What a lovely way to spend a balmy spring evening! The Portsmouth and Southsea Syngogue's garden is a beautiful, calm and quiet space, despite being in the midst of a busy residential area.

We were shown around by Barbara, a volunteer gardener, before being put to work weeding the flower beds and laying down bark from some former garden trees. We relied on Richard and Sinéad's horticultural knowledge to distinguish between some very pretty weeds and actual garden plants.

Whilst digging weeds out of the cracks in the path, Laura uncovered a key - I'm not sure we established who it belonged to though!

We have also had a lesson in the dangers of sycamore seeds, with plants popping up in-between cracks, in drains and just about everywhere else in the grounds! Hopefully we caught some of the little saplings early enough that they haven't completely taken route.

Today Judy and Mel were visiting the Portsmouth & Southsea Synagogue in The Thicket, Southsea. In spite of the dark clouds, the sunshine remained and we were able to make really great progress in one of the areas of the garden, weeding and raking away the leaves. Barbara who met us there told us that the gardens were from the Victoria era and they'd uncovered the garden gradually over time, including some very pretty small bricked pathways between the earth beds. There is a huge amount of work that needs doing, but with one session per month, we ought to see more improvements soon. The garden has a lot of old trees around the edge which give a lot of shade, so any future planting should take this into account.