PLANT NOMA believe that “the city is a garden”. They are a community who seeks to bring a bit of wildness into the city centre of Manchester through workshops and events – all focused around the power of plants. They use creativity and community to create a better, wilder, city. Naturally, we like their thinking.
Based in Sadler’s Yard, they are slowly turning the area’s planting beds into thriving spaces, focussing on variety and ecology over uniformity. When we created our new ‘head to toe’ collection – made in the UK hats and socks celebrating the wonderful properties of knit – we knew the PLANT NOMA team would want to give them a try.
We went down to one of their planting days, a crisp autumn morning, to kit out the team with the hats and socks they need to stay warm during cold-weather gardening. Ben, who leads the project, said “the wonderful thing about this project is that you get to really experience the seasons, but that obviously comes with some challenges too. We already liked the practical wearability of Uskees’ stuff, so the 100% wool hats and organic cotton knit socks are a natural addition to our urban gardening wardrobe”.
Ben adds that gardening in the winter has an extra special quality, too: “The big task at the moment is planting bulbs. We have thousands going in but you won’t be able to tell until March. They will be biding their time until the worst of winter is over. Something lovely about bulb planting at this time of year. Burying a little bit of hope for the coming spring. A useful reminder of the pleasure of deferred gratification”.
We can’t wait to see how PLANT NOMA continue to transform the landscape of our city centre, and make horticulture accessible and exciting to all. Keep up to date with their latest projects over on their Instagram @plant_noma.
Photos by With Love Project.
