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Mar.08

Urban gardening brings outside in at new Urbis exhibition

Possibly Britain's finest contribution to the visual arts and certainly the most absorbing of British pastimes, gardening is the subject of a brand new exhibition at Urbis, opening on April 26.

From the neglected back alley to the high rise towerblock, the exhibition will show how green fingers and green thinking can help transform city spaces into urban oases.

This fun new exhibition is an original family show dedicated to putting a breath of fresh air into towns and cities. With zones that show how to create gardens in the city from the smallest possible Juliet balcony to the transformation of a whole street or roof with greenery.

Topics will range from ‘guerilla’ gardeners, lazy gardening, workshops about how to green your roof and creating animal habitats and encouraging biodiversity, to gardening for domestic spaces including the living room and kitchen.

There will also be international examples of urban gardening from Seoul and Saigon as well as closer to home in Manchester.

Derelict areas are given their own space in the exhibition emphasizing the importance of brownfield sites as habitats for bugs in the city and inviting visitors to take a walk on the wilder side of city life.

Rapidly becoming the latest must-have accessory for the urbanite, the benefits of cultivating an allotment will be on show, inside one of Pennine Lancashire's Chic Sheds. Information will be made available showing the easiest vegetables to grow in the city (beans come out on top, with cut-and-come-again lettuce, peppers, potatoes, shallots, sorrel, spinach and tomatoes).

There will be workshops for adults and for children with experts on hand to give general gardening tips as well as tips on how to be green with a capital 'G'. Experts will offer views of how towns and cities will look in the future and how gardens and wildlife will creep into concrete landscapes.

The impact of climate change and issues of sustainability will run through the exhibition, tackling the effects of urban sprawl on the ecology of our cities. The exhibition runs from from April 26 to September 7  at Urbis, Manchester.