Firstly, please could you introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about you? 
Hi, I’m Manda Moore and I run the Sky Garden project in the centre of Warrington. You can find us on the very top floor of the Golden Square car park! I’m the Education and Learning Officer at Warrington Museum and we opened the garden in 2022 in partnership with Golden Square. I’ve always been passionate about wildlife and plants and thought a garden would be a lovely living addition to our preserved plants and animal specimens back at the museum. 

Why did the project start and what prompted it? 
Good Question! I wanted a living garden I could use with schools and groups and Golden Square wanted a garden too as they already try to work as sustainably as they can. I’m also interested in the idea of greening urban spaces to increase biodiversity and giving people access to green space and fresh, organic food if they haven’t got a garden of their own. I met Kim Moate at Golden Square and we got talking about doing this and then I saw a Museum Development North West funding scheme I could apply for. We got the money and the rest is history! Golden Square have kindly said they want to extend the garden for us next Spring, so we will hopefully be taking over even more space to grow more plants and offer more activities. 

What have you done so far to improve the space for wildlife? 
I suppose anything we did was going to improve the space for wildlife as it was a tarmac car park before we started with nothing living up there at all. We’ve included a wild bed where we just left the soil and an amazing variety of native wild plants have grown: buttercups, cornflowers, grasses, dead nettles, docks etc. We also planted more traditional plants for pollinators such as lavender, verbena and honeysuckle. We’ve got bug houses and I’m most excited about our new pond with a bog garden attached. 

Have you seen more wildlife make use of the space since transforming it? 
Absolutely. Not things like mammals or amphibians as obviously they’d find the trek up the car park roof a bit much! But all sorts of invertebrates and wild plants have arrived. I’m a big fan of the iNaturalist app, so me and my volunteers make use of that to record what we’ve seen and add this info to our local biodiversity database. It’s a great feeling knowing that we started with nothing but tarmac and now regularly see different types of wildlife up there now. 

What has been your favourite wildlife sighting or experience in your garden? 
Ooh, we’ve had quite a few invertebrates visit this year, but I’m still waiting for a dragonfly or damselfly! One of my volunteers saw a dragonfly fly past the garden last month, but it sadly didn’t stop off at the pond. I’m keeping my fingers crossed now in the hope that they smell the water and come and visit and maybe even breed in the pond one year. I also like coming round the corner and surprising one of the little wagtails that patrol around the roof, the way they waggle around always makes me smile. 

What has been the impact? 
The impact has been bigger than I first expected. Schools have visited and found beetles, tasted herbs and drawn parts of plants. We’ve done our first public events that have gone down really well. We did a harvest festival event, and it was great to watch people cutting lettuce and digging up carrots. One lady that came sent some lovely feedback in which made it all worthwhile: “A massive thank you for today the roof top harvest event was amazing. I have been able to get some produce that will help me and my children. As a single mum in a cost of living crisis this has been so helpful, and we had a wonderful experience. Thank you again”. I’ve got a great team of volunteers who help me look after the garden and are so kind with their time and knowledge, always coming out rain or shine and I’ve learned so much from them already. Most importantly I like to think that we’ve made a positive difference to biodiversity in a grey town centre environment. 

What are your plans for future? 
In the future, we are hoping to expand to cover more area, grow more plants and hold bigger events. I’ve started a new group called Warrington Community Gardens. This links people looking after their own green spaces around the borough, no matter how small, and we can all share ideas and resources and support each other slowly making Warrington greener. I’m planning our 2024 public engagement events shortly, ready to welcome more people into the garden next year from Spring. 

What advice would you give to others wanting to start a project or help wildlife in their community but don't know where to start? 
Just start small and do what you can. If you think about the plight of our British wildlife as a whole it can feel quite bleak and overwhelming. Just start by thinking what you can do. Could you suggest you club together to get a few pots and planters for an empty space at work? 
Could you bury a washing up bowl in the garden to make a mini pond for hoverflies to drink from?  Could you sprinkle wildflower seeds in your borders in the garden and let things go a bit wilder?  Also, don’t forget activism. I often sign petitions I come across on social media to make my voice heard in a small way out there. Basically, if you start with doing something, no matter how small, it grows from there.