Birchfields Forest Garden

Summary Birchfields Park Forest Garden is a project that has been long in the making, having been originally envisaged by members of Birchfields Green Action Group and Friends of Birchfields Park, and set into motion after several years, with the support of Manchester Leisure and Operational Services, and the Red Rose Forest’s ‘‘Fruits of Red Rose Forest’’ Local Heritage Initiative. The Forest Garden is situated on the northern perimeter of Birchfields Park in Rusholme, south-central Manchester, in a public space that is fully accessible to local communities. The forest garden has been established to create a public, urban landscape that is sustainable and ecologically productive, providing fresh food produce and other human resources. The forest garden project will enhance the area with a wide range of benefits:

• Provide an aesthetic, unusual, interactive, and engaging feature in the landscape;
• Educate and engage local communities, groups, and the public, with open spaces and natural habitats;
• Create an education resource about local food;
• Increase biodiversity in Manchester;
• Create opportunities for local people to engage in activities that improve mental and physical health, and well-being;
• Encourage, support, and act as a model for sustainable ways of living, and improve the sustainability of the local neighbourhood;
• Increase food security; provide a source of local food, reduce food miles, and CO2 emissions;
• Act as a hub to stimulate wider sustainable development in the immediate area.

This proposal explains why forest gardens are needed, gives an explanation of forest gardens and permaculture and proposes a programme of activities to build upon the work undertaken so far and progress the development of the forest garden.