A Welcoming Place
The Pergola
Opened officially in 2005, the pergola is the result of a joint venture with Dundee City Council's Leisure & Communities department to provide an outdoor meeting and activities area. Planters made and planted up by the Friends around the pergola have brightened up this area and helped to provide a fine stage for the Summer Band Concerts.
The Geddes Glasshouse
In 2006, Dundee Contemporary Arts donated a large glasshouse to the Friends which had previously formed part of an artwork by Slovenian artist Apolonija Šušteršič. Again, the Friends and Council worked together to erect the Glasshouse in the Garden.
The Woodland Area
With the assistance of members of the local community, the Snowdrop Wood was revamped, winning the Friends a Neighbourhood Award Certificate of Outstanding Achievement from Beautiful Scotland in 2008.
The Scree Bed
Attention was then turned to improving the Scree Bed during the course of which large expanses of natural volcanic rock were exposed. The planting area was refilled with a mixture of sterilised loam, Edzell stone gravel, Discovery compost and a well-rotted leaf mould supplied by the Council and mixed on site by the Friends working with the resident gardener, Michael Laird. Flat “stepping stones” were laid on top before the planting began. Suitable plants were provided and planted by the Friends following which a top gravel dressing was laid. To finish off the project a dwarf pine was planted at the opening of the Garden’s Gala Day at the end of July 2009.
This project has earned the Friends an Outstanding Achievement Award under the Beautiful Scotland’s Neighbourhood Awards Scheme in 2009. Work has already begun to carry out a similar project on the upper end of this bed.
