Granton Community Orchard Garden is having some Tree Planting Days on Monday 7th through to & including Thursday 10 March. Fifty fruit and nut trees, (a couple going to the Community Hall) including apple, plum, cherry, pear, hazel and almond will be planted (writes Laura Munro).
Kevin Ross, Manager of Granton Youth Centre has shown support and we are meeting this week to discuss this Special Event. Obviously this event will be involving Granton Community Gardeners (of which I am a member too) and other members of the local community and beyond.
It’s an Open Invitation to anyone interested – everyone from anywhere is welcome!
Refreshments will be provided to say thank you (Vegetable curry, soup, teas and coffee, etc) and if anyone feels like bringing some food to share (ingredients labelled! but I can help with that) that would be appreciated.
We have a face book page Granton Community Orchard Garden
& updates, information and photographs are posted regularly.
The space was and had always been a waste land, dog fouling area and fly tipping area between and behind the residential housing in Granton Crescent and Granton Medway.
The Orchard is just in it’s infancy but has huge potential to provide organic fruit, veg & herbs with harvest being made into meals to share or foods to preserve & then share – cooking & preserving classes too for those interested in learning, and specialist cooking classes from other cultures too.
There will soon also be a workshop for Garden Related Projects & also Art & Craft Projects, gardening related, of course, with products made – to sell to raise funds for future items needed, such as, solar panels & batteries, tools, materials for path making, raised beds, vertical gardening etc. Although emphasis is on recycling, re-using, re-purposing!! to encourage Zero Waste as we would like to be part of Keeping Scotland Beautiful!
Gil from Granton Youth Centre is also discussing with me a Young Smith program, and we are also hoping members of the mature community & residents in the Sheltered Housing will become more involved as many have shown an interest.
There’s so much more I could say, about insects & pollination, permaculture, biodiversity, therapeutic benefits – both physical & mental, children knowing where their food actually comes from, ownership & the Paradigm Shift, but I worry I might go on too much. (or already have)!
We will also have social events in the Orchard. Barbeques using our beautiful Organic Harvest, hoping to involve the Local Community as much as possible.
I am there virtually every day, and have been working on it for a year voluntarily, as it was filthy and unsafe. We hope, in time, it will be a great success & a fantastic addition to the community.
With funding, it is also hoped that many more of these under utilised neglected spaces could be turned into beautiful organic community fruit, veg & flower plots with more Orchards too.
LAURA MUNRO
Organiser, Granton Community Orchard Garden
Secretary, Granton Community Gardeners
PS: People do not have to garden to come in, there are fantastic views over the Firth of Forth to Burntisland and it will soon be a place where people may want to come and relax, to get away from the stress for a while.
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