Fly Tipped Alleyway Turned Into Wildlife Friendly Garden

Below you will find the story of Beech Alley Gardens in Levenshulme.  Once a disused, flytipped alleyway, we aim to make it into a wildlife-focused neighbourhood garden.

Regular updates and images will be added to this blog as the alleyway progresses.  Any questions, please contact me @ [email protected]

 

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Before & After Images

New and improved images will be added as the alleyway progresses

Images added soon

 

How We Started

In July 2025, during a dinner with our neighbours, we decided to tidy up the alleyway.  We thought a good place to start would be to paint the 10m-long breezeblock wall.  We thought that it would make the alleyway look cared for, which would deter fly-tippers.  So we got in touch with a local artist Richard @ Heart Murals, who agreed to paint a mural on the wall.

Richard also referred us to Manchester Council’s Neighbourhood Investment Fund (NIF) as he thought the fly-tipping issues we were facing would qualify. It turns out Manchester Council identified our street as a fly-tipping hotspot.  We were awarded funding for the mural, lights, planters and soil to make the alleyway look less like a dumping ground

We are hopeful that the improvements to the alleyway will stop the fly-tipping or at least slow it down.  Then we aim to make the space as wildlife-friendly as possible.  We have installed a couple of hedgehog houses, and we are planning to add bee-friendly plants, birdhouses, and anything else that we can do to encourage animals to the alleyway.  Eventually, we will add seating areas for humans to enjoy the alleyway too:)

 

Levy Fly Tipping Stats

• July 2025, Levenshulme is named the ‘Fly Tipping Capital of Manchester‘ with 3,000 reported cases per year
• Despite Manchester City Council declaring ‘War on Rubbish,’ not much has changed on Beech Range in Levenshulme.  We have been reporting fly-tipping issues almost weekly.  As soon as the rubbish has been picked up, something else is fly-tipped in our alleyway
• Most of the fly tipping in Levenshulme seems to happen in alleyways.  Some of the alleyways have gates installed, which have successfully stopped fly tipping, but Manchester City Council have quoted us an eye-watering £20k to install new gates.

 

Project Timeline Images

New images will be added regularly as the alleyway progresses

 

July 2025 – Planning

Here is a layout of the alleyway and a rough plan that we put together.

• Yellow planters in the alleyway entrance will have ‘No fly tipping’ signs attached to them.  This is the most heavily fly-tipped area. We plan to make them look as beautiful and well-kept as possible.  Hopefully, this will make fly-tippers think twice about dumping their rubbish
• Blue planters in the corner of the alley are visible from the entrance.  They will need to look well-kept as well.
• Solar lights will be installed in the corner of the alley as a further deterrent
• Red planters are spread throughout the rest of the alleyway after the rubbish has been removed
• Mural along the grey breeze block wall as a centre piece, which will hopefully make the alley more welcoming
  

 

July 2025 – Before we started

The following images show the state of the alleyway before we got started.  Old fridges and paddling pools had been dumped in the alley.  The entrance is the worst-affected area with weekly rubbish dumping.

 

October 2025 – The Mural

The mural was painted on a 10m long wall in the centre of the alleyway.  The wall is approx 10ft high and made of breeze blocks, which resembled a prison wall.  Thanks to Richard @ Heart Murals, the wall is the centre piece of the garden.

Each house on the street voted for three wild British animals.  The five animals with the most votes were painted on the wall.  They included squirrel, badger, rabbit, butterfly and ladybird.  There was also a vote for a unicorn, but it didn’t make the top five.

 

November 2025 – Alleyway corner

There is a wide area in the corner of the alleyway.  We filled the space with planters first, which we will fill with bee and wildlife-friendly plants later on.

Materials used

• x2 tomato paste drums costing £15 each from Facebook Marketplace
• x5 builder bags: x2 recycled from the alley and x3 purchased from Tool Station for £10.99 each.  It’s possible to get them cheaper, but you need very strong bags if you want them to last
• x5 pallets recycled from the alley
• Bricks, stones and sticks recycled from the alley

 

November 2025 – Hedgehog houses

A few years ago, when I was coming home from the pub one night, I tripped over a hedgehog.   I was so surprised, as I haven’t seen a hedgehog since I was a child, so this encounter has stuck in my mind ever since.  I ushered that particular hedgehog to the alleyway, but I couldn’t help thinking that it wasn’t very inviting.  In the hope that hedgehogs might find their way to our street again, we installed a few hedgehog houses.

 

November 2025 – End of alley allotment

At the far end of the alley, we planned to create an allotment area, material and budget permitting.  It was full of old building material, paddling pools, overgrowth, a discarded green bin and a buried pet.

More images coming soon

 

Sponsors & Supporters

Please find a list of the people and companies that have supported the project

 

Financial Supporters

• Manchester City Council – Huge thanks to Neighbourhood Officer Ollie.  Without your funding via the Neighbourhood Investment Fund (NIF), the project would not have got started
• Wickes Stockport Branch – Thanks to Tina @ for donating £100 via the Wickes Community Program.

 

Volunteers & Advice

• Residents of Beech Range – Thanks to everyone living on Beech Range who has given their time and effort
• Bee Sanctuary – Thanks to Brian for allowing us to use the good name of the Bee Sanctuary so we could apply NIF funding
• Heart Murals – Thanks, Richard, for referring us to the Neighbourhood Investment Fund and for painting a beautiful mural.  It looks amazing
• Bud Garden Centre – Thanks Brenda, for advising us on the best plants to use, helping us find cheap soil and pointing us to new funding sources
• Burnage Flowers in Bloom – Thanks to Dennis for visiting the alleyway before we got started to advise how to make the alleyway wildlife-friendly

 

Inspiration

• Cloud Gardener – thanks to Jason for publishing his alleyway tour of Cloudy Alley.  The video was a great way for us to start getting excited about the project
• Groundwork’s ‘How to Green Your Alleyway’ blog was a great place for practical tips and funding advice
• Pinterest – a great source of inspiration from around the world. I found loads of fun gardening ideas on this board

 

Become a Sponsor

If you can donate any of the following items, we would love to hear from you.  In return, we will gladly add you to our list of supporters and link to your company

• Bird houses
• Gravel
• Plants
• Solar lights
• A slim lean-to shed
• Bin stores
• Green roof for bin stores
• Garden arches
• Table and chairs
• Hanging baskets
• Sunshade sail
• Bunting
• Water butts

Please email John @ [email protected]