A carpet of flowers at Dig the City

Celebrating all things natural and growing your own, Manchester’s ‘Medieval quarter’ (aka the bit around the Cathedral and Urbis) hosts the Dig the City gardening festival this week. Highlights include the natural air freshening of Manchester Cathedral with more that 30, 000 flowers as well as gardening workshops for kids in the Arndale (today and tomorrow) where they get to paint their own pot and plant a seed. Everything is packed into an easily walkable area. Inside the National Football Museum one floor will be covered in a carpet of flowers and if you didn’t get the chance to check out the recent flower show at Tatton, you can see one of the gardens for free outside the Cathedral. Back in 2003, we remember when Albert Square was transformed into a turn-of-the-century French farm, complete with baby animals and sweet peas by immersive theatre group, Le Phun. A hard act to follow, Dig the City holds plenty of promise nevertheless.

Until Sun 29 Jul, various venues, www.digthecity.co.uk