Volunteers needed to help revitalise one of the best-loved areas of the Festival Gardens

Volunteers are needed to help revitalise one of the best-loved, and most photographed, areas of Liverpool’s waterfront Festival Gardens.

Friends of Festival Gardens have spent the past 15 months meeting regularly on Sunday mornings to restore pathways, add planting and bring the site back to life.

Now they’re ready to tackle the Japanese Garden, well known for its two distinctive features – an Azumaya, the pagoda overlooking the lake, and a fiery red Japanese maple tree.

This Sunday (Oct 27), between 10.30am and 12.30pm, the group will be getting together to give the garden a major overhaul before winter and it’s looking for as many willing helpers to join in as possible.

Kate Parry, one of the founders of Friends of Festival Gardens, says the weather over the past few months has left the Japanese Garden overgrown and in need of some urgent TLC.

She said:

“We’ve been doing lots of things around the Japanese Garden and we’ve been gradually adding to the flower borders, but now we really want to concentrate on getting rid of all the invasive planting,”

“We did start removing things last year and we’ve managed to keep the main paths clear, but because we’ve had such a wet season lots of extra growth has come up so it really needs a big effort to get rid of that.

“There’s lots and lots of ivy, brambles and the carex pendula which is one of the worst – it looks nice, but the seeds go everywhere and it’s taken over so we want to strip that back, tidy it up, and find the old pathways.

“We’ll also be doing some planting of spring bulbs as well as the weeding and digging because this is the perfect time of year when the soil is still warm and there’s much longer for the roots to establish.”

Kate says the Japanese Garden was laid out to an authentic design and, although it was first created over 40 years ago for the International Garden Festival, much of that has survived.

“It has changed slightly from the original 1984 layout but in 2011 when it was restored, they did bring in a delegation of Japanese consultants to advise so a lot of the planting was listed as being particular to a Japanese garden.

“There were originally lanterns and some stone features which unfortunately aren’t there anymore, but the actual structure is still there including boulders which were carefully placed according to Japanese theories.”

The pagoda, now painted a vivid pillar box red, and the equally striking red acer are two of those features which remain.

Kate says the Japanese maple tree is especially popular with visitors who love watching its colours change through the seasons.

“That is looking spectacular at the moment so it tends to be what gets photographed most. There are other acers in the gardens that are yellowy-green, silver and golden, but this one is in a prominent position and such a beautiful colour so it’s the show-off!”

Since volunteers began their work, the Festival Gardens has seen a huge improvement which they regularly get compliments on. Kate is keen to stress that although development plans for the site are ongoing, this part won’t be affected.

“We often get people thanking us and saying how much better it looks, especially now the paths are cleared, but some also say, ‘oh it’s a shame it’s going to be built on’ but it isn’t, it’s still going to stay as it is.”

The next volunteering session on Sunday is open to everyone, just turn up in appropriate clothes for gardening and everything else – including heavy duty gloves and tools – will be provided. The group is meeting from 10.30am at the Japanese Garden which is through the main entrance on Riverside Drive, turn right and a path leads you there. 

Find out more information about Festival Gardens here.

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