A MEDICINAL garden is almost ready to be launched at a Berkeley museum.

Volunteers at Dr Jenner’s House, Museum and Garden have been hard at work turning ideas into reality over the last six months and the physic garden is almost ready for use.

An ever-growing team of volunteers has worked on the project from the start, designing and planning the garden, sourcing supplies and plants and building the visitor-focussed garden.

It will be officially launched on Monday, June 6, coinciding with a joint celebration of the work of volunteers at the museum and at the Holst Birthplace Museum in Cheltenham.

The new garden is based on similar physic gardens in London, Oxford and Cowbridge. It is designed around the traditional understanding of the body’s four humours with each bed containing plans believed to heal a different part of the body.

Edward Jenner, the pioneer of vaccination whose life the museum explores, was a keen gardener and this is the first stage in reintroducing plants that he might have used and grown himself in the historic garden.

Funding for the project has been provided by the Arts Council England Museum Resilience Fund and a grant from the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust.

Katharine Majer, the museum’s volunteer and engagement officer, said: “We are halfway through a two year Arts Council England-funded project to make the museum more sustainable and resilient by moving towards a volunteer-led structure. Volunteer support is therefore even more important than ever.

“Since January, our volunteers have given almost 1,000 hours of their time in all areas of the museum: from front of house to the archive, from gardening to social media and from office admin to education.

“It is true that without their support, we simply couldn’t run the museum.”