Gardening with Nature New Mills Trail

Nature friendly gardens are a haven for wildlife of all kinds. 10% of the UK is made up of gardens (more space than all our nature reserves combined) and these can provide homes and food for our native flora and fauna. 

1. Avoiding chemicals 
2. Feed the wildlife by growing plants for pollinators;  such as bees, butterflies, moths and insects. Think berries and seed heads for birds
3. Give a hedgehog a home and make holes in your fences to allow Hedgehogs to move through gardens 
4. Making space for insects with log piles, bug and bee hotels, and being a little untidy 
5. Reducing our use of water by capturing rain water, not watering the lawn and growing drought tolerant plants 
6. Leaving grass to grow long in parts or through the summer months 
7. Avoiding peat containing compost and plants grown in peat, instead make your own compost for free!

Kate & Rob moved to New Mills last year, they have a cottage garden full of flowers, an overgrown orchard, a kitchen garden and a totally wild meadow. Lots of uneven surfaces and no step free access

Sue moved to New Mills last year and has transformed her back garden from a boring overgrown lawn to a beautiful haven for herself, family and wildlife, full of flowers and much more, with a little help from her lovely grandson, aged 6.​

A small new garden begun a year ago, full of fruit and flowers to attract bees and butterflies, with hens!  Park on Dyehouse lane.

We have a bee hotel, hedgehog house, wood pile, native hedge, nettle patch, bird box and feeders. Also a wildflower area, stream and pond.

Front garden step free, back garden has 6 steps to access

Front garden with a small pond which has newts. Pollinator friendly plants and swift boxes. Hurst Lea road seems to be an emerging eco-corridor! 

Pond with newts, frogs and damselflies and dragonflies. A garden created with help from Helen Hamilton an ecological consultant. A special place that gets attention from passers by, creating space for nature and relaxation for humans

A small garden full of perennial flowers which brings Frances soo much joy. No parking on street

These beautiful green spaces have utilized previously neglected areas by using as many recycled & reclaimed items that Rachel finds.  She loves gardening, really helps her mental health & is still learning so much from people like Alan & Suzanne from the secret corner & her mentor Pip.

Starting from 31 High Street, “secret walled garden”  Turn left up Cross st, go past Stanley House, look left to the “secret garden”, walk to end of Market st. turn left, more of “secret garden”, cross over to 24 High st. “secret corner” (Alan and Suzanne).  Walk down Church View, steep steps, to Meal street, turn right to “bumbles garden”

Garden 8: The Secret Walled Garden @ 31 High Street

Garden 9: 24 High Street and Secret Garden on the roof of the toilet block, high street. Best seen from Market Street

Garden 10: Bumbles garden, Meal street.

A gorgeous garden on 2 levels full of wild flowers and perennials.   Steep steps with a handrail down to second level.  Fab view of Watford Lodge pond

A wildlife haven for pollinators full of flowers and herbs

A hidden gem, full of perennial flowers, places to sit, a toilet and a lovely cafe (based in a double decker bus), selling delicious hot and cold food and drinks.  Access via Station Road then on to Calico Lane. If you’re walking along the Peak Forest Canal towpath – look for the purple A board at the New Mills end of Furness Vale Marina and follow directions

A small garden created by the children of the Inside Out nursery, with flowers and herbs

Incredible Edible‘s newest site is at St Georges’ Field, adjasent to the Church,  where we are trialling a range of vegetables. Community members are welcome to weed, plant and forage at all our sites. We hope to be gardening at St Georges’ on Saturday 13th July.  Feel free to stop by for a chat and a brew.

Open as part of the National Gardens Scheme, additional charge applies for access. Hot and cold beverages and cakes are available. Plants for sale

Informally designed,colourful,mixed herbaceous perennials and shrub borders,with mature trees and lawns and a gravel border situated in the semi rural setting of the High Peak. You can wander along the differing terraces admiring the varied planting or sit on the conveniently placed benches and enjoy the ambiance. On the top terrace enter the grade II listed stone building ,the oldest part of the school, with its unique dome and beautiful stained glass windows where refreshments are served. Surrounding these are four individually themed quads. The Bible and Monastic has a selection of biblical/monastic referenced plants whilst the Vegetable/Cuttings Garden contains a selection of herbs,vegetables and flowering plants.The African Keyhole and Bag Garden was built by the students and has decorative spears and shields.There is now a wildlife area including habitat mounds, bug hotels with roof gardens, a meadow planted area and a pollinator area.

There is a trough in the patio at Rock Mill Centre containing herbs

The Ollersett allotments are having their allotment open day. Access via Ollersett avenue or Sett valley Trail

Back in 2008 a group of women met in a café and their conversation led to the Incredible Edible project in their home town of Todmorden. They wanted to increase positive connections in their Community and believed this could be achieved in an enjoyable way by people growing food together.  Within less than ten years there were over 100 Incredible Edible groups in the UK and 600 world wide.

In New Mills the conversation began not in a café but during a Transition meeting and by 2013 their first community gardening site was flourishing. Today we grow herbs, fruit and other edible and pollinator friendly plants at three main sites. 

Community members are welcome to weed, plant and forage at all our sites.Incredible Edible New Mills believe in sustainable gardening and do not use any chemicals on the soil. We reuse and recycle whatever we can and have composting facilitities at all our sites. Because we grden on public sites we cannot include a pond but have managed small log and stone piles at two of our sites.

At Torr top car park, we have discovered that the soil and location is best suited to fruit and perenial herbs, supported by bee and butterfly friendly flowers

Top quality, value for money plants, all grown locally with passion

Formally a sewage works, refuse tips and gas works it has been transformed into a nature reserve. Ramble by the river and walk through the woodlands and discover the newly created wetland area. Find out about Nature New Mills work to rewild the nature reserve here 

Situated in the at the edge of High Leah Park, New Mills Community Orchard was established in 2006 on the site of a 17th century orchard. The Orchard is managed for both its fruit and its wildlife. Various apples, pears, plums, damsons, cherries and quince grow here along with soft fruits e.g. blackcurrants, gooseberries and loganberries. A recent ‘bioblitz’ community survey identified over 140 different species of flora and fauna.

Pollinator garden, created by volunteers and has been maintained by trustees and volunteers over the years

It offers flower rich grasslands and is a haven for threatened flowering plants. It is also home a standing sundial and close the entrance there is Goytside farm which is home to numerous Llamas. Cows/bulls may be grazing, so please keep to paths and dogs on leads. 

New Mills Walkers Are Welcome suggested walking route:  http://nmwaw.org.uk/walks/01GoytsideMeadows.pdf

A 2020 lockdown project. 17 neighbours got together as guerilla gardens to cultivate the grass verges opposite their houses. Rainbow painted stones line the verge. Numerous native wildflowers attract bees, insects and birds. In the spring there are daffodils, snowdrops and native bluebells. An important wildlife habitat, this beautiful verge brings joy to visitors and has brought a local group of neighbours together as friends