New community garden at Deeplish Community Centre

The new Deeplish Community Centre garden

A new community garden featuring luscious plants and vegetables opened at Deeplish Community Centre on Thursday (24 August).

Deeplish Community Centre volunteers have been working closely with community members and children and young people from the neighbourhood in designing, developing and improving the community garden.

The garden features seasonal vegetables suitable for the UK climate, and the children enjoyed making flower pots and planters as well as learning about climate change.

Sohail Ahmad, Deeplish Community Centre’s operations manager, said: “We are improving our neighbourhod and are inspired by the ‘love where you live’ campaign.

“We hope to continue expanding, deciding our approach and working to make our neighbourhood clean, green and environmentally friendly.”

Arshad Mahmood, one of the trustees, said: “We have already started growing vegetables in our garden and a healthy cooking campaign.

“Our children, young people and senior citizens are partaking in gardening activities at the centre. “We hope to expand this further and connect with community members to improve further.”

Chair of trustees, Mohammed Saleem added: “We are proud to see such vibrant gardening activities and educational programmes at the centre. We hope to take it to the next level in the coming months.”

The community garden has been created with help from Rochdale Borough Council’s Environmental Management team and the Greater Manchester Environmental Fund.