A new community greenhouse and garden has opened in Buile Hill Park with the hope of bringing people together.
A ‘Topping Out’ ceremony took place on 16 April, with organisers coming together to open the greenhouse to the public.
The new Greenhouse and Gardens are situated in what was formerly known as Seedley park before the parks were joined together.
Organiser, Mark Frith, from Growing Togetherness took over the project in 2019. He said: “So, bringing it all back to here in 2019, Start Creative, were pulling out and the council asked me if I’d like to manage this space.
“So, we wrote a business plan and a funding bid based around bringing the community together, using this community garden in a wider capacity.
“Rather than it being holistically for people doing mental health work, it was for the community development, which was affecting everyone at that time, so bringing people together and communicating through horticulture.”
The greenhouse and gardens were created by a number of volunteers who throughout the lockdowns worked together to create a space dedicated to restoring wildlife and nature all while bringing the community together.
Mark said: “It was a fantastic time for us here because a lot of people were out of work that would normally be in work and had free time to get involved in a community garden.
“For me, there was a lot of benefits from the lockdown because it brought a different dynamic and a different demographic of people with free time into the community that could help create the community space that we’ve got now.”
The project has been lucky to gain funding from many organisations such as Salford NHS clinical Commissioning Group, Growing Togetherness and Friends of Buile Hill Park.
Mark said: “So we got the funding late in the summertime last year from Sulfur NHS Clinical Commissioning Group.
“So, we were successful to get a grant of £25,000. We brought some more money in from the growing togetherness CIC and the Friends of Buile Hill Park donated some money into the pot as well, which enabled us to have the big greenhouse as well as the patio outside.
“The next stage is for us to look at raising some more revenue to pay for the extension of pathways either side, and then it’ll be fully wheelchair accessible.
“We can just about get a wheelchair through, but it takes a lot to enable a person in a wheelchair to get there and I think it would be nice for them to be able to independently go around and not have to worry about going into a pothole along the old tarmac that’s there.”
The next step to the project is to make the area fully wheelchair accessible, followed by looking into the problem of flooding which will hopefully be solved by recreating the former fountain.
Mark said: “Bringing the modern-day problem of flooding to the forefront to manage it in a modern way.
“But then looking at how we can bring the history element back in with the fountain to hopefully be in place by the 150th anniversary in 2026 of Seedly Park opening as well.”
The project is constantly looking for new volunteers of all ages to help push the vision of what the greenhouse and gardens could become.
If you would like to help out or just come and see the area, the greenhouse is open: Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 12:00-16:00 and Sunday 8:30-13:00.
For more information click here.
Recent Comments