Spring is coming…
Our Lalley community allotment is a really important part of Caritas.
It not only provides fresh food for local people in North Manchester to enjoy, but it is also much, much more than that. Here, our coordinator Raddon tells us more and also shares the latest news on an exciting new addition to the allotment for 2025…
What’s your role at Caritas?
I manage the running of our community allotment and food pantry at the Caritas Lalley Centre, based in Collyhurst.
Why is the allotment such an important Caritas service?
The community allotment has three main purposes that make it a vital part of the Lalley Centre service.
Firstly, it’s a space to grow food fresh food for our pantry, helping local people eat more healthily in an area where there is poor provision of fresh vegetables in shops.
Secondly, it’s an educational space for visitors and the local community, including school children, demonstrating organic growing practices and ways to garden more sustainably. This often helps get people thinking about other ways to live more sustainably too.
And finally, the allotment provides a peaceful setting to encourage people to get outside more, engage with nature and socialise too. We regularly see first-hand just how positive this can be for people’s mental health.
What do you do there?
Working with volunteers, I make a plan for what we’ll be growing in the year and which parts of the garden we’ll focus on improving.
I deliver sessions for a range of groups of adults and children focussed on learning gardening skills and improving wellbeing through outdoor activities.
I also make sure our food waste composting system is running effectively, working with pupils from the next-door primary school each lunchtime to compost their food waste whilst singing our compost song!
Tell us about the new polytunnel…why is it so important?
Our new polytunnel, put up on a cold day this year, is a really exciting development on the allotment.
It will enable us to grow many more of the vegetables that are most popular in the food pantry like cucumbers and tomatoes, as well as allowing us to keep growing more salad crops over the winter too.
Having this new indoor space will also take some pressure off the existing polytunnel, which can now be used as more of a social space too.
Although we want to grow most of our veg outside and there’s plenty that can be done in our northern climate, this extra indoor growing area will really boost our productivity and help demonstrate what can be grown right here in Manchester. I’m excited to get started!
What are you most looking forward to in the allotment this year?
I’m most looking forward to restarting visits from our regular groups and starting some new ones in the spring and summer, giving more people a chance to get involved in growing at the allotment and enjoying the benefits of getting outside.
It’s still cold and a bit dark and grey. Do you still have lots of things to do on the allotment?
Yes!
Right now we’re making our first seed sowings for vegetable crops that will be harvested later in the year.
They’re kept inside at the Lalley centre to speed up germination before being moved to the polytunnel and later planted outside once it warms up a bit. Otherwise, there’s always maintenance of the structures on site and some tidying up to do before the busyness of spring and summer makes it harder to find time for that!
How can people get involved and help?
The easiest way is to come along to one of our open sessions on the allotment on Mondays 10.30am to 1pm, Thursdays 1.30pm to 4pm and Fridays 2pm to 4pm. No need to book, just turn up. If you’ve any questions, just email lalleycentre@caritassalford.org.uk or ring 0161 205 2754.
If you think you’d be interested in volunteering regularly, you can also sign up on via our website here.
Thank you.