From unused car park to Platt Fields' newest green oasis

Join us for digging, weeding, planting and a chat. 
Or just drop in, enjoy some fresh air and say hello.
Every Tuesday between March - October, come rain or shine, 11am-4pm. 
Tea, coffee and biscuits supplied.
We will be back in March 2023

The Platt Hall Garden Project is slowly transforming the grounds around the Hall into a welcoming outdoor space and sheltered community garden. Thanks to a wonderful group of volunteers, what was once an unused and neglected space is becoming a little paradise in the north east corner of Platt Fields Park. 

It's an evolving project, developed through the combined skills, ideas and donations of volunteer gardeners, and our growing understanding of the site and its possibilities. Weekly sessions are open to anyone who lives or works in Rusholme, Fallowfield or Moss Side.

​Spend time with resident gardener Dan, Meg from the Platt Hall team, and a mix of people from the local area. From week to week the jobs will change with the time and the seasons. Total beginners and experienced gardeners are all equally welcome, for as long or as little as you like, as we learn and grow together.

All tools and gloves provided, along with tea, coffee, biscuits and toilet facilities.

​For more information, either come along on a Tuesday and have a chat with Dan and Meg,
​or email Dan at friendsofplattfields@gmail.com.

I have really enjoyed my time working on the garden with other people who have all been so nice and friendly. I have surprised myself by helping to make various items which I would not normally do."

"I've loved seeing how rapidly our work has taken effect and how the garden has changed. I've really liked the co-operative nature of it, getting to know new people. Being in the open air and helping with the garden made me feel more connected with the history of the Hall. Dan is so knowledgeable about plants, I learned a lot from him. And Meg is so friendly and welcoming."

Designing a garden
​for Platt Hall

In January 2021, we teamed up with the Friends of Platt Fields and Manchester Urban Diggers to come up with a plan to develop the unused and neglected spaces around the Hall into a community garden.

Covid lockdown demonstrated the importance of public parks and access to green space for good mental and social health, as Abi Gilmore discusses in Cultural Practices online journal. This is even more important in neighbourhoods such as ours, that include areas of dense housing with little or no garden space. So, with no access to the inside of the building, creating a garden seemed an excellent way to enable people to come together safely in the midst of the pandemic, while also creating a new resource for future use.

The MUD team devised a scheme for a series of themed gardens, inspired by objects from the Platt Hall Collection. This plan provided the starting point for an evolving series of projects also informed by the skills and talents of our local gardeners and growers.

​Here's where we're up to 18 months on.

The Walled Garden

The Walled Garden occupies the space to the side of the Hall that was previously the car park. As the sunniest spot within the enclosed grounds, we decided to tackle this area first. And in 18 short months, the space has been transformed! 

Surrounded by a high brick wall, our inspiration was taken from Georgian walled and kitchen gardens (only later realising that the Hall's original kitchen gardens were actually on the other side of this wall, where the old bowling green now is). Getting the basics in place, we installed a shed, water butt, composting bins and greenhouse and built raised timber beds on each of the parking bays. 

Three ground level beds had previously been planted with low maintenance car park shrubs. Shaded by north-facing walls and a large silver birch tree, we thought these would be poor sites for growing. But we were wrong! They are beautifully sunny. We dug up the shrubs and  these beds have been cultivated with a rich mix of flowering plants. 

Our principle is that all donations are welcome and everything will be found a home. In this way, the garden is a collective effort, built on the knowledge, skills and generosity of the volunteers. It may be a little unorthodox in design terms - we've had potatoes and peas mixed in with petunias and pansies - but it's a joy to watch grow and blossom. And the result is a riot of colours, shapes, textures and scents.

On Mondays, our Sure Start Stay and Play families get messy with paint and water and soil. Tuesdays are busy with watering and weeding, conversations and cake, as the garden team keep things ticking over. And on Thursdays the garden has been used for mindfulness and Qigong exercise sessions as part of our social prescribing programme. 

As I write this in late July, the teasels have grown enormous, there are sprays of purple verbena everywhere, nasturtiums are shouting their colours joyfully to the sky, and the sage is quietly spreading across the corner by the fence while no-one's looking. 

The bees are loving it.

The Lace Garden

This year, we are turning our attention to the front of the Hall, beginning with the Lace Garden. This space occupies a narrow semi-circular bed in front of the East Pavilion at the Wilmslow Road end of the building, and was previously filled with shrubs that had got a little too big for the space.

Taking inspiration from the delicate historic lace collection in the Hall, this area is being replanted with a mix of annual and perennial flowering plants and grasses in subtle variations of white, silver and green. A mix of early spring bulbs, scented summer flowers, grasses and winter seed pods and stems will ensure year-round textures, shapes and structural interest.

The Patchwork Garden

Also inspired by elements of the Platt Collection, this area to the front of the Hall is a work in progress, with new patches of colourful planting being added as the summer progresses. 

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Other spaces

The creative team at MUD went above and beyond with their ideas for the site, and we have plenty more to work on over the coming years. As the plans for the Hall develop, with ideas for a cafe/kitchen at one end of the building and a creative workshop space at the other, so too will these spaces to provide complementary outdoor areas and planting. But we're taking our time, seeing how things progress and incorporating new ideas as we get to know the space better. After all, it's the journey, not the destination, that counts.

Proposed site for the cafe garden facing Wilmslow Road.

Discussing ideas for a workshop shelter along the back of the building.