A project has just been launched to give Edinburgh residents more opportunities to grow vegetables, fruit and flowers on Edinburgh council estates.
Edinburgh Growing Together is a project delivered by Edible Estates, funded by The City of Edinburgh Council and by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. It follows a survey carried out last year of all 46 existing community growing projects on council housing land – from small ones with a couple of raised beds outside a tower block to large ‘neighbourhood gardens’ with growing beds for 70 or more growers.
The results identify a number of areas that do not currently have, but would benefit from, community or ‘edible’ gardens, plus ideal locations where new gardens could be created. While a number of Edinburgh’s existing gardens are considered best-practice, others require more attention.
Edible Estates met with gardeners and supporting organisations to find out what support they could benefit from. The findings provide the basis for the delivery of a multi-year programme to support existing gardens and develop new gardens. These support services will be tailored to the specific needs in each garden, as directed by and in liaison with its volunteers, management groups, council officers and local third-party organisations.
Delivery of the support packages has now started. This includes physical improvements to gardens such as renovation of raised beds, installation of water supplies and improving composting facilities. A lot of this work is conducted by Growing Youth, a social enterprise that educates young people in horticulture and construction. Community gardeners are being employed to train up new growers and increase participation. Organisational support to garden members is also included, to ensure gardens can be managed collaboratively by participants.
Greig Robertson, Edible Estates’ Founding Director, said: “Community gardens are a valuable resource to communities, they support individual and community well-being, promote physical activity, create new connections between folk, and of course grow fruit and veg. They are a ‘place’ and an activity, and play an important role in the move towards establishing 20-minute neighbourhoods across the city. Amidst news of produce shortages and a cost of living crisis, community gardens provide skills and resources towards more resilient communities.
“The Community Garden Survey has highlighted that gold-standard community growing projects can and do exist across Edinburgh, and showcases the potential for many more to develop with the right support provided through the Edinburgh Growing Together project. We are looking forward to continuing work with and supporting the fantastic organisations, groups, and volunteers behind each of the gardens, and more so to seeing how each garden develops over the coming years.”
Cllr Jane Meagher, Housing, Homelessness and Fair Work Convener, said: “What better way to reinvigorate community council estates and work towards net zero carbon by 2030 than with these beautiful, edible gardens?
“Edinburgh really is blessed with stunning greenspaces but this project is about helping local people to connect with nature and neighbours in their own communities. We have 46 community gardens across our council housing estates and, while many of them are thriving, others need a little bit of nurturing. That’s where the Edinburgh Growing Together project comes in.
“From upskilling local people in gardening to seeing community kitchens set up – like we’ve seen work so well in Craigmillar and Wester Hailes – the project team is bursting full of brilliant ideas. Working in partnership with the council, I’m looking forward to seeing them deliver countless benefits for our tenants and other residents to live well locally. Eating good quality nutritious food doesn’t have to cost us, or the earth.”
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
