Category: News

Thank you to everyone who volunteered in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during October.  There were eleven of us who litter picked in Potters Barn, and seven at each of our three garden maintenance sessions in Crescent and Marine Gardens.  At our Wednesday session we were also joined by a team of five from Graitec UK who gave us a volunteer afternoon and helped us to continue weeding and edging the crazy paving in Marine Garden – see the before and after photos below – one more session and we should have it finished!

We will be holding our 7th Annual General Meeting of Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens Charity on Thursday, 13 November 2025, commencing 7.30pm at The Victoria, 27 Bath Street, Waterloo, L22 5PS.

Our volunteer sessions during November will take place on:

Saturday 8th November – 10.30am – Litter Picking in Marine Garden

Tuesday 11th November – 10.00am – Garden Maintenance in Marine Garden

Sunday 16th November – 2.00pm – Garden Maintenance in Beach Lawn

Wednesday 26th November – 1.00pm – Garden Maintenance in Crescent Garden

All equipment will be provided, as well as hot drinks and chocolate flavoured (!) biscuits.

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

September has been another busy month for the Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens, although sadly for the first time in 10 years we had to cancel our Autumn Fete.  We’d been keeping a close eye on the weather forecast all week and decided on Friday evening that we couldn’t risk having gazebos/marquees up in the predicted gusty winds for Saturday afternoon.   I think we were all slightly relieved when heavy periods of rain and wind did arrive!!

We were joined by corporate volunteers from the Home Office and BDO (an audit and accounting firm) at 3 garden maintenance sessions, when they worked in Marine Garden on the steps and crazy paving area – they’ve done a fantastic job and some areas of the paving have seen the light of day for the first time in many years! We have included some before and after photos below.  There is still a section to be cleared, so we will tackle that at our October sessions.

At our Sunday maintenance session 8 of our regular volunteers worked in Adelaide Garden, weeding the central round bed and finishing the edging and clearing of the top path.  It’s taken us nearly a year to make our way around the whole of the pathway around Adelaide – our version of the Forth Railway Bridge!

Our volunteer sessions during October will take place on:

Saturday 11th – 10.30am Litter Picking in Potters Barn
Tuesday 14th – 10.00am working on the crazy paving in Marine Garden
Sunday 19th – 2.00pm working on the central bed in Crescent Garden and
Wednesday 22nd – 1.00pm working on the crazy paving in Marine Garden

All equipment will be provided, as well as refreshments at the end of each session.

Hoping to see you in the gardens in October.

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to everyone who came along to volunteer in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during August.  We had 14 at our three garden maintenance sessions and 19 at a very windy litter pick in the children’s play park!

A first for us this month was to be offered the chance, by the Merseyside Civic Society, to have a raised bed display at the Southport Flower Show.  We were sponsored by Magill’s Nursery and didn’t really know what to expect but were pleased with the result – and have lots of ideas now for next year!

Our big event of the year – our Autumn Fete – is due to take place on Saturday 13th September between 12.00 and 4.00pm.  We will have our own plant, book and refreshment stalls and coconut shy, as well as community stalls, children’s activities, bouncy castles and live music from the Happy Tuesdays, a local ukulele group who meet weekly at the Victoria Hotel.

If you’re able to come along and help us set up and take down, or to volunteer at one of our stalls please let us know.

Our volunteer sessions this month will take place on:

Tuesday 9th September at 10.00am in Marine Garden
Saturday 13th September – from 9.30am in Marine Garden
Sunday 21st September at 2.00pm in Adelaide Garden and
Wednesday 24th September at 1.00pm in Adelaide Garden

Looking forward to seeing you during September,

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to everyone who joined us in volunteering in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during July.

There were twelve at our Saturday session when we litter picked and weeded in Adelaide Garden.  Earlier in the year we had replanted the central round bed with some large shrubs and perennials that had been donated to the group, and they are starting to become well established now.

Our gardening sessions were busy in July, with corporate volunteers joining us from the Animal and Plant Health Agency, and Crown Commercial Services at our Tuesday and Wednesday sessions, in addition to 10 and 11 members of our own group.  We continued to work on edging the grass borders of the central area of Crescent Garden and weeding the surrounding pathways.  At our Sunday session we had 7 volunteers and continued to edge the borders of the “top” pathway in Adelaide Garden.

Our litter picking and garden maintenance sessions during August will take place on :

Saturday 9th meeting at 10.30am in the Children’s Play Park
Tuesday 12th meeting at 10.00am in Adelaide Garden
Sunday 17th meeting at 2.00pm in Adelaide Garden and
Wednesday 27th meeting at 1.00pm in Adelaide Garden.

All equipment and refreshments will be provided.  Please come along and join us – every little helps and you don’t need to be a skilled gardener!

This year FoWSG have been invited to have a raised bed display at the Southport Flower Show (14th – 17th August) which we will be setting up with plants donated by our friends at Magills Nursery.

Our Autumn Festival in Marine Garden is taking place on Saturday 13th September.  If you are able to help us in any way (setting up, taking down, raffle prizes, manning a stall etc) please let us know.

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to everyone who came along to volunteer in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens in June.

At our Saturday session we had twelve volunteers and we litter picked Crescent Garden, spreading out also into Marine and Adelaide Gardens.  At our Tuesday garden maintenance session we had seven volunteers who continued to weed and mulch the raised bed in Crescent Garden.  We put another five bags of bark on the bed and we hope that this will help keep those weeds at bay.  At our Sunday session six volunteers worked in Adelaide Garden edging more of the footpaths.

