Meet Claire from SNUG: one of Manchester’s newest and biggest greening projects
When you start out growing your own plants you never know where the journey will take you, and that’s definitely the case for Claire from SNUG! Hear about Claire’s project, the benefits and challenges she’s experienced and how you can get involved…
My name is Claire and I have, entirely by accident, found myself heading up one of the largest Community Greening Projects in Manchester! Two years ago I was looking for a way to get more involved with my local community and meet more of the local residents. I’m not really sure how I ended up here, but here I am heading up SNUG and I’m loving it.
SNUG (Sustainable Northmoor Urban Greening) is a project of Longsight Community Art Space, working with local residents and other community groups to deliver a large scale Improvement to green spaces across the Northmoor area of Longsight, Manchester. We have an ongoing ambition to improve one of the alleyways which has so far seen residents create planters, plant herbs, fruit bushes and strawberries, with plans for a new seating area and more veg and edible planting. We have seen 5 street trees planted and have worked with Stanley Grove school and Bollyfit CIC to tidy up a community garden on the school grounds ready to be used by community groups for growing vegetables and learning gardening skills.
The largest part of the project has been the creation of Crowcroft Park Orchard Garden. Using Forest Garden and permaculture techniques we have engaged the local community to plant a brand new beautiful Orchard Garden on the old abandoned bowling green. With over 1000 hours of volunteer time we have planted 55 Fruit Trees, 6 Berry bushes, 137 Hedgerow whips and 1000s of seeds, herbs, shrubs and perennial bedding plants as well as creating seating areas, a pond, pathways and hugel beds.
The way this project has impacted our local area is huge. Obviously we have seen a significant visible change in the landscape and an enormous increase in biodiversity which is easily evident. Then there are things like climate impact, pollution mitigation, shading, heat absorption, wellbeing benefits, food offering and so on. However, for me the most notable thing has been how people have engaged and want to be involved, just seeing people using the space to have their lunch, read a book, or walk and chat with friends fills my heart with joy!! Its not always easy and I often find myself planting with people who I struggle to communicate with due to language barriers, but this has not deterred people. A fact which is evidenced by a tree planting day in December which attracted 70 volunteers of all backgrounds, cultures and age groups - a day I won’t forget in a hurry!
The challenges of managing a project of this size are real, it is very time consuming and yes I have woken up in the middle of the night thinking about planting, planning, payments and people. Although there are many who are interested and invested in the spaces, it is always difficult to build a committed core who carry the weight of the project with you. Behind the scenes tasks such as admin, fundraising, budgeting and even weeding are never as exciting as planting a tree.
Even with the challenges I am still loving it! So if you are passing through Longsight, jump off the 192 and pop in to have a look. The Orchard is open to the public everyday. If you find me or one of our team in there weeding or doing some other task please feel free to roll up your sleeves and give us a hand!
SNUG is one of several projects supported by In Our Nature. To find out more about the projects we’ve supported and the work we do, head here.
