On Wednesday 27 March, volunteers from the community came together to give the Peel Park flower beds some attention.

Volunteers from across the community, the University of Salford Wildlife Society, Friends of Peel Park, Ordsall Hall came together with the Salford City Council grounds maintenance team to plant new flowers in the gaps in the flower beds.

Urban Vision, who are in partnership with Salford City Council and Capita, were appointed as designers for the park when Salford secured Heritage Lottery Funding.

Alice Murphy, a landscape architect with Urban Vision, said: “I helped design the outer beds here based on a cottage garden style.”

Alice added: “It’s great to see so many volunteers and all of the grounds maintenance team digging in together to help make the beds as beautiful as they are.”

Peel Park is said to be possibly the world’s first Public Park that was “free and open to all”.

Combined with the Crescent Meadow it is the biggest area of open space in central Manchester and Salford.

Over 1000 plants were delivered to Peel Park ready to be planted in the beds.

Alice said: “Instead of getting the contractor to plant them, we wanted to get volunteers involved and get more people out in the park and hopefully give that sense of ownership.

“They’re big beds so they’re going to take a bit of maintenance, so hopefully we’ll get a gardening club going to look after them.”

Sarah Gartland, who brought her two-and-a-half year old to help, said: “I thought I’d bring her down today to get involved and get her into planting flowers.

“I want her to get into conservation when she grows and I think she’s enjoying it!”

Laura Clavin, chair of the university’s Wildlife Society, said: “We’re here today to help out, we work closely with Salford Rangers on volunteer opportunities.

“We are here to put the plants back which help the wildlife and regenerate all of the little bugs”

Laura added: “It’s great for your mental wellbeing, so with the stress of exams it’s really good.”

Jessica Britch, Peel Park ranger, said: “This is the first gardening club session of the year, there will be a lot more of them because one of the big things we have to do is weed the beds, to keep them looking nice

“We’ve had a good turn out today so it’s nice”

The Rangers host ‘task days’ once a month in parks across Salford and are planning to host more volunteer days as the weather gets warmer.

To get involved with volunteer work at other parks across Salford keep an eye on the Salford Ranger’s Facebook and Twitter pages. 

Take a look at the map below to see some of the parks in Salford where the rangers host volunteering events.

All image credit: Chloe Deakin

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