At our Wednesday session we were joined by a team from Crown Commercial Services who kindly gave us one of their corporate volunteer days, giving us a total of twelve volunteers for the day. We worked on redefining some of the grass beds in the centre of Crescent Garden.

Our volunteer sessions in July will take place on:

Tuesday 8th July, meeting in Crescent Garden at 10.00am
Saturday 12th July, meeting in Adelaide Garden at 10.30am
Sunday 20th July, meeting in Adelaide Garden at 2.00pm and
Wednesday 23th July, meeting in Crescent Garden at 1.00pm

All equipment will be provided, as well as refreshments!

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to everyone who came along to volunteer in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during May.

At our Saturday session, eleven of us litter picked and weeded the rockery in Marine Garden.  At our three garden maintenance sessions we had 8 volunteers who continued to weed and mulch the raised bed in Crescent Garden, 9 volunteers who worked in Adelaide Garden, weeding the central bed and flower beds on either side of the steps, and 10 volunteers who edged more of the footpaths in Adelaide.

We had a successful Book Sale at the beginning of the month, when we raised nearly £300.  We have used some of this to buy bags of bark mulch for the raised bed in Crescent Garden.

Our volunteer sessions in June will take place on:

Tuesday 10th June, meeting in Crescent Garden at 10.00am
Saturday 14th June, meeting in Crescent Garden at 10.30am
Sunday 15th June, meeting in Adelaide Garden at 2.00pm and
Wednesday 25th June, meeting in Crescent Garden at 1.00pm

All equipment will be provided, as well as refreshments!

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to all who have volunteered in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during April.

We’ve had another busy month, with 13 joining us for Litter Picking in the Children’s Play Park and surrounding area, 7 at both of our weekday garden maintenance sessions, and 11 at our Sunday session.

We have continued to edge around the pathway and benches in Adelaide Garden, and to clear the steps in Crescent Garden.  We also weeded and mulched with bark the centre of the raised bed in Crescent – before the very prickly Rosa Rugosa grow back after pruning!  We’ll continue to work on the rest of the bed this month.

We had a successful book sale yesterday (3^rd May), when we raised £250 and plan to have another one (weather permitting) on Saturday 7th June.  We’re trying to reduce the number of books we have in our storage room, but would be grateful for any donations of children’s books.

Our volunteer sessions in May will take place on the following days:

Saturday 10th May – Litter Picking at 10.30am in Marine Garden
Tuesday 13th May – Garden Maintenance at 10.00am in Crescent Garden
Sunday 18th May – Garden Maintenance at 2.00pm in Adelaide Garden and
Wednesday 28th May – Garden Maintenance at 1.00pm in Adelaide Garden

Best wishes,

Janet Markland
Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to everyone who has volunteered in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during March.

At our Saturday litter pick in Potter’s Barn there were eleven volunteers, who cleared litter from inside the garden, and alongside the railings and pavements and we also tidied up the raised bed and some of the grass borders.

At our Tuesday garden maintenance session, five of us continued to work on the path edges in Adelaide and at our Sunday session we had a magnificent sixteen, with some of us working on tidying the raised bed in Crescent Garden (pruning the very prickly Rosa Rugosa), and others planting up the central bed in Adelaide Garden.

At our Wednesday session eleven of us were also joined for the day by volunteers from Crown Commercial Services, who returned for their third year to work on edging and tidying the central area in Crescent Garden.

Our volunteer sessions during April will take place on the following dates:

Tuesday 8th – Garden Maintenance meeting at 10.00am in Adelaide Garden
Saturday 12th – Litter Picking meeting at 10.30am in the Children’s Play Park
Sunday 27th – Garden Maintenance meeting at 2.00pm in Crescent Garden*
Wednesday 23rd – Garden Maintenance meeting at 1.00pm in Adelaide Garden

*Easter Sunday session cancelled and moved to following Sunday

All equipment, and refreshments will be provided.

Please come along and join us – you don’t need to be an expert gardener!!

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens

Thank you to everyone who came along to volunteer in the Waterloo Seafront Gardens during February.

Our pond work session in Beach Lawn was well attended, with 14 joining us on both Saturday and Sunday.  We removed some more of the old reeds, cleared the new growth that has appeared over the last year and edged the grass growing around the edges of the whole pond.  We also made sure to leave alone the oxygenating plants, lilies and iris, and some of the mat that dragonflies etc. will use for breeding.  We also removed a fair quantity of bricks and other debris!

We had 12 at our litter pick in Beach Lawn, and 6 at our Wednesday garden maintenance session.

At our Tuesday session we were joined by pupils from three local schools, who did fantastic work (and worm rescuing!) helping us to continue with the edging of the paths in Adelaide Garden.  We’re nearly half way along the “top” path now, and hopefully will have finished ALL the edges in Adelaide by the end of April.  Fingers Crossed!

Our volunteers sessions during March will take place on:

Saturday 8th – Litter Picking in Potter’s Barn at 10.30am
Tuesday 11th – Garden Maintenance in Adelaide Garden at 10.00am
Sunday 16th – Garden Maintenance in Crescent Garden at 2.00pm and
Wednesday 26th – Garden Maintenance Adelaide Garden at 1.00pm.

All Equipment will be provided, as well as hot drinks and chocolate biscuits!

Looking forward to seeing you in the Gardens,

Best wishes,

Janet Markland

Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens