Only residents in the following areas can participate:
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Inch Park Community Orchard and Tree Care Project
2025-05-11 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
To plant a contained 30-tree community orchard on the boundary of Inch Park and Inch Housing Estate (from hereon: The Inch) with additional planting of 60 fruit and nut trees and 250 other trees and shrubs (varieties could include more fruit and nut trees). The community orchard will act as an outdoor learning and growing space, with further planting throughout Inch Park and possibly The Inch; the latter depending on outcomes generated by the tree planting coordinator and community development worker post (from hereon: TPC-CDW).
The overall project aims to foster community engagement, educate for biodiversity, food sustainability and climate literacy, whilst enhancing the overall health and well-being of our local communities.
Maintenance and care are key to the survival of urban woodlands and orchards. To this end the project focuses on training a team of Maintenance and Care artists (MCs for the community orchard and wider treescape) drawn from the local community and our partner organisations.
Key Objectives (adapted for wordcount):
- Community Engagement:
- Involve local residents in the planning, planting, maintenance and celebration of the orchards and the park’s wider treescape.
- Host regular volunteer days to foster a sense of ownership and community pride.
- Collaborate with local schools, community groups, and businesses.
- Biodiversity and Climate Education:
- Develop educational programs and materials to inform the community about the importance of biodiversity and climate change.
- Partner with Edinburgh-based environmental organisations to provide expert-led tours and workshops with a focus on tree care (including orchard care) and companion species.
- Create interpretive signage to educate visitors on different plant species and their ecological benefits.
- Health Benefits:
- Promote physical activity through orchard maintenance and tree care workshops.
- Improve mental health by providing a serene green space for relaxation, recreation and imaginative play.
- Provide access to fresh, organic fruit and nuts, encouraging healthier eating habits.
Specifically, regarding this funding bid:
The TPC-CDWs will undertake the planting of the community orchard and 60 additional fruit and nut trees in collaboration with FOIP and the wider community; this will include planting more fruit and nut trees if the community favour extending the food growing focus within The Inch. To maximise engagement the TPC-CDWs will run regular planting days with designated community groups from late September 2025-March 2026. In advance of these planting days (through July-August), and as part of their follow-up and overall engagement, the TPC-CDWs will liaise with partner organisations, local residents, and others (see below) to explore planting locations and food growing initiatives within The Inch. Key to the project’s success will be the recruitment of volunteers committed to the ongoing maintenance, care and celebration of the trees. While some of the volunteers will be members of FOIP, a broader base of community volunteers will be required. The TPC-CDWs role will be to galvanise that volunteer base and to provide a range of tree planting days not limited to the availability of FOIP’s existing members and associates.

Gate 55 Community Food Growers
2025-05-11 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
There is a huge unmet need for food growing space such as allotments, and ours is a low-income area where growing your own is often the only way to access high-quality, organic fruit and vegetables.
Local young people recently built several new raised beds to create an allotment area at Sighthill Community Centre (Gate 55), as part of an SVQ in Rural Skills. The project will support them and the other residents who have begun growing food here - using organic, no-dig methods - in becoming a formally constituted and thriving community food growing group.
The project will enable the group to fit out a space to use for propagation; plant fruit bushes; and install a water butt.
It will cover the cost of a part-time Project Worker (12 hours per month) who – as well as taking part in weekly gardening sessions as a volunteer herself - will work to promote and expand the group and ensure that all parts of the community can come and get involved. The Project Worker will provide the group with administrative support, and link it up with potential partner organisations such as RBGE to come and run workshops in Gate 55’s new food growing spaces.
The food growing spaces now encompass an allotment with seven large raised beds and a tattie ridge, and a large planter in the courtyard of the building. As well as these, there is a sizeable south-facing garden area that the centre will be inviting the group to develop and use for community food growing (it is currently short grass and paving, but has two mature apple trees in it), with support from the Project Worker and the Wider Achievement Officer at Gate 55 (who will work in partnership on this project). The group will go on a visit to Lauriston Farm to get more ideas about what they want to grow in the different spaces.
The project is partnering with Sighthill Library, with plans to set up a seed library inside it.
This autumn, the project will see the group look at composting and wormeries, with a view to additional composting or wormery facilities being built for the food growing.
The growing spaces will be open to all. Everyone will be able to come and simply enjoy them or take part in simple tasks such as watering at any time during Sighthill Community Centre: Gate 55’s opening hours.
The produce will be made available to the local community for free at two large harvest meals, which will be open to all, and, during other periods, using a very low-cost, community veg box (pantry-style) scheme.
