Selfsufficientish.com

Sorry it's all very press-release like - it IS a press release, LOL! There are photos of us all gurning at an empty field on my blog (which you can get to at the bottom of this page....). The dirty looking small boy types are mine.

The Organic Growers of Bothwell are delighted to announce that Caley Construction Ltd have begun work on the construction of the Bothwell Community Garden.

Conveniently situated next to Bothwell Primary School, the sustainable organic garden utilises the ‘raised-bed’ method of gardening, which produces excellent results without the physical labour and maintenance often associated with allotment gardening, making it ideal for today’s busy family life. This method also greatly benefits older or less able bodied gardeners; and also serves as an excellent introduction to gardening for children.

Climate Challenge funding will be used to construct 62 raised beds, two poly-tunnels, wormeries, a potting shelter and secure tool shed. In addition, there will be a small orchard of fruit trees and a soft fruit growing area alongside a biodiversity area to encourage local wildlife and increase awareness of the value of nature.

The project aims to help villagers significantly reduce carbon emissions by reducing food miles and food packaging waste, and preventing local fruit and vegetable waste going to landfill. The garden’s central location makes it easy for gardeners to walk or cycle rather than rely on travelling by car.

There has been enormous interest from all sectors of the community, from pre-school groups to senior citizens. The project aims to create a peaceful green space where shared experience and knowledge will help everyone develop a love of organic gardening and a healthier lifestyle in a social setting.

The committee has already been contacted by a number of community groups in South Lanarkshire hoping to replicate the project within their own localities. We hope this is the start of a number of projects all working towards the same goals.

Norma Hay, chair of The Organic Growers of Bothwell would like to thank the committee members for all the hard work they have put in to reach this point. We have been very fortunate in having the experienced civil engineer Bill Gow on the committee. He has been a tower of strength with his technical knowledge of the requirements for construction. He will be on hand to supervise the build to ensure everything is done correctly. If all goes to plan we hope that the garden will be ready for the beginning of May.

END

Whoo-hoo! After months of wrangling with the council and other bureaucrats we are nearly there! I am so excited I could wet myself...

What great news you must be over the moon with excitement.
Do keep us all up to date with your progress.

Brilliant CT, and just in time for the growing season! Look forward to seeing more photos as work progresses.

Great news ct.

Where are the gurning pics?????

Wooooo Hoooooo!!!!!!! Woop Woop!!!!!

Brilliant news - well done

Great news CT. Nice to see your hardwork paying off. Will there be pictures soon?

Martina

absolutely fantastic, well done, toptastic project!!!!

Good luck

Martina, can you not see the pics on my blog, love? You have to scroll down past all my crap about primroses first, mind.....

Thank you everyone for your support and your kind words. It's been a fecking long and hard fight, and a lot of waiting around for bureaucrats to have meetings, it's been a nightmare, really. We had a big public meeting tonight - really well attended, and they were amazed at the plans - most of the applicants thought they were just getting a raised bed, they had no idea about the polytunnels, the biodiversity areas, the fact we are providing ALL the tools, composts, soil conditioners and most of the seedling to get people off to a good start; the learning circle for children's groups......it was amazing to see so many eyes light up with enthusiasm!

Now...we have the problem of allocating the beds. We are over-subscribed. Not by much, but enough to cause an upset.

Now, we have people who have put their names down early, but have never come to any meetings, come to any fundraisers, or even answered emails, but have sent their application forms back.

We have people who were later putting their names down, and might be just out of the allocation list, but have been very active in helping out........do we give preference to those who helped the most?

Or do we do a 'turn up with your money and you get a bed', risking someone who hasn't helped at all getting a bed because they are quick with a cheque to the detriment of a really interested person missing out because they can't get a cheque in on time?

Thing is, we are relying on members volunteering to be trained as composters / vermicultural specialists / polytunnel assistants / general tidy-uppers to keep the place running.....at the moment it seems that the same faces are turning up and offering help at every opportunity, but might not be guaranteed a plot because of where they are on the list; whereas some people might automatically get one, but not be bothered to help out and volunteer at all.....if they can't be arsed to answer an email or come and spend £2.00 in a carboot sale, I doubt they'll be bending over backwards to volunteer for anything more strenuous, IYSWIM.......

That's a dilemma, my view is those who help, get! But obviously it won't be as easy as that and there's likely to be a lot of upset. How are you going to divide up your polytunnel space, in the same way? It's good there's so many people interested though.

I also think that people who helped should get the beds. Tricky though because some who don't get one on this basis might say that it's a clique and organisers are giving them to their mates.

Perhaps drawing names from the hat is the fairest option with a proviso that next year allocations will be according to the amount of help given to the group. Mind you then you might need a way of recording who does what!

I'll bet the vegetables are a lot easier to organise than the people.
Still great way to socialise and build community. Love the idea. Also great to see a dis-used football pitch used for growing.

Well done, lots of work in setting it up and keeping it going. Wish I had your energy!

Love and Peace
Jim

Mmm, whatever we do isn't going to please everyone, that's the problem isn't it?

Millymollymandy, the first polytunnel is a training space - we have some polytunnel experts who'll be starting off plants from seeds and growing them on for the members to plant, to save people having to buy them in from outside (although they can still do that if they want to, but getting them from us will be much cheaper and there's less chance of disease); and they'll be training up volunteers at the same time. The second polytunnel has enough room for each plot holder to have the equivalent space of two gro-bags. It's not MUCH room, but we are looking at possibly finding funding for a third polytunnel to expand the growing area at the later date.

citizentwiglet wrote:Martina, can you not see the pics on my blog, love? You have to scroll down past all my crap about primroses first, mind.....

O.K. so I was having problems with imbedded pictures yesterday. Tried again. Success! Looks good, CT!

Martina