News from the gardens & grounds

There has been a lot of wonderful work being undertaken in our gardens and grounds thanks to the support of so many. Some highlights include:

• Over 450 new plants now call Mercator Grounds home, providing the finishing touches to the Keep it Green: New Ground project.
• The rejuvenation of the central Convent Courtyard and Fernery garden bed area is underway, thanks to everyone who supported the previous summer’s Keep it Green: Urban Sanctuary appeal, including our friends at John Wardle Architects.
• The 300+ solar panels that sit atop Rosina Auditorium, Function Space and Mercator rooftops received a specialist clean late last year, just in time for the sunny season; and the Convent’s water harvesting system, supported by our donor community and funding partners through 2017’s Keep it Green: The Water Story project, has been cutting costs and supporting garden health and the environment.
• Important remediation and irrigation works on the beautiful and historically significant Holm Oak in the Convent’s grounds have been made possible with the generous support of proud Convent donors, Paul & Jennifer Whitten through Arbortryst, and Samuel Lucas of Lucas Tree Services.
• We also celebrated the 10 year anniversary of the Mercator building restoration with the planting of a new Australian Blackwood tree in the Mercator Lawn. This tree was a generously donated by Cone 11.