BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//wp-events-plugin.com//7.4.5//EN TZID:Europe/London X-WR-TIMEZONE:Europe/London BEGIN:VEVENT UID:11771@artinliverpool.com DTSTART;TZID=Europe/London:20260328T130000 DTEND;TZID=Europe/London:20260328T170000 DTSTAMP:20260306T131757Z URL:https://www.artinliverpool.com/events/garden-festival/ SUMMARY:Open Eye Gallery: Garden Festival DESCRIPTION:Saturday 28 March / 1pm – 5pm / Open Eye Gallery\n\nJoin us f or a day of talks and activities celebrating gardens\, growing and nature! We’ll be discussing  right to grow\, composting food waste\, inclusi ve gardening\, seed saving and queer ecology. There will be stalls and tal ks (please book your free talk ticket).\n\n \;\nStalls / 1pm – 4pm / drop in\, no need to book\n \;\n\nCompost Works: Composting in small spaces\nUsing a demonstration wormery composter\, they will be show that y ou don’t need a lot of outdoor space to be able to compost your food was te. You will look into the wormer and see how it works in turning your foo d waste into compost that you can then use for your outdoor and indoor pla nts. You will also be able to discuss the basics of composting and how to look after the worms to make sure they thrive. Books and other information about composting in general will be available\, including other types of compost systems. This is a family-friendly activity\, as you can dig into the wormery to explore the worms (gloves will be provided).\n\n\n \;\n \nRight to Grow campaign\n\n\nDr Barry Green a GP\, community gardener &a mp\; forager presents the Right to Grow. A campaign championed by Incredi ble Edible nationally\, and locally through the Liverpool Food Growers Net work. The campaign focuses on communities looking after their own green sp aces to grow food and biodiverse habitat\, improving green infrastructure\ , reducing food miles and building a new\, healthy food economy.\n\n\n\n&n bsp\;\n\n\n\n\n\nSquash Liverpool: Growing and saving seeds for locally ad apted plants with Jackie Swanson\n\n\n\nSquash Liverpool is a bold and am bitious\, award-winning community organisation\, rooted and home-grown on Windsor Street\, Liverpool 8. Since 2010 they have developed 3 growing spa ces\, a community food hub\, café and shop. In their gardens they grow pl ants for and from local saved seeds and have developed the Toxteth Seed Li brary which holds a large variety of herb\, vegetable and flower seeds. Th eir annual seed saves and shares have grown to attract many growers from o ver the region.\n\n\nCome and learn the art of seed saving and how learnin g theses skills is an act against climate change and the commercial seed i ndustry\, and pick up a packet of seeds!\n\n\n\n \;\n\nGrowing Sudley: Therapeutic Horticulture group\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTherapeutic Horticulture gr oup for adults with stroke and brain injury we’ll display information ab out adaptive and inclusive gardening for disabilities and health condition s.\n\n \;\n\nAndrea Ku: Pennywort Patrol\n\n\nThis stall is centred on the community canoe group who litter pick the Leeds–Liverpool Canal and remove invasive non-native floating pennywort. This plant forms dense mat s that choke waterways\, block light\, reduce oxygen and smother habitat. It’s a classic “bad news” climate-and-disturbance story – until yo u lift it out of the water and change what happens next. The group reframe s pennywort as a problem-to-resource case study: they collect around 10kg each month\, then compost it responsibly (sealed transport\, no fragment e scape) by balancing it with dry “browns” such as cardboard\, straw or woodchip. Because pennywort is soft\, leafy and nitrogen-rich\, it breaks down quickly into dark\, crumbly compost. That compost is then used on the raised beds throughout the year – spring top-dressing\, summer mulching to hold moisture during heatwaves\, autumn soil rebuilding\, and winter p rotection to feed the soil-helping community food growing become more resi lient to hotter\, drier summers and wetter winters.\n\n\n\n\n\nThe message is simple and hopeful: even things with difficult origins can be turned i nto something that supports climate-ready food growing and biodiversity.\n \n \;\n\n\n\n\n\nJay Hampton: Seed library and art activity\n\n\nJay H ampton runs a seed library that gives free seeds to local growers\, teachi ng seed saving and running botanical art workshops. Seed library is focusi ng on heritage seeds which carry their own stories\, cultural practices an d adapt to local growing conditions – making them more resilient to clim ate change. Currently Jay is tracking down lost seed varieties with links to the Liverpool City Region to set up a regional seed hub and get these v arieties back into public hands.