Residents get growing at Q Gardens

Growing sessions have started up again at Q Gardens for those keen to learn gardening skills and grow their own food

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Growing sessions have started up again at Q Gardens for those keen to learn gardening skills and grow their own food.

After a winter break, the weekly Growing Days have started back up at Q Gardens community growing site on Queens Drive in Kirkholt. Staff from Groundwork will be on site each week to support anyone from the local area who would like to get growing their own food on the site.

Each week you can volunteer as little as one hour or bring some lunch and stay for the whole day. Typical jobs involve weeding and preparing beds for the planting season, planting seeds, making compost, building wood chip paths and helping to plan out the new growing areas.

Jill Hughes, a local resident who volunteers at the site, said: “We have recently started a community group to keep the site going and new members are always made welcome. We have a kitchen on site and offer free refreshments to volunteers.”

Q Gardens is a community food growing site managed by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing in partnership with Rochdale Borough Council and Groundwork. The project has received support from Rochdale Township Fund and NHS Heywood, Middleton and Rochdale Clinical Commissioning Group’s social investment fund.

Jo Fullman, Project Officer at Groundwork, said: “We had a fantastic first year on site, establishing a fruit orchard and a number of growing beds. We’ve got even bigger plans for this years growing season to increase production and get more people involved. Volunteers help out with growing and they share out a harvest each week from what is seasonally available.”

The site is open every Wednesday from 11am – 3pm from March to Wednesday 25 June 2014. The weekly growing sessions have been enabled thanks to the support of local councillors Richard Farnell and Dale Mulgrew who supported a grant of funding from Rochdale Township Fund.

For more information contact Jo Fullman on 07850 310 733 or email joanna.fullman@groundwork.org.uk