Projects

Corporate Challenges We have a proven track record of working with businesses. We offer bespoke corporate challenges and team building acitivities to suit large or small groups. Challenge days offer an ideal opportunity for staff development, whilst making a difference to the local community. If you or your organisation are interested in getting involved, please contact Jamie Dickinson or Helene Rudlin at the centre. Here are some examples of some of our successful challenges. Creation of a new Companion Plant garden in the community garden. Revamp of plant display stand in nursery area. Building of pond dipping fence. Recylcing projects. Joint projects with local schools and organisations. Fujitsu Companion Plant Garden Hulme Community Garden in Albert Square, Manchester, for Mancheser Confidential. The creation of a Bug Hotel and much more ...!! Green roof and balcony HCGC has partnered Manchester City Council's Green City and South Manchester Regeneration Teams, the BBC, Wildlife Trust and the Red Rose Forest Network to undertake a green roof project at the HCGC site. We are currently building (with our good friends at Outer Space Landscapes) three green roofs on top of the steel containers. They're going to look fantastic and we’ve built a viewing platform (so you can see what it’s all about!) which is also a balcony so we can demonstrate what can be achieved on a balcony garden. It's Manchester's first Green Roof development, utilising sun-pipe technology to be fully open to the public - and it’s currently all being filmed for BBC2's Springwatch program! We'll soon be establishing a living wall to keep it company as well. More than just looking gorgeous we are going to be using the development to educate groups and the public about the environmental, bio-diversity and sustainability benefits that green roofs provide. OUR FIRST NEW GREEN ROOF IS OPEN ! Hulme Community Garden Centre’s Green Roof development is a partnership project between Manchester City Council’s (MCC) Green City Team, Red Rose Forest Network, the BBC and Lancashire Wildlife Trust. Completed in early 2009 this is the first public access green roof in Manchester and will form part of an ongoing green roof project at HCGC. We hope to establish our Centre as a beacon site for green roof development in the North West.   It is generally accepted that sustainable construction is the way forward, and green roofs are a proven method of achieving this. Green roofs make good sense. Each one makes a contribution to the urban environment. The largest help to cleanse the air. Smaller ones provide a source of food and shelter for birds and visual delight for city residents. Many opportunities for creating green roofs exist in cities: tall office blocks; multi-storey car parks; terraces between buildings; housing estate blocks or individual dwellings; bus shelters and, of course, on steel shipping containers! The green roof at HCGC could be replicated anywhere in the City! Green roofs are more than a cosmetic improvement to the built environment: they provide many environmental benefits: Reduction of Urban Heat Island – Research suggests we need a 10% increase in green space in our cities to combat climate change. This is particularly relevant to the reduction of the Urban Heat Island [UHIE]. Green roofs are recognized to have a positive effect on reducing the UHIE Biodiversity - Green roofs can provide important refuges for wildlife in urban areas. Rare invertebrate populations and ground nesting birds such as Sklylarks, Terns and Lapwings are benefited and as this roof is planted with wildflowers we also encourage the bee population. Water - Green roofs can significantly reduce the surface run off volumes and rates of rainfall leaving roofs. As a source control mechanism in the Sustainable Urban Drainage System green roofs can help reduce flash floods as a consequence of intense rainfall events. This will become increasingly important as a consequence of climate change. Green roofs also improve the quality of water and although the amount of water is reduced it is possible to rainfall harvest from roofs that have been greened. Thermal Performance - Green roofs cannot be given a ‘U-value’ at present. However they have been shown to significantly reduce the need for air conditioning in summer and can provide a degree of insulation in winter. They are also an effective means of soundproofing and protect the roof surface from ultra-violet radiation and mechanical damage Protection of Waterproofing - Green roofs have now been shown to double if not triple the life of waterproofing membranes beneath the green roof. Air Quality – airborne particles and pollutants are filtered from the atmosphere by the substrates and vegetation on a green roof. Amenity Space – in dense urban environments there is often a lack of green space for residents. Roof Gardens and roof top parks provide important green spaces to improve the quality of life for urban residents. Here at HCGC we are also passionate about local food and our green roof, in spite of the depth of the growing medium, we can grow fruit and vegetables! There are also the psychological benefits of being able to see greenery within the City and the fact that a green roof blends in with surroundings, can provide a garden for the inhabitants of buildings, they mask ugly rooftops and complement building forms. Financial – green roofs have lower maintenance costs for roofing materials and may help to win approval for planning permission Roofs in general present by far the most significant opportunities for the greening of buildings. Many cities have millions of square metres of unused and unattractive roofs. They represent enormous wasted opportunities for improving the quality of city life. Here at HCGC we hope to demonstrate how green roofs can be replicated throughout the City. The project has been developed with Outer Space Landscapes, who previously built the green roofs at Unicorn Grocery in Chorlton and the MERCi building in Ancoats.

