Residents of Granby Street in Toxteth have a long tradition of using creative gardening to bring a near-derelict neighbourhood back from the brink.
The recently-opened Granby Winter Garden was created by the Granby Four Streets Community Land Trust and the architects Assemble from the shells of two damaged terraced houses.
Yet the indoor wonderland is not the only hidden green oasis in Granby.
Beyond the Winter Garden's back gate lies an alleyway running between Cairns Street and Beaconsfield Street.
Once a rubbish dump plagued with rats, a couple of green-fingered local residents have transformed it into "Our Pally-Alley" filled with dozens of pots of flowers, fruit and vegetable plants.
Elizabeth Robinson-Ramos, 65 and Paul Ramos, 54 are a married couple who spend hours every day tending to the spectacular secret garden.
Elizabeth, a retired civil servant, told the ECHO how the idea literally spilled out of her and Paul's own back yard.
"I had so many plants I didn't know what to do with them. I was giving them away," she said.
"One day we looked out the back and thought here would be a lovely place for more plants, instead of this rubbish."
Paul said: "Stuff was dumped in the alley and we wanted to bring the plants out so we had a chat with our neighbours about getting some of the rubbish removed and it just started from there. People help out now too, and we even have a little children's garden as well."
The labour of love to transform the alleyway has been two years in the making and Elizabeth describes it as "a constant work in progress".
She said: "Sometimes I can be out pottering here all night until 11 o'clock just caring for the plants.
"I can be out here in winter with my raincoat on watering the plants, because the water doesn't always filter through."
Elizabeth, who has been gardening since 1972, is originally from London but moved to Liverpool with her job. She said: "One day I came out of work and saw the River Mersey glistening and thought 'that's it, I'm sold' so this city is my home now."
Neighbours have joined in and the couple also have support from the Blooming Green Triangle, a group formed by local residents whose own planting along Granby Street sowed the early seeds of its transformation.
The group has provided funding for soil and installed a tap to save the couple making the arduous journey up and down the alleyway - which spans the entire length of the terraced street - with buckets of water each day.
Elizabeth said: "It's really become a community affair. Some of the neighbours' kids have helped me plant potatoes and tomatoes and they are delighted when they see them coming out of the ground.
"You get to know people who live on the street that perhaps otherwise you wouldn't. It's lovely."
Supporters have donated plants and stands, while Paul has recycled discarded items such as an old cot, which he turned into two plant frames.
Granby Market, which is held on the first Saturday of every month, also donated a child's car seat that was not sold, and which has now been repurposed as a quirky plant-holder for the "Children's Corner".
Paul and Elizabeth were among the first to move into the renovated houses in Beaconsfield Street and have since harnessed their love of gardening to help make it their home.
One of Elizabeth's neighbours recently nominated her for a Good Neighbour award for all the hard work she has put in to creating the impressive secret garden.
For Elizabeth and Paul "Our Pally-Alley" is a reward in itself and a labour of love.
Elizabeth said: "For me gardening is therapy. It makes me happy looking after the plants, and my husband Paul really enjoys it too.
"When I come out and potter it just lifts my spirit and I feel better."
