Greenfingers helped transform Salford Orchard as part of community project

29th Apr 2022

At Greenfingers, we enjoy being able to help at local community projects, and we recently got to go along and help with a fantastic community project at The Orchard in Salford.

The Orchard was a derelict piece of land that originally had houses built on it. They were consequently knocked down, so the land stood empty and untouched. There was also significant overgrowth due to neglect.

Onward Social investment team decided to make this one of their Mental health and green spaces project, and Greenfingers helped them with this. We started by weeding and tidying up the litter to make the area that we were working on clean and tidy, along with helping with forestry school sessions with the local children to support cleaning up the area. Onward tree specialists then removed the rotten trees.

Working with Sow in the city, Onward planted fruit trees around the Orchard and put up bird boxes to attract some wildlife. This will add to the local area’s wildlife, as there was already some wildlife living in the shrubs and bushes, including hedgehogs.

Onward Social have now made substantial progress with the orchard by building a path through the land and planning a seating area with recycled picnic benches. It will be a welcome addition for the community, as it will give them more outdoor spaces.

Going forward Onward Social will be holding events for the community, which includes an open day in the summer. They will also be running wellbeing sessions in the orchard with Sow in the city. This will benefit the community as it will make full use of the land and help make the community aware that it is there and ready for use.

We are pleased to see the project was a success, and look forward to the future of the Orchard community project and our continued involvement.