Burnfoot

Community learning grows success in Burnfoot

Burnfoot Community Hub, located in Hawick, hosts a range of activities to support the well-being, quality of life, and opportunities of people in the local area. Over the summer of 2024, a programme named ‘Grow Your Own Garden’ was delivered within Burnfoot Community Hub’s garden. This programme was led as a joint partnership comprising Community Learning and Development (CLD) and Burnfoot Community Futures (BCF).

Coreen (CLD Worker) and Joyce (Community Engagement Supervisor and experienced grower) reflected on their partnership approach, the success and opportunities of working together and how growing food can be a worthwhile tool in community learning practice.

How did your garden programme come about?

Joyce: Many properties in Burnfoot have unused garden space; historically, these gardens supported families in feeding themselves. Now, many lie unused and essential food-growing knowledge is being lost.

The Hub’s community garden was funded through Climate Challenge funding to encourage people to grow their own food and to show them how to cook with what they grew.

Coreen: Given the purpose of the garden, Joyce and I identified six learners who we thought might be interested in the opportunity to learn more about growing and who would be keen and available to attend. Five group members have gardens and one a doorstep and wanted to learn more about how they could use them.

We accessed funding from Multiply through the Scottish Borders Council to hire the space and cover Joyce’s time supporting our growing sessions, which we held in the Hub community garden. We grew tatties, pizza sauce (tomato, basil, and onion), lettuce, strawberries, and courgettes.

How does food growing support CLD outcomes?

Coreen: This project’s community learning development role is about enriching the lives of people who may not have the same access to resources by offering and supporting them to attend informal learning opportunities around growing food using local resources. Accessing the garden space at the Hub to support our work has been amazing and has provided ongoing opportunities in the Burnfoot community to our learners/participants. Other CLD colleagues in the Scottish Borders take a similar approach, regularly using food growing spaces as venues to support an informal and effective approach to connecting, learning and much more. People have developed confidence and relationships locally and now have an awareness of other learning and engagement opportunities available to them as a route to progressing their learning and staying connected in their communities.

We began the garden programme by measuring out a small area in the garden that the learners could replicate at home. Learning about food growing also develops numeracy skills, such as measuring size and distance between crops, covering concepts such as ratio when we look at composting, etc. All the learners have since come together to complete the Level One Food Hygiene Course, and we have grown, cooked, and served our own food in the Hub space. We aren’t looking to be Master Chefs, but the soup tastes great!

Do you need to have growing skills yourself to run this type of activity?

Coreen: No, I was initially terrified, as I hadn’t grown my own food. I learned along with the participants, supporting Joyce in organising the programme and sessions. I started heavily reliant on Joyce for the growing skills content. However, I quickly learned that growing is about trial and error – like life really, sometimes things work, and sometimes they don’t. I think people are reassured by the fact that we are learning with them. ‘Growing your own Garden’ was a revelation; it was very easy to grow potatoes and possibly has changed how people look at food and how they use it; learning about how far our food has travelled and how fresh it is …one of the group had recently arrived from Caribbean islands, sharing their experience of a very different approach to food culture, they have transformed their garden space.

How do you measure the programme’s success?

Coreen: We mostly take a qualitative approach to measuring our impact. We also ask learners to measure their own levels of self-confidence in learning new skills at the beginning and end of the programme, we have been privileged to witness a positive change in their confidence, well-being and enjoyment as they progress through the weeks. This group has bonded well, supporting and encouraging each other with their garden growing and some of them have gone on to volunteer with Joyce at the Hub or join other community groups in the area.

What next?

Coreen: We have plans to repeat the programme with the participants who are keen to share their learning with others, and this time they’d be facilitators supporting brand-new growers to develop their skills.

The Hub runs an annual ‘Burnfoot Potato Challenge’ competition encouraging people to try and grow something at home. We shall use this opportunity to identify further potential learners in the future.

Advice to others working in Community Learning and Development?

