I showed you the view I had when entering the Royal Tasmanian Botanical Gardens (RTBG) Thursday week ago; the view without the mountain in attendance. When I arrived last Thursday, it was back – heralding another wonderful day.

As I walked into the Food Garden I spotted Coordinator Adam and a fellow volunteer already hard at work weeding in the orchard; I and other arrivals soon joined them.

By lunch time our collective efforts had stripped the ground of weeds such as dandelion, flick weed, grasses, vetch, clover and more.

In the spirit of some of my recent blog posts about those plants which we would not normally consider as weeds, we removed plants such as strawberries which were infiltrating the green marjoram, extending onto pathways and growing elsewhere – ‘being in the wrong place at the wrong time’ (our definition of a weed).

Our morning’s work was a tale of reinforced camaraderie though a continuing fascination with plants, the soil and the vitality engendered by gardening in general.

A morning tea break, when we all come together, has become a regular institution. Mid-morning the repolished silver teapot was waiting and Adam’s last lot of prepared green tea leaves from 2019 ‘needed’ to be steeped and drunk. He brewed a pot and we savoured the delicate ‘greenness’ of the drink. Refreshing. Clean. Delightful. Then we gathered for a group photo!