Manchester Museum

I found myself at Manchester Museum a couple of weeks ago on a stormy Saturday.  I had dropped my son at a museum event for a couple of hours.  That left me plenty of time for a quick browse round the exhibits and a coffee at 8th Day Co-operative just along the road.

I was taken by surprise as I approached the museum entrance, because it has a beautiful allotment just in front of the doors.  Like lots of people, I think that having the space to grow food means living outside of cities, perhaps in suburbia where you find small gardens, if not in the countryside.  This crafted space disproves that theory, and in the middle of winter too.  Not only is it a practical environment for growing food, but it looks good, collects rainwater, has a wormery and houses a noticeboard.  I would imagine that in better weather, people love to go out there to eat their lunch on the edge of a raised bed and supplement it with some of the salad leaves which are in abundance.

 

 

You'll have to excuse the photography on this blog post, because it really was horrendous weather!

There were obvious gains to be had from being in an urban environment, since there was no frost damage to any of the plants, and the celery was looking quite happy despite it being February.

Seeing this space renewed my drive to grow food in my small allotment, which is probably not much bigger than this.  I hope my efforts are half as tasty as their rocket, which I picked to go with my snack at 8th Day Co-operative café.