Coreen: Know your community, identify and learn about its needs and aspirations, and, wherever possible, partner with a third-sector partner. Hopefully, everyone has a Joyce in their community!

Joyce: We have shared our skills and maximised the opportunity to support people’s connections with each other. In this instance, we started by learning one new thing: food growing. Through that, learners have developed their confidence and made connections to the wider community through the Hub. We work together to encourage the progression of learning both as families and individuals to enrich everyone’s experience.

See what else the Hub are up to here.

corna

Grow6: Winter

As the days shorten, daily tasks slowdown in growing spaces BUT there is still plenty to keep us out, active and growing. 

If you don’t have a growing space why not join one? Community gardens always need an extra pair of hands and never more so in the winter months.  Look at these maps, to see if you have a growing space near you.

If you don’t find a group on the map near you or want to start a group in your local area get in touch we are here and happy to help.

Last call for winter planting
See our Grow6 pages for tips and guidance on planting garlic, broad beans and over wintering onions. Missed the window? Don't panic it will soon be spring and the cycle begins again.

Make leaf mould

Bag leaves to make amazing peat-free material to sow and grow into.  Leaves break down differently to a ‘normal’ compost heap, taking longer (2 years) to decompose. The resulting product is- not rich in nutrients but great for adding bulk and structure to any soil and a brilliant peat-free substitute when mixed with homemade compost for peat-free seed sowing and growing in pots

As the leaves fall bag and stash them to make amazing peat-free material to sow and grow into.  Leaves break down differently to a ‘normal’ compost heap, taking longer (2 years) to decompose. The resulting product is- not rich in nutrients but great for adding bulk and structure to any soil and a brilliant peat-free substitute when mixed with homemade compost for peat-free seed sowing and growing in pots.

Compost, compost, compost

One of the best garden jobs ever whatever the month, in all weathers, and one of the most significant for its positive environmental benefits, if you have a heap, turn it, and if you haven’t a heap build one! Our Soil pages can help 

Nowhere to Grow

Nowhere to Grow

In 2022, an unused courtyard space in the middle of the East Kilbride Universal Connections Centre lay empty and overgrown. Michele, a youth, community and family learning worker at the centre, aware of the multiple benefits a growing space could bring to the centre’s work, initiated the Nowhere to Grow Garden. Many local residents living in flats lack access to garden space and the opportunity to grow and connect through food. A team effort supported by experienced garden volunteers has seen the unused courtyard become a productive growing space for everybody to see, grow and sample some of the tasty produce grown at the centre. The courtyard garden comprises 12 raised beds, a dry-stone herb garden, two small greenhouses and trained fruit trees against the sheltered walls.  

The garden supports various groups accessing the centre: the Eco eaters (economical eating group), family group, youth groups, visiting school groups and school refusers. In turn groups volunteer their time supporting the garden’s development and success. In early spring, the family group members took home tomato seeds to germinate and grow on before returning plants to the greenhouse; bulbs have been planted, raised beds and bird boxes built, and lots of fresh food has been grown! In term time, volunteers from the local school help with essential tasks; in return, kids learn where food comes from, get their hands dirty, connect with nature, and enjoy some fresh, local produce.

The small garden space has successfully produced a range of crops: tomatoes, parsnips, kale, soft fruit courgettes, cucumbers and some tatties.  The eco-eaters group often cook garden produce, making soup, pasta sauce or adding tomatoes to omelettes. Any surplus veg is made available for anyone to take home, supporting folk on a tight budget to access some welcome fresh veg. Gluts of green tomatoes and chillies have been used to make chutney, and surplus courgettes turned into cake. Two knowledgeable garden volunteers host a regular drop-in session, and Michele works to ensure and encourage everyone who wants to participate.  Those less interested in growing have been encouraged to help in other ways, such as helping to build, line and paint the raised beds and constructing some bird boxes. 