Edible Garden at The Action Group
2025-05-06 • 1 comment • • Grow Your Own fund
We would propose the following: • The Green Thumbs (our clients) has approached us at The Action Group to set up a unconstituted /informal gardening group made up by our clients. The role of The Action Group is to provide assistance in facilitation and risk management, and we agree to be the parent company of this project. • The group would use our indoor courtyard space, that is privately accessed by The Action Group, that the group could access freely, with an emphasis on fresh produce (herbs, vegetables, fruits) to be grown safely there, away from public misuse or vandalism, to ensure it is safe to then share with this community. • The group would then harvest the produce, and we could set up a publicly accessible stall in the land/garden that is publicly accessible currently. This is where people could take the fresh produce for a small donation or for free, with donations going towards the gardening groups endeavours or local charities within the community. • For larger fruit trees we do have a public accessible spot that we would happily set up a orchard. We would put recycled signs up to encourage people to help themselves to the fruit. One client in particular has a vision of us making apple juices from trees that we hope to one day plant/be able to acquire!
Additional things we'd like to be able to achieve: o One of our service groups in Falkirk are learning how to make planter boxes and basic woodwork skills from recycled goods and so we’d plan to incorporate their skills and recycled goods to aid this project further and to invite community volunteers to help us with this project. o Eventually we’d love to see our clients proudly sharing what they manage to do with the ingredients we harvest and sharing that information with our community. One idea that the clients have had is to make a recipe book based on what we cook from the fresh produce, to share with the communtiy. o We'd like to connect with Edinburgh College which is across the road from our centre, for them to share their skills in horticulture and gardening where possible, and potentially the cooking units. We'd also welcome any of the students to gain volunteer experience with us.

Tuk Tuk Grow and Go
2025-05-10 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
Tuk Tuk Grow and Go is a mobile community food growing and cooking initiative for families in Edinburgh. Using our tuk tuk and soup bike, we’ll visit neighbourhoods, community spaces and schools to deliver hands-on educational sessions that make growing and healthy eating easy, fun and accessible.
We’ll begin with short sessions that engage families in thinking about what they could grow at home – focusing on simple, low-maintenance options like herbs and easy to grow vegetables that work well in small spaces. We’ll explore what would be practical and enjoyable for each family, considering their needs, available space and interest.
At each location, we’ll display examples of plants grown from seed and offer Growing Survival Kits – simple starter packs including compost, pots, seeds or seedlings, and easy-to-follow instructions. These kits will be tailored based on family feedback, supporting people to feel confident and capable of growing their own herbs and vegetables at home, all year round.
Each session will also include a food component: hot soup or a dish using the same herbs or vegetables being promoted. We’ll serve this using our branded soup bike, and share easy, family-friendly recipe cards and optional take-home ingredient packs.
To connect participants with wider growing opportunities, we’ll offer optional tuk tuk visits to nearby growing sites, creating positive experiences and potential new links for families.
By bringing everything directly to communities, Tuk Tuk Grow and Go reduces participation barriers and makes food growing visible, social, and engaging. It encourages small but meaningful actions that support climate goals, health, and community resilience.

Community Growing Collective - Edinburgh Old Town Development Trust
2025-05-11 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
Nearly all Old Town residents live in flats with no access to a garden. EOTDT’s Community Growing Collective aims to partner up keen gardeners with greenspaces that need tending. The project has four main aims:
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To get more Old Town residents playing an active role in gardening in their community.
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To grow fruit, vegetables and herbs for the community to use
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Skill sharing, civil empowerment, and creating long lasting relationships.
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To improve Old Town greenspaces for public accessibility and enjoyment.
Through previous funding, we have set up partnerships with the West Port Garden and Scottish Veterans’ Residencies. We have had a launch event to inform local organisations of the project, and recruited 20 volunteers so far. We require further funding to purchase gardening resources and equipment, to hire a freelance growing coordinator, and for staff time to organise and evaluate the project.
Volunteers will work on gardens in weekly slots, planting, tidying, weeding, and doing any maintenance work to improve the spaces. Any food grown will then be used in The Crannie’s free community pantry, and in their weekly cooking group and subsequent community lunch. A focus will be placed on skill sharing and community empowerment, with the Growing Coordinator helping to teach about growing veg in Scotland. Additional focus will be on building community relationships, allowing the participants to enjoy spending time in the gardens and working together.
We hope the funding can support the Community Growing Collective becoming a mainstay of our weekly programme, while allowing the local spaces to flourish. The Veterans’ Residencies garden is used by 80 veterans, and West Port Garden is a very central publicly accessible space. We hope that when it has been transformed, it will be an enjoyable place for local residents and passers-by to experience.
The project aims to be as sustainable as possible, contributing positively to the climate via several avenues: empowering locals to grow their own food, lessening the need for imported supermarket goods, and creating enjoyable accessible greenspaces in the Old Town.

