Urban gardening – get inspired!

Today’s post is quite photo-heavy as I took a stroll around Manchester city centre at the weekend and caught a few of the activities that are going on as part of Dig the City – Manchester’s urban gardening festival.

Dig the City is running 3-11 August and is a celebration of urban gardening – a subject I’m becoming increasingly interested in. It couldn’t be timelier for me as I’m currently seeking inspiration for my own balcony garden (at the moment it consists of two pots – but hopefully this is soon to change). It’s great that they’re raising awareness of issues such as the lack of green spaces in urban areas, and the disappearance of bees. But most of all I was grateful for all the ideas I got whilst walking around the city. I think I’ll get a lot of pleasure out of growing things, and just because I live in the city, why should this stop me? Turns out – there’s no reason at all!

I think it’s a fantastic initiative, and if you check out the website you’ll find details of everything that’s going on – plenty of people and companies are getting involved. There’s apparently a series of inspirational gardening talks, and also loads of activities for children. On my wander I visited the market on King Street as well as the inspiring show gardens and fantastical giant balloon sculptures around New Cathedral Street. Plus, if you saw my previous post I also visited the Manchester Picnic in Piccadilly, which was apparently garden party themed to support the festival.