Learning about our relationship with nature is central to the projects work. For example, kale left to go to seed to attract spring pollinators starts a conversation about flowers, seeds and pollination. Wildlife visitors are welcomed, photographed and identified; last red-tailed bumbles took over a birdbox, and this year, a family of blue tits took up residence. We promote how the garden works as a whole and the natural cycles, encouragingly we have discovered many butterfly chrysalis this year. 

The courtyard garden has proven so successful that the Centre now has permission from the South Lanarkshire Council to repurpose the grass area outside the building.  Work is underway with the family group planting up bulbs and perennial flowers, a family growing space and orchard area. This move out with the Centre building visibly takes the benefits of growing out into the community, and Michele anticipates that with a higher profile, more local families will get involved. 

Michele’s top tips: 

Strawberries and peas have been great for engagement with young people. 

Let the volunteers lead and I figure out how to make it happen!  

Follow the garden progress here 

Taynuilt Tunnel Tale

Taynuilt Tunnel Tale

Lorn Organic Growers, based in the hills above Taynuilt at an altitude of 90m, started growing in the disused tunnels of a former commercial heather nursery on the Barguillean Estate 11 years ago.  23 members of all ages currently occupy 7 industrial tunnels (40mx10m), paying a small annual fee and growing in individual beds and collectively in a soft fruit tunnel and group orchards. Their circumstance, using disused commercial tunnels, is somewhat unusual, but their tale demonstrates a landowner’s willingness and a collective response to growing fresh food year-round in an area otherwise devoid of fresh food production and prone to heavy rainfall.

“If people want to grow vegetables in these climes, having access to a polytunnel is a win-win, there is no doubt about it. If you want local produce, you have to grow it yourself; our choice of fresh produce in the local supermarkets is very limited…One of the many benefits of growing here,” the group’s chair Colin continues, is the opportunity to garden, in the company of others, year-round in the dry! This August, we have had at least double the annual rainfall and little sunshine, but under cover, we have managed to grow potatoes, onions, lettuce, courgettes, beans and squashes.”

Local farms support the growers with abundant manure, and the group also benefits from a plentiful supply of seaweed that they gather from the shores of nearby Loch Etive. Each tunnel houses circa 32 raised 4m x1m beds, watered by a soak hose system fed through the burn. The burn has never dried up, but with frequent heavy rainfall, it is prone to silting up and has to be cleared. The tunnels are also prone to high winds and sometimes snow. Over the years, the group have devised their own clamp and eyelet tunnel repair technique, but essential reskinning and other ongoing maintenance costs are supported through members’ fees and sponsorship from local businesses. The group take on their own reskinning of the tunnels with help and supervision from an experienced local who knows the tricks of the trade.

Most of the group manage to sow and grow a variety of staple crops to see them through the year: potatoes, onions, garlic & shallots. A couple of members are horticulturally trained, supporting the group in diagnosing and addressing any problems as they arise. Other members are more than happy to experiment. One popular approach is to sow and grow some of the same crops both indoors and out to stagger the cropping season. Many of the group also grow winter crops: onions, garlic, cabbages through the winter for the hungry spring gap. Understandably, this year has not been good for tomatoes and aubergines, but Colin remains hopeful of a good autumn that can make all the difference.

If you’d like to know more about the work of Lorn Organic Growers you can contact them at lornorganicgrowers@gmail.com

If you are a growing group looking to grow year round whatever the weather we may be able to help you write your very own tunnel tale. Get in touch.

Raploch look out your window

Look out your window!

Welcome to Get Growing Scotland’s prompt on news, resource and support for folk looking to turn land in their neighbourhood into productive places to grow.

Look out your window

Look out the window, at home, at work, wider – the bus or car window as you pass through your local area. Have you ever wondered about that unused or unloved patch of ground? How could your neighbourhood have more welcoming and productive places to be with nature and grow food close to home?  