Bugghingham Palace ... Bug Hotel constructed by Deloitte ... Bug Hotel detail ... Goodbye to our old compost toilets ... and hello to our new ones - more details soon!

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Woods, and the trees that make up a vital component of them, are essential to life. They have a myriad of different benefits for both wildlife and people.

They stabilise the soil, generate oxygen, store carbon, play host to a spectacular variety of wildlife, provide us with raw materials and shelter, inspire our imaginations and our creativity.

The almost magical, mystical quality of woods makes them a great place for relaxation and recreation. A walk in the woods can give anyone a feeling of peace and tranquillity. Most of us have fond childhood memories of playing on or around trees. Humans have had a relationship with woods ever since the time of Neolithic man around 4000BC. This is when the first forests were first cleared for agriculture and later other woodland areas were harvested for wood through coppicing and pollarding or used as wood pasture to graze livestock, and sometimes as shelter.

Today, woods still provide people with places for quiet reflection and relaxation and help improve the health of our body and minds. As trees grow they absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it away for decades or even centuries. Planting new native woods in the UK increases the size of the carbon “sink”, helping to mitigate the effects of some of our greenhouse gas emissions.

Our woodland is covered with bluebells in the spring and have been naturalised under the trees. Hedgehogs sleep under the pile of branches on your left and often come out to say hello! More than 1000 British species of invertebrates depend on dead wood for survival and about a dozen species of our birds need it for nesting as well as some bats for roosting. Many fungi also need dead wood to grow.

You can do something to encourage invertebrates and fungi by maintaining a rotting log pile in your garden where you will find woodwasps, beetles, centipedes and millipedes. If you are lucky you may see hibernating newts, baby frogs and toads. Don’t forget the leaves that have accumulated. A pile left in a corner of your garden will provide a haven for hedgehogs. 

Why not build a Bug Hotel as we did, for the many insects in our garden to hibernate through the winter, like spiders and ladybirds. Insects pass through the winter in every stage of their lives: some kinds as eggs, some as larvae, some as pupae, some as nymphs, some as adults. But the snuggest bug is in a rug! Squirrels also are very much part of our life here and they build their nests which are called “dreys” which are made of twigs and leaves.  The interior is lined with fur,  feathers or other soft material for comfort. There are normally two exits in this type of nest,  and they’re built high in a tree between two strong branches. If you see one of our squirrels flapping its tail at you, this means ‘go away!’.



In 2004, Hulme Community Garden Centre
entered the Tatton RHS Show
and won a Bronze Medal !

We proposed an urban garden, a sitting area and raised beds bursting with vegetables, flowers and herbs along with a composting facility and a stepping stone patio planted with sented compact herbs like camomile and thyme. We’ve since added a Bug Hotel.

The project was in partnership with Fairfield Materials Management. In the higher bed you can find a Family apple tree. This tree has three different, compatible varieties grafted onto one tree, and is therefore ideal for a small garden where space is at a premium.  Next to it we planted Jerusalem Artichokes, which we dig up every year and replant selected tubers for the following year crop.  Opposite is the herb patch with a bay leaf, sage and wild garlic.

The other raised beds are planted with tomatoes, sweetcorn, nasturtium, marigolds, chives, strawberries, salads, onions and every year we grow something different. We use companion planting system to attract predator insects. Companion planting is a method of planting different plants together so one plant can improve the growth of another. Some plants produce scents or chemicals to protect themselves from pests, these can be useful if placed next to a plant that cannot defend itself from a pest attracted by it’s own scent. Marigolds are also very good at attracting Hoverflys, and Hoverfly Larvae like to eat Aphids, in fact your average Hoverfly Larvae will eat around 800 Aphids before it pupates. Ladybirds are also very good at eating Aphids so attract them with plants like Dill and Fennel.