Rochdale growers enjoy a day in the sun

Falinge growers behind coke oven

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A Rochdale gardening group has recently attended a trip to Offshoots Permaculture Project based in Burnley. The group went along on the day to learn new skills and ways of doing things to bring back to their gardening space in Falinge.

The group were given a tour of the site, trying and tasting edible produce growing in the garden and asked questions to take back to their site in Falinge. The group were also given a presentation on a project being run at the Offshoots site named “Bee’s in the Borough”, and completed activities in the garden sowing seeds and planting up tomato and basil tubs to be taken home.

Falinge resident and Offshoots visitor, Adnen Saoud, commented: "We enjoyed the trip to Offshoots very much and learned a lot more about growing fruit and vegetables. Phil the instructor was very kind and explained the small and big things to us and not forgetting the brilliant weather.

"Now we have visited Offshoots we are working very hard to try to recreate what they have there!"

Permaculture is a method of working various plant groups together to maximise its produce or to use every inch of growing space to its best capacity. For example, this could be using a method of companion planting such as planting marigolds around young vegetable shoots; this will deter aphids as they do not like the smell.

The trip came about as part of the 'myurbangreen' campaign from Marks & Spencer and Groundwork, which aims to reconnect urban communities with their environment. The programme is the latest development in a relationship that has seen a network of new or improved green spaces develop at the heart of communities all over the country, including the Melrose Natural Play Area in Lower Falinge.

The Lower Falinge Gardening Club has been running for the last two years and is funded by Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) and Rochdale Council.

Residents meet every Tuesday morning with the aim of growing their own fresh herbs, fruit and vegetables that can be taken home and used in cooking. Activities that the group are currently working on include general weeding and watering the beds to encourage the growth of vegetables and picking out young shoots and planting them into spaces outside the greenhouse.

Gemma Russell, Community Project Officer for Groundwork, added: “We had a great day out at Offshoots, the group members came away with some new ideas and were inspired by what they had seen, now to take them back to our garden space and continue to maximise crops!”