The Navvies Garden: Groovy Garden Creations with Salford Loaves and Fishes

Location: The Navvies Garden by the Seven Bro7hers Stretch Tent

Saturday 10am- 5pm

Sunday 10am – 5pm

The Navvies Garden was co-created by artist Matt Rosier and local charity Salford Loaves & Fishes, it’s trees and plants embody elements of the navvy experience, and its seasonal produce will be given to local foodbanks. Food poverty was a key driver in Irish migration in the Navvy period, and the community group felt it important to address this through the garden. The digging of this garden by community participants was the basis for the Light Waves festival installation and projection into the canal in 2022.

At WITW last year, we collaborated with BUPA to plant over 400 sunflower seeds, many of them were planted in our Navvies Garden and moved around the MediaCityUK site once they had started to grow. Many people (adults and children) returned to the garden, some from as far as London to watch their seeds grow and we have been told that videos were posted on YouTube!

This year, visitors can plant sunflower seeds again, either straight into the garden with their own designer label or in decorated biodegradable pots to take home. Visitors can also plant other seeds like peas and cress and design pots for them. There will also be other creative nature-based activities for visitors to take part in over the weekend one of which is our ‘Design a Scarecrow’ competition. We will select two winners, one from each day, and our art group at Salford Loaves and Fishes will create them (as close to the design as possible); one will then be installed in the Navvies Garden and the other in the garden at Salford Loaves and Fishes. Winners will have a plaque made with their name and the name of the scarecrow added when they are installed.