The Big Dig Day – the biggest ever community gardening volunteer day in Trafford (From Messenger Newspapers)

The Big Dig Day at Longford Park in Trafford

11:00am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in News

RYLANDS Kitchen Garden in Longford Park is opening its gates to the public on March 16 as part of a nationwide project to involve people in their food-growing spaces.

Between 2 – 5pm there will be a range of activities on offer to encourage young and old to get stuck in.

The main focus of the day will be gearing up to the spring growing season, starting with potatoes and salads.

“We’ve done a huge amount of work, trying to bring the garden back to its former glory.

"We’d love to have more local people involved, so we’re taking part in the Big Dig open day to show how much fun it is,” said Margaret Westbrook, a regular volunteer with the Friends of Longford Park Group.

More than 20 gardens are taking part in The Big Dig Day to show their neighbours how spending time tending their local community garden is not only fun and satisfying, but healthy too.

Many of the participating community food gardens are putting on activities such as seed sowing, preparing raised beds, and planting onions.

“Making first contact can be the biggest hurdle to getting actively involved in a community garden – the Big Dig Day makes it easy to walk in off the street and see what’s happening on the plot,” says Big Dig Manchester co-ordinator Kirstin Glendinning.

To find your nearest Big Dig garden, go to www.bigdig.org.uk/manchester/ and simply fill in your postcode.

The Edible Gardens Open Day is part of Big Dig's work to encourage more people to volunteer and is funded by the Cabinet Office’s Social Action Fund and co-ordinated by Sustain:the alliance for better food and farming.

In Manchester the Big Dig is run by The Kindling Trust. For more information on their work and to register your community garden as a Big Dig Garden, visit www.kindling.org.uk