Sakura, Students, and Fourteen Bags: March 2026 at the Japanese Garden of Peace

The 2026 season opened at the Japanese Garden of Peace with thirteen Friends gathered under cherry blossom that could not have timed itself better. Most of the team were newcomers, which is always a good sign for the year ahead, and we were joined by a lively group of students from a Japanese school near Slough whose enthusiasm lifted the whole morning. The weather did what March weather tends to do — grey one moment, bright the next — but the sakura was at its peak, and working beneath petals drifting down onto the grass made even the fiddliest jobs feel like the right way to spend a Sunday. By the end of the session, fourteen ton bags of green waste were lined up for collection: more than one per volunteer, and a proper statement for a first outing.

Streams and ponds | Early carex removal and litter picking

Carex is our annual tax, and the rate goes up the longer you leave it. In March the clumps are still small and the roots haven't set properly, so a well-judged hour or two now saves days of work in July. We moved steadily along both stream banks and around the pond margins, lifting young growth before it could settle in. We also tackled a handful of older, well-established clumps that had started pushing into neighbouring planting — those needed more persuasion, but they came out in the end. Running alongside the carex work, a rolling litter pick along the water courses cleared the winter's accumulation of drifting rubbish. It's not glamorous, but it's the single quickest way to make the garden read as cared for rather than forgotten.

Bamboo | Thinning and reshaping

The bamboo work this month was maintenance rather than transformation. Friends thinned selected canes in the taller groves, opening up light and keeping the groupings from turning into solid walls, and reshaped the low bamboo hedging that had lost its clean line over the winter. Nothing dramatic — just the kind of steady, repeated attention that keeps the cloud-pruned silhouettes reading properly and the groves looking intentional. If April and May are where the heavy bamboo battles tend to happen, March is where we make sure the baseline is in good order.

Main gate | The start of a sustained effort

The main gate is where visitors form their first impression of the garden, and it had been telling the wrong story. The beds flanking the gateway were thick with leaf litter, encroaching ivy, and self-seeded weeds from the quiet months, and the planting around the stone lantern needed real attention rather than a quick tidy. We made a firm start — clearing the worst of the build-up, opening up sight lines, and beginning to restore the shape of the beds — but this is a multi-session project rather than a one-day job. Expect the gate area to feature in reports through April and well beyond, as we work our way back to the standard it deserves.

Beds | Clearing invasive species

Bramble had taken advantage of winter to push into several beds across the garden, and a handful of other opportunists had done the same. Catching bramble at this stage, before the runners have had time to root properly, is the difference between a satisfying afternoon's work and a summer-long battle. We worked through the affected beds systematically, pulling and cutting, and left them looking like themselves again.

Thanks | A generous start for the Japanese Garden of Peace

Heartfelt thanks to every one of the thirteen Friends who turned out for the first session of the year, and in particular to the visiting students whose energy and good humour gave the day a character all of its own. A first session always sets a tone, and this one set a generous one. The sakura did its part too — fourteen ton bags of green waste, most of them gathered under drifting white petals, is not a bad way to start 2026.