees to complement the mature shrubs the garden already has.

One of the most popular gardens was that behind the Old Gaol in New Street, owned by Janet and Nick Nelson for the past 45 years, to which Janet said had been a ‘very interesting sentence’.

She said the garden was long an thin, as it bounded by Pig Alley and was terraced and zoned into different areas, but its only drawback was they had a lot of shade from an historic beech tree.

All proceeds will go to the Friends of St Mary’s to support the development of St Mary’s Church as a community facility.