School secret garden among green fund recipients

A group of six adults around a large patch of mud being dug among rows of treesVictoria Holden

More than 100 projects have been awarded funds since 2022, including Northern Lily in Oldham

Plans for a “secret garden” at a school and a park meadow are among 17 environmental projects across Greater Manchester to have been given a grant from a £370,000 fund.

A memorial garden commemorating people who died with coronavirus is also to receive funds in the fifth round of the Mayor of Greater Manchester’s Green Spaces Fund.

Andy Burnham said it had become "increasingly apparent" that green spaces were "vital, not just for our local wildlife but our residents’ health, physical and mental".

He said he was also helping to develop the first Greater Manchester plan for nature “which will be the foundation for nature recovery across the city-region”.

A total of 103 projects have been awarded funds since 2022, with the aim of improving knowledge in growing food and looking after the environment.

Previous recipients including Oldham-based Northern Lily, which received national attention when their community garden won an award from the RHS and BBC's The One Show.

Daveen Wallis, co-founder of the charity Greater Manchester Environment Fund, appealed for ideas from corporate organisation, saying: “We now want to build on the brilliant progress made so far by collaborating with more partners from across the city-region, those who want to make a difference to nature.”

Latest recipients include:

  • ‘The Secret Garden’ by Blackrod Primary School in Bolton

  • Cleaner, Green and Safer Canals between Lock 87 and 88 on the Rochdale Canal and between Lock 1 and Lock 3 on the Ashton Canal by the Canal & River Trust

  • Brinnington Covid Memorial Gardens by Green Thumbs Community Allotments in Stockport

  • Between Us – Transforming Spaces Together, Higher Broughton

  • Chorlton Park Sponge Meadow, Manchester

  • Touchstones Potager Garden, Rochdale

  • The Green Rooms, Gorse Hill Studios, Trafford

  • Bankfield Community Growing project, Bolton

  • Re-Greening Gorton Monastery, Manchester

  • From Coal to Colour, Pemberton Green Spaces, Wigan

  • Sale Moor Urban Gardens, Trafford

  • Desmond's Garden, Rochdale AFC

  • Sunnyside Community Green Space and Allotment Project, Bolton

  • Stories from the Clough, Boggart Hole Clough, Manchester

  • Greenwell Space, Stockport

  • Blooming Mosley Common, Wigan

  • Hinds Lane Greenway, Bury

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