THOUSANDS of fruit trees and bushes are to be planted in Manchester - with an invitation to `Help Yourself'.

Vegetable patches and beehives will also be set up as part of the £200,000 scheme.

The council fears local children don't know where fruit comes from.

The plans involve:

Putting fruit and nut trees or vegetable patches in each of the city's 135 parks and woods

Planting 20,000 strawberry, raspberry and soft fruit bushes around the city

Setting up beehives in a dozen parks and allotments

Planting free herbs such as mint and parsley in every city park

City centre sites such as Sackville Gardens, St John's Gardens and the Parsonage Gardens will be among the locations boasting new fruit trees. The plants will feature a sign which states the name of the plant and the correct time to pick it.

Vegetable patches with potatoes, tomatoes, carrots and turnips will also be set up in parks - but because these are more labour-intensive than fruit plants, their produce will go to local volunteers who help look after them.

The three-year plan will also aim to reintroduce endangered or rare fruits such as mulberries, damsons and greengages.

Beehives are being set up in six hives and eight allotments throughout the city - with each site capable of producing up to 80lbs of honey a year.

Park staff and volunteers will be trained how to safely handle the hives by the Manchester Beekeepers Association at Heaton Park.

If the pilot is successful, hives will be set up in all parks and council bosses say they may eventually produce `Manchester Council' honey and wax.

Chaz Farghaly, the council's parks and leisure boss, said the plan was for every Mancunian to be within walking distance of a fruit or veg patch.

He said: "Historically there have been very few fruit trees in our parks and we were amazed by the number of young people who told us they didn't know where fruit and veg came from.

"We also want to save things that are dying out in this country such as damsons, greengages and walnuts.

"It became clear from people we spoke to at allotments and friends of parks groups that there is enough interest to not only re-introduce fruit and veg for educational reasons but for people to tend and actually eat.

"These are public areas and there is no reason why people shouldn't be able to help themselves to the produce grown."

Initially, orchards and soft fruit canes will be planted in a dozen parks. Flowerbeds in several other undisclosed but `high profile' locations will be transformed into vegetable patches.

Park wardens will also run extra workshops in how to tend plants and harvest their fruit for schools and members of the public.

Until three years ago, only one Manchester park had fruit trees. Orchards growing apples, pears and plums have recently been planted at Debdale Park in Gorton and Platt Fields Park - and others are soon to follow.