\n\n\n\n \;\nTalks / 1.30pm – 4.15 / free\, booking required\n \;\n\n1.30pm – 2pm. Lotus Brook: Gardeni ng for climate change\, biodiversity and community power / RSVP\n\n\nGard ening in public spaces is hugely rewarding but can also be challenging. Co mmunity gardeners in our towns and cities put in countless volunteer hours to help make our streets and parks look cleaner and greener. How do we do this? And why do we do it? This is a case study of public realm sites in South Sefton – exploring the urban landscape\, our challenges and the jo y of street gardening and community collaboration.\n2.15pm – 2.45pm. And rea Ku: Pennywort Case Study / RSVP\n\n\n\nPennywort Patrol is a communit y canoe group who litter pick the Leeds–Liverpool Canal and remove invas ive non-native floating pennywort. This plant forms dense mats that choke waterways\, block light\, reduce oxygen and smother habitat. The group re frames pennywort as a problem-to-resource case study: they collect around 10kg each month\, then compost it responsibly. That compost is then used on the raised beds throughout the year – spring top-dressing\, summer mu lching to hold moisture during heatwaves\, autumn soil rebuilding\, and wi nter protection to feed the soil-helping community food growing become mor e resilient to hotter\, drier summers and wetter winters. The message is s imple and hopeful: even things with difficult origins can be turned into s omething that supports climate-ready food growing and biodiversity.\n3pm – 3.30pm. Earth Moves: Inclusion Through Participation on the Land / RS VP\n\nThis activity reflects on work through hands-on land-based activitie s to foster inclusion\, dialogue\, and shared decision-making in environme ntal projects. At Earth Moves\, participants from a wide range of backgro unds come together to work on the land – gardening\, land care\, creativ e making\, and site development and media projects – designed so that ev ery voice matters\, regardless of experience\, education\, confidence\, or social position.\n\n\nThe environmental sector is often dominated by a si ngle demographic\, which can unintentionally create barriers to participat ion and silence other perspectives. This participatory talk directly addre sses that imbalance by describing how to create welcoming\, non-hierarchi cal spaces where people who are often excluded from environmental convers ations — working-class communities\, disabled people\, neurodivergent pe ople\, LGBTQ+ communities\, and those without formal environmental trainin g — are not only invited in\, but actively centred.\n\nWorking with land breaks down social barriers\, builds trust\, and enables genuine discussi on in ways that formal meetings often cannot. This activity strengthens en vironmental engagement by recognising that everyone has knowledge\, lived experience\, and insight\, and that environmental action is more effectiv e when shaped by diverse voices. The outcome is not only improved well-be ing and connection to land\, but a more democratic\, representative\, and socially just approach to environmental participation.\n\nFor this talk\, Earth Moves will show clips of their environmental films and lead a partic ipatory discussion on unconscious bias\, corporate influence and what peop le nowadays perceive environmentalism to be.\n\n\n3.45pm – 4.15pm.  Me rsey Wilders (Tom Moulsdale &\; Sam Keall): Queer Ecology for Gardener s: Mimicking Ecosystem Processes / RSVP\n\nWhat is Queer Ecology?\nWhat are Ecosystem Processes?\nHow can these processes help us as urban gardene rs?\nHow can queering ecology help us to understand these cycles and work with them to subvert the concrete jungle and garden more effectively?\nHo w do our views about nature affect our gardening practices and community s paces?\nUsing their experiences as queers in the world of ecology and comm unity growing\, Sam and Tom will explore these questions through the queer perspective and share how it can be used as a tool to empower all of us t o reconnect to our habitats and build resilience wherever we grow.\nGarden festival is part of LOOK Climate Lab.\n\n ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://www.artinliverpool.com/wp-content/upload s/2026/03/WEB-1500px-72dpi-Open-Eye-Climate-Lab-2026-JANUARY-2025-©Rob-Ba ttersby-45.jpg CATEGORIES:Events,Exhibitions,Talks,Workshops LOCATION:Open Eye Gallery\, Mann Island\, Liverpool Waterfront\, Liverpool\ , L3 1BP\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom GEO:53.40423;-2.994412 X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=Mann Island\, Liverpool Wat erfront\, Liverpool\, L3 1BP\, Liverpool\, United Kingdom;X-APPLE-RADIUS=1 00;X-TITLE=Open Eye Gallery:geo:53.40423,-2.994412 END:VEVENT BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:Europe/London X-LIC-LOCATION:Europe/London BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20251026T010000 TZOFFSETFROM:+0100 TZOFFSETTO:+0000 TZNAME:GMT END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE END:VCALENDAR