Across Scotland, communities are doing just that. They are taking on the land and developing spaces to grow, enjoy and care for nature, grow food, and connect with each other. They are improving their health and well-being as they improve their area and building skills, resilience, and positive ways to adapt locally to changeable weather and uncertainty. So, if you have ever wondered, please reach out.

Get Growing Scotland’s free help@ advisory service can help you with tailored one-to-one advice to get organised to access land and get growing nature-friendly food year-round. In 2023-2024, we directly supported 70 communities, partner organisations and local authorities on a wide range of topics, from support with community engagement to securing a lease.

Community Learning Exchange

The Community Learning Exchange is an exchange programme for communities to share information, experience and knowledge. This is invaluable to help your group clarify ideas, accelerate your development and share inspiration to keep going. If your group wants to learn from other communities about securing land and developing a community green space, we encourage you to apply. Every group applying for this funded programme via Get Growing Scotland gets a unique mix of advice, ideas, and connections. You may not even know what you are looking to learn; we can help you find the right groups to inspire and learn from, write a clear brief for your host, and endorse your application.  

Local Development Plan

Help us, help you to safeguard and secure land for community-led, nature-friendly food growing in your local authority area. Many local authorities across Scotland are in the process of updating their LDPs- assessing local services and needs, opportunities for growth and determining how land in local authority areas will be developed or set aside for future use. These plans are moving to a 10-year update cycle. What will your community need over the next ten years, and how can you act NOW and be positively prepared for an uncertain future?  

Local authorities are gathering evidence on peoples’ experiences in a local area, ideas for improvement, and what is required for the future. Currently, planners in Highland, South Lanarkshire and Midlothian and West Dunbartonshire and they want to hear from residents, so if you’d like to see more opportunities for community-led food growing, tell them! Perhaps you have a positive example to share, or you want land in developments to include dedicated land for mixed food growing models and associated infrastructure such as tunnels, water, tool storage. Your response will take circa 10 minutes. Read more here, and if you need help to respond, please contact us.  

And finally

We are busy working with groups to deliver and share inspirational content to demonstrate what is possible and how we can all benefit when we work together sharing inspiration, lessons learned and ideas to go further. If you are group with a story to share, a landowner, or someone that has an idea you want to develop please contact us. We’d love to hear from you.

KOSDT

Kyle Feeds, growing under cover in Sutherland

In a remote part of the Highlands, the Kyle of Sutherland Development Trust (KoSDT) is tackling food insecurity and growing resilience and local connections through community food growing  Bev, the Project manager, and Lucy, the Project gardener, share their Tunnel Tale.  

KoSDT serves six villages, encompassing up to 1700 residents. Bev recounts how when she first took up a post as a physical activities worker in 2015, she was struck by the lack of access to fresh, affordable food locally. “The nearest supermarket for villages in the area is a 24-mile round trip. With an ageing population and many young people of working age moving away, residents lacked regular access to fresh food and social connections.” In 2016, with funding from the Scottish Government the Trust set up a community café in Ardgay, other government funding streams have subsequently supported the development of a community larder and small tunnel in Ardgay (2022) and a kitchen garden and tunnel in Bonar Bridg  (2024. Under the banner ‘Kyle Feeds’, food growing and supply have since become a focus for collective endeavour,  

The tunnels and kitchen garden supply the local community larder and cafe, ensuring fresh, nutritious food is accessible to community residents. 

The Project’s growing initiatives  have proven to be really popular with volunteers working in the tunnel and the newly established garden. “The garden is right next to the post office and bus stop and attracts a lot of attention, with locals passing by, joining in, and really wanting to support us and get growing. Also, the area, which was previously derelict, provides an attractive focus to the village.”

 Other food-related projects delivered by 2 part-time gardeners include offering practical growing support and plants to grow at home to 40 village families over two years, with children under 18, supplying three local primary schools (2 with their own tunnels) with plants for growing in their school grounds, and delivering grow-your-own workshops for local residents, including children.  

