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

Seymour Grove Allotment site in Old Trafford to join in community gardening volunteer day

8:20am Friday 15th March 2013 in News

SEYMOUR Grove Allotment site in Old Trafford is playing host to the Big Dig Open Day on March 16 as part of a nationwide project to involve people in their food-growing spaces.

Orchard 49, a community orchard on plot 49 of the allotment site is taking part in the open day to welcome in new volunteers.

“We’ve got a beautiful little orchard here, and we’d love for more people to enjoy it with us, so we’re taking part in the Big Dig Day to show our neighbours what we do, and how they can get involved,” says Debbie Ellen, a regular volunteer with the group.

More than 20 local 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 coordinator 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