The beautiful Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park is currently closed to the public but its teams of skilled gardeners and volunteers are hard at work maintaining and improving the 45 acres of stunning woodland and gardens.

The Himalayan Garden and Sculpture Park near Ripon consists of 45 acres of woodland, gardens, lakes and nearly 100 sculptures making it a spectacular day out for visitors and a labour of love for the dedicated gardening team. Despite winning a plethora of awards since 2018 the garden is working on ambitious plans for further improvement.

The garden’s valley location and fertile soils support an abundance of plant life from the rare blue poppy to the North’s largest collection of rhododendrons, azaleas and magnolias.

Now the gardening team are planning to enhance the visitor experience by establishing later flowering rhododendrons, azaleas and Hydrangeas in areas of the garden that are more accessible and visible adding colour later in the season.

The team will be establishing more Himalayan plants including Giant Himalayan Lilies and varieties that will assist with attracting butterflies.

Other projects include creating a summer display around the Sunrise Lake, creating a Fern Dell and an Acer bank for autumnal colour.

In order to realise their ambitions, the gardeners are recruiting volunteers to assist with a range of duties from helping the visitors with enquiries, attending to first aid situations, helping the hospitality staff and ticket office, giving garden tours, completing wildlife surveys, helping at events, assisting with the annual garden maintenance routine - such as winter clearance, grass cutting, weeding, pruning, path construction and repair, nursery work and for a select few assisting with the National Collections.

For more details about volunteering please contact the Head Gardener – Stephen Ward by email himalayangarden20@yahoo.com