Tunnels are not uncommon in this landscape, with this type of growing infrastructure becoming more commonplace in residents’ gardens; what provides extra motivation, reflects Lucy, is the knowledge sharing and learning together. “I am not a horticulturist, but I have a keen interest in growing food, and I’m learning all the time. There is so much local growing knowledge shared in our garden sessions, which is then shared with the younger generations through our school work. Additionally, there are lots of supporting networks such as Planet Sutherland and the Highland Good Food Partnership, which really gives us energy for our activity because we can see good things happening all around us, and we know we are not working in isolation.”    

 Lucy reflects that growing under plastic this far north gains an extra month at each end of the growing seaso   This spring has been a bit of a struggle taking longer to get warmer, but KoSDT has developed a routine of using a low-wattage electric propagator to get seeds to germinate before growing seedlings on in their warm sunny office . Finally, young plants are moved into tunnels with additional protection until they are big enough and able to withstand cooler temperatures. 

If you would like to know more about KoSDT’s work, you can read it here: https://kosdt.com/, or consider a visit through the Community Learning Exchange.  

Lucy’s springtime tunnel tips 

  • You don’t need to spend lots of money on expensive growing equipment, a simple electric propagator or heat matt can help . Use the heat to germinate the seeds and then move them on to grow somewhere else sunny and warm. 
  • Once young plants have grown, you can protect them further in the tunnel (March—mid-May). Place young plants in clear plastic boxes or a plastic mini greenhouse inside the tunnel. Old milk crate trolleys wrapped up at night can also work well. 
strawberries

Dry spells

It’s warm and dry for most of us, which is good for lifting our spirits, reducing slug damage, and watching our plants grow. However, at this crucial time, as young plants grow leaf and fruit and pods start to swell, they need water. When you are watering, prioritise plants in pots, seedlings, and young vegetables, and if you haven’t already, reflect on just how much water our food needs. If our changing climate means extremes of wet and dry, then how can we adapt and thrive in our growing spaces? Building healthy soils and being water-wise is a great start. 

two ugly rain barrels (blue and grey) for catching roof water for the garden and a rotating composter (black) off to one side

Water wise

It might feel like things are finally drying up but, if you haven’t already, it’s time to think about water in your growing space. If you are new to growing, you’d be amazed at just how much water it takes to put food on our plates. It falls from the sky so the best thing to do is to collect it, it would be rude not to! 

A few top tips will keep you straight:

  • Grow veggies as close to where you collect water as possible to minimise travel by hand, hose or drip feed irrigation.
  • Soil with plenty of organic matter is key to managing extreme weather conditions.  Insufficient watering early in the growing season will mean some plants ‘bolt’, and go to seed early. 
  • When you have to water in dry periods avoid watering, where possible, in the middle of the day water will be lost to evaporation.
  • Take care to water the soil around the base of the plant to avoid wasting water.
  • Plant more herbs, such as lavender, rosemary, sage, and thyme. These plants can withstand dry periods and are great for bees.  
  • Resist the temptation to water flowers unless they start to wilt, and save water for your veggies. Overwatering prevents them from developing deep roots that can help them be more self-sufficient.
  • Mulch, mulch, mulch wherever and whenever possible.
  • If you are growing in pots or on a windowsill at home washing up water will do just fine.
  • In a communal setting, make sure that you all understand and follow a water-wise system for it to be effective.
  • Tell others. Combined small actions can make a big difference.

Registered charities meeting certain criteria can register for the water exemption scheme. Read more here. 

N.B In hot weather, there is an increased risk of legionnaires disease – read more here 

 

Blackhill pumpkin leaves_Landscape

Blackhill’s Growing Tunnel Tale

“Tunnel growing is a perfect way to expand the growing season, which extends our engagement for most of the year rather than half of it. The tunnels provide a fantastic resource for learning and extra dry space for youth clubs, school workshops and broader community engagement through food; we wouldn’t be without them.  We can grow so much more than just kale and tatties, under plastic we are growing exciting things to eat right here in North East Glasgow.”

