Students transform overgrown garden into a living museum

A garden which was overgrown and at risk of being built on has been preserved and given a unique new identity - all thanks to five students from Poland.

The landscape gardening students have spent a month in Plymouth helping a group of people interested in the history of healing. The Park Pharmacy Trust have preserved an historic chemists shop and have now created what they call a medicinal garden around it.

It's been a hard slog, but they kept each other going.

The medicinal garden is now full of plants which have been used for their healing powers for centuries.

It's also haven for wildlife, just a mile from the city centre and, as local schoolchildren have discovered, the pond is teeming with tiny amphibians.

Staff at the local school have encouraged the youngsters to take an interest and they didn't need much persuasion.

Modern medicines have overshadowed the healing powers of the plants, but people coming to the space find that they can still work their own magic.

The garden only survived after a High Court battle to stop five houses being built on the site, and it's future is still not completely secure.

It's hoped that a community group will be set up to help keep it going now that the Polish students have gone home.