Community Gardens in Manchester

I've been a pretty hopeless blogger the past few weeks, just too busy. One of the busy-nesses was a long weekend in Manchester going to art galleries, wandering the city and visiting Saddleworth, where my mother's family come from. We also spent a morning going round two community gardens in Hulme, an area which has been 'regenerated' over recent years. The first was Leaf Street Community Garden, a super permaculture garden running between two terraces of low-rise flats. There's more about it here, including films about it being created. It's a remarkable space, the more so for being completely open to the public as it's an old road and people can still walk through.

View showing the flats over-looking the garden.

General view with resident picking herbs.

Probably the largest herb spiral in the world!

A great use for old public footpath signs...

and for an old canoe!

The other community garden was Hulme Community Garden Centre, a very different but equally super place only 10 minutes down the road. It's a community garden with a garden centre in front, or a garden centre with a community garden behind it? I was particularly keen to visit as I'd got a job interview later that week covering some of the sorts of things they were doing.

Garden centre with new flats behind.

Part of the community garden area.

Super containers!

Three different ways of growing potatoes.

Their new green roof. They are going to grow vegetables on the area at the back!

My photos also show that Manchester isn't always rainy...

But I didn't get the job.