Blackhill Community Garden in Provanmill, Glasgow is located on church land and is a core component of St Paul Youth Forum’s work with young people and the local community. The garden brings people together by growing, cooking and eating good food. This 0.5-acre site lies adjacent to the church and centre. It comprises outdoor raised beds, a woodfired pizza often, a seating area, a chicken run, bee hives and three 14x 30 foot tunnels providing essential infrastructure for the group’s work.  Joe Lowit- Project Coordinator, shared the Blackhill’s Growing tunnel tales…“We’ve had the tunnels since 2017, the garden idea originally grew out of our young people wanting to make some money to sell produce for youth trips, and it’s grown ever since then. We wanted to try growing food and having a dry working space as the weather here is often so poor.”

The garden is open year-round for youth work, school visits, and community volunteers. Sharing and cooking food is a regular activity either through workshops or community meals. Any surplus fruit and veg is given away at either the veg barra stall, which has Blackhill’s Grown produce available for free (with option to donate) alongside wholesale cost price fruit and veg staples, or at the community larder, which provides free weekly emergency food.

Local support for the garden is strong, and the garden regularly hosts pick-your-own days in the summer months for the local community to come in and pick their own fresh, locally-grown produce. Vandalism has never been a problem, but the tunnel plastic has occasionally suffered accidental damage through use that has to be patched up. 

Unsurprisingly, soft fruit is always popular with local families, but large pumpkin leaves have also been warmly welcomed- an essential ingredient in West African and Bangladeshi cuisine not otherwise readily available in this area of Glasgow. “New Scots really love the tunnel growing as we are growing food stuffs they are perhaps more used to. We had no idea pumpkin leaves were such a delicacy or could be so delicious over the years, we’ve grown lots of exotic and exciting produce in our wee corner of Glasgow, from figs, cucamelons, and tomatillos to Japanese pumpkins, sweetcorn and aubergines. However, this year is the first time we’ve managed to grow our own melon and it was delicious!  

Much like any community space, the best ideas are often the craziest, and the group decided to try growing seedless white grapes, anticipating a limited crop, but now, in the late summer months, they harvest kilos! With a red wine grape, they’ve also made wine; combining this with their educational partnership with ‘Scotland the Bread’, they have grown their very own communion bread and wine to be shared with the church. 

The gardens focus is always on what the community wants, and soft fruit is always popular. Polytunnels prolong the soft fruit season, and through growing different varieties outside and under plastic, they can harvest homegrown strawberries from May to September. From a community garden perspective, it’s a game changer. Similarly, tomatoes can be extended over a couple of months. However, Joe is quick to point out that experimentation with different plant varieties is more about bringing excitement to the garden than producing commercial quantities of fresh, local food. That’s the next venture! Blackhill’s Growing has recently started work on developing a market garden on a new larger site nearby,  where the plan is to use polytunnels to grow fruit and veg on a commercial scale for the local community.

Recommnedations to others;

Our water comes from the mains, and we run a drip line to the plants, which is much more efficient for water usage and cuts down on the weeding.  

Learn by doing; you learn from your mistakes!

Leaf Green photo

Leaf Green Tunnel Tale

“We really enjoy going up to go up to the growing area; a year ago, we were putting cardboard down on the field to stop the weeds, and since then, we’ve had our first growing season, lots of produce and lots of ideas to grow more food in the village. For everyone that comes up, it’s such a good experience; we have a brilliant view and a very social space.”

Nestled on the upper banks of the Ale Water Valley with the Eildon Hills in the distance, this exposed but picturesque spot became a village-growing space with beds and a polytunnel less than a year ago. Susan from the growing group reflects on their first village growing season and shares plans for growing in Lilliesleaf in the future.  

