Golden hour gardening in Buccleuch Gardens , Richmond was a glorious way to end a summer Sunday, with evening sun bathing the Arcade Rockery as Sam and Anita tidied GoodGym’s sponsored plot.

The first task was clearing plants, mainly Hypericum (aka St John’s Wort) from the brickwork below the Petersham Road using a long arm tool (essentially a very big pair of secateurs atop a very long pole).

We discovered a crack running down the brickwork that had become colonised with tiny Hart’s Tongue ferns and we transplanted about a dozen of these to the far end of the Arcade , hoping to add greenery to an area that has proven determinedly resistant to all our previous attempts at planting.

We finished the session by pruning out all the spent Lamb’s Ears (Stachys) flower heads, weeding out plantains and willow herb as we went. After adding huge bundles of silvery stachys green waste to the compost heap, we left the rockery looking wonderful in the last of the Sunday sunshine.