Thankyou to everyone who joined in with the preparation and work to make the community planting days this weekend a success. It was lovely to see more people of all ages and abilities join in with the tattie and strawberry planting which was fun.

The approach of doing the garden design and construction gradually has been successful so far in fully involving local children and allowing the garden group who will be using the garden to have positive input from the start. Many people doubted that the plants would stay in the ground because of the fear of vandalism.

This has not been the case and local children have taken pride and responsibility in their work with the support of their parents and myself as the garden development worker allowing them to take part in as many ways as possible.

A community grant application has been made to the local council to continue this work, buy tools for everyone to use and complete the garden’s construction over the next four months. The garden group now has a draft constitution outlining its aims and hopes to open a community bank account soon to maintain the garden for the neighbourhood.

It is hoped that TRIP will continue to support this community garden project to improve the area for those living in it until the garden group is fully independant. We are short of funds for the tools needed to remove the last of the turf and rotavate the soil from the final third of the garden still uncultivated. I am hoping this request for help will be granted by the TRIP members at the next meeting this May.

Kirsty

Lots of changes in the garden this week with two groups of volunteers working hard to prepare four raised bed for the weekend and bring in logs for seats and border edges.

New strawberry beds!

The garden is starting to take shape all of a sudden and everyone is welcome to come and help plant strawberries and tatties this weekend. Bring your wellies and a fork if you have one and want to help plant tatties. Or just come along and have a blether and find out what has been going on and how you can join in.

Look forward to seeing you at the weekend and talking about ideas for the rest of the garden.

Kirsty

Come and help weed the new raspberry borders and fruit and nut area next Sunday between 1pm and 3pm with a few of the neighbours. The fruit bushes are starting to burst bud and will soon be growing away with a bit of TLC. A load of compost will be coming soom to feed the baby plants and keep the weeds down.

A draft plan for raised beds for strawberries, tatties and other veg and herbs is nearly ready and it would be good to hear folks opinions. The photo below shows what the beds could look like if we used reclaimed scaffolding batons to build them

timber planters and wildflower embankment

We continued planting this weekend, with hazelnuts, elderberries and lots of raspberries. The new fence supplied by the council looks good and should help shelter the plants in the garden.

Please come along if you want to help next Saturday with planting, blackcurrants, gooseberries and thornless brambles. No gardening experience is necessary as a gardener will be on hand to help from 11am. We will have some tools for digging but feel free to bring spades or forks if you have any.

the site of the new community garden

A community garden in West Pilton growing fresh fruit, vegetables and herbs for everyone to enjoy. Come along and get involved helping build and plan the wee garden. Do you like gardening or want to learn?  Residents in West Pilton Brae looking out onto the grassland will be the first people involved deciding what the garden could look like and what to grow.

I went door to door last year asking some of the residents views on having a community garden area growing fruit and veg, and what the grassland behind the ‘greenhouse’ is currently used for.

Some of the older residents remembered allotments in the area that were demolished during redevelopment, and most folk I spoke to like the idea and could see the benefits of food on their doorstep but were a bit worried about vandalism.

Dog walkers use the open space so just a bit of the grassland would be used for a garden. None of the woodland surrounding would be touched as the local kids play in it and it is a beautiful landscape feature.

The garden could provide an opportunity for young and old to get together in a healthy fun environment, learning where food comes from seed to plate. The local schools could visit and work there as could local equalities groups. Seasonal gluts in crops could be used for cooking classes and sharing of recipes.  And people living in flats without a garden could share the growing space – those with gardens could swap plants and gardening advice.

Tenants and Residents in Pilton meets monthly in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre, giving anyone living locally a chance to voice their opinion and be involved with the community garden.  We have obtained permission from the council to use part of the grassland for a community garden. A bit of money is available to buy ten fruit trees to start the garden and soft fruits like raspberries and strawberries would grow well.

I will be going around the doors again to ask folk what they think and give anyone interested more information – contact details are below.

I like the gardening quote:  “Gardening requires a lot of water, most of it in the form of perspiration“!

Please get involved and help fight food poverty – we could transform the grassland into a sheltered oasis.

Kirsty Sutherland

Originally published in the North Edinburgh News Blog