Liliesleaf is a 3 street village in the Scottish borders with circa 250 residents; the primary school catchment extends to the nearby villages of Ashkirk and Midlem. In 2018, residents formed Lilliesleaf Community Development Ltd, raised funds to buy the green unused land in the centre of the village and began to shape their village with the vision to create Leaf Green, a positive focal point and facility within the centre of the community for the future.

In 2021, residents got planning permission for a change of use from an agricultural field to ‘form an outdoor recreation and communal space/garden. Inspiration for the tunnel and garden area came from conversations between villagers who wanted to grow food locally and in an environmentally friendly way. “I’ve always been able to grow a few tatties in my small garden, but I wanted to grow enough for the year.” says Susan.

Consultation with everyone in this small community was essential. Various methods were employed to consult with everyone through word of mouth, leaflets through every door and at the Leaf Green AGM. Support from the villagers quickly led to a site visit and conversation between 16 village members and the Borders Greenspace Programme officer. The group received a £6.7k  (Community Led Local Development) grant in late November 2022 towards garden infrastructure to take the project forward. Working to a tight funding schedule and a clear action plan, the growing group got to work installing rabbit-proof fencing with the help of the local unpaid work team, forming ‘no dig’ outdoor growing beds in the overgrown field, and researching the best growing structure for their exposed windy site. Linking in with local groups such as Greener Melrose and Abundant Borders, the group was able to contrast and compare different types of growing structures and their internal layouts and sizes. They settled for a 3mx8m ecopolytunnels in polycarbonate material and were advised on professional installation by the suppliers, funded with support from the community council. The tunnel has three ventilation hatches, which help regulate the temperature and airflow on hotter days whilst the garden group coordinates closing and opening the doors via a WhatsApp group. Water is supplied by two 1000-litre IBC (industrial bulk containers). Tile edging that collects water falling onto the tunnel and drains into the containers has been much more effective and cheaper than traditional guttering. 

A local architect supported the group with the necessary drawings of the shed and tunnel for their planning application. They contacted the Borders planning team early on to confirm exactly what was required with their submission. 

The growing group, with a core team of circa 8 communicate regularly through Whatsapp, and hold regular Sat workdays in the garden. Anyone unable to make group times can access the monthly garden task list in the tunnel. The group decided to keep growing simple in the first season and, in the tunnel, successfully grew tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, pumpkins and winter lettuce. One group member led on upskilling the gardeners in tomato growing, and another member from Virgina ensured donated pumpkin seedlings were a huge success, much to the delight of the school children. In their first growing season the group managed to grow enough fresh vegetables for themselves and surplus to share in the village, (for a donation), through a monthly brunch and fortnightly coffee morning. From this, they have developed an understanding of what people liked to eat and what they could grow. To date, leeks, early potatoes and tomato plants have been popular. They have plans to expand and be more proactive around surplus produce this year, so they plan to engage with villagers further on the best way to do this. “It is early days in our development and, as with the produce we are growing, we are developing in an organic way!”   

P1, 2 and 3 pupils have taken on a growing bed and have helped with the planting of fruit bushes around the boundary of the growing area. The group is keen to learn more about hotbox growing in tunnels to help start seedlings and young plants. 

They also intend to use the tunnel space in winter months to help overwinter some ornamental plants for village planters, extend the vegetable growing season and start seeds off early.  

Recommendations for others: 

Plan ahead for tasks, e.g. watering, opening/closing the polytunnel, what to grow and when. This helps us gauge what we can do and who will likely be available. We try to keep things relatively straightforward and expand gradually as we learn.   

Lots of communication is vital so that everyone has the chance to be involved in planning and decisions. Keep updating the village as the Leaf Green growing area is for all of us and everyone should feel able to get involved.  

To talk at an early stage to people who the tunnel may impact, we have houses near the growing area, so we talked to all the neighbours before we put the tunnel up and changed the position based on feedback.