RHS Garden Bridgewater: the absolutely massive new garden coming to Manchester

Aren't you bored of walking around the same places? Tired of trudging the same streets just so you can get outside?

After this last year, getting out and about and finding new things to do in Manchester and Salford is exactly what we all need to blow away those lockdown cobwebs.

So if a stroll into the past and some peace and quiet is what you're after, the opening of Manchester and Salford's latest visitor attraction should be welcome news.

Delays of almost a year have meant that tickets only went on sale recently for the RHS Garden Bridgwater, opening in May. There's good news too for Salford residents who get in free of charge on Tuesdays.

It's the biggest horticultural project in Europe for years and the project has seen the site of the 154-acre garden at the former Worsley New Hall estate transformed. 

Photograph: RHS/Mark Waugh

The garden's appeal to national and international visitors should bring in the tourists, with features like the largest public access walled garden in the UK and over a quarter of a million plants increasing the city's biodiversity. It also has strong ties with the local community. Over 50% of the people who have worked on the project live within five miles, and spaces like the Community Wellbeing Garden, Community Grow area and Peel Learning Garden are all designed to encourage local people to get involved.

The opening of the garden coincides with the project ‘Rediscovering Salford’, a creative programme that refocuses Salford’s cultural identity by encouraging people to engage with its green spaces. The program includes the exhibition ‘You Belong Here’ featuring work by LS Lowry and Salford's drag artist Cheddar Gorgeous.

So forget those tired streets and well-trodden paths and keep your green fingers crossed for a glorious Manchester summer...

RHS Garden Bridgewater opens to the public from Tuesday May 18. Tickets available via the RHS website www.rhs.org.uk