Garden @ the Snake
2025-05-11 • 4 comments • • Grow Your Own fund
Vision and Purpose:
This community garden will serve as a multifunctional space that:
- Provides a calm and beautiful resting place for individuals using the active travel networks.
- Engages local people in food-growing practices, offering an accessible way to connect with urban agriculture.
- Supports biodiversity, linking nature networks in Roseburn Path, Union Canal, and Dalry Cemetery, mitigating habitat loss caused by the cycle path development.
- Improves soil permeability to absorb rainfall and reduce flooding risks on Russell Road.
- Promotes community wellbeing by providing a shared space where local people can gather, share knowledge, and engage in meaningful activities that strengthen local connections and deepen community ties.
- Promotes individual wellbeing by enabling people to reconnect with nature, contributing to mental and emotional health through hands-on engagement with soil, plants, and local wildlife.
Environmental resilience and food security:
- Permaculture techniques to manage natural resources at the garden.
- Careful rainwater management (waste water runoff collection by plumbing runoff pipes from cycle path railway bridge into water butts, rain water collection in landscaped swales)
- Improvement of soil structure, stability and nutrient density (Focussing on perennial plants as much as possible to reduce soil disruption, adding organic matter back into the soil with compost and green manure, improving soil water permeability and water retention through surface mulching)
- Natural pollination and pest management by co-planting veg/fruit with flowers and herbs to attract pollinators and pest-managing insects like ladybirds.
Access to food growing knowledge and green skills:
- By encouraging community learning and informed participation in community composting, demonstrated by a fantastic project in Lancaster where residents could take a quick induction course in order to make sure compost composition and maintenance was correct. More community involvement means more compost, which means more food!
- Volunteers at the garden will learn hands-on about food growing, and funding could allow guest experts to come in to teach skills, or to help run interactive sessions.
Get Blackhall Growing
2025-05-12 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
The project will use a prominent plot on the grounds of Blackhall Primary school, situated on a main road in the local area. It will create a community growing area full of fruit, vegetable, herbs, and edible flowers. The project will engage a range of young people in food production including students from the primary school, who will be given the opportunity (outside the regular curriculum) to grow on the plot, supported by the Outdoor Education team and volunteers from the community. Local youth groups including the Brownies, Guides and Scouts will also be invited to use the plot for their learning and engagement in growing.
We will also aim to engage members of the community beyond our young growers, to encourage intergenerational exchanges on growing your own, and strengthen existing links. For example, the children will visit the local Care Home to showcase and share the produce. We will hold community open days where locals can share the space, learn from what the children have done, and help themselves to produce. We will also foster links with other local primary schools with similar initiatives, share our produce and plants at local events, and share our surplus with local community enterprises (for example the Village Bistro in Davidsons Mains).
StJV Allotment: a growing space for the campus community
2025-05-12 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
There is some underused space around our school campus. We intend to put in raised beds to use this space for growing food, flowers, and herbs.
We intend to involve the community; school, nursery, church, and local; to help us maintain the growing space, and to share in the food which we grow. This will increase the role of the campus as a focus for community groups and positive local action.
We have a space in the school for cooking the produce, and a venue to support the sharing of what we grow together. This would expand the use of the cooking area in the school, making it more efficient and purposeful.
We intend to use the grounds development expertise of Earth Calling (https://earthcalling.org/) to create the space which our community groups can then maintain.
Earth calling will do the labour, and then deliver a training session for parents, staff, and community members so that they can take the allotment project forward.
The flowers will act as a welcome for pollinators as well as community members. The herbs will be available seasonally to local families, and used in sensory play in the nursery. The vegetables will be prepared and shared with the community, using our existing school cooking area, giving experience in harvesting, preparing, and cooking produce from fresh.
The trees are intended to provide a green corridor between two existing isolated stands of trees on site. The wildlife hedging will provide a home for small animals, such as songbirds, and increase biodiversity on the site.
The community members, children, and staff, of the campus will have an opportunity to develop skills and awareness around food growing and plant care. We hope that adding a bench to the space will make it pleasant and encourage community members to spend time there and share skills. We will also have two tables, one which can be used for garden work, such as potting and gathering harvest, and the other one for offering produce, flowers, or herbs to the local community.
A class/year group (P5) from the primary school will maintain the allotment during the school day, and there is access outside of school hours, and terms, from the all-year nursery/ELC. Evening and weekend access would be through a ‘Friends of’ group who would have a copy of the gate key.
The class/year group (P5)will incorporate this into their ‘class yearly project’, as part of their Eco and Sustainability curriculum. This will form part of their Interdisciplinary Learning incorporating all curriculum areas including Literacy (Writing and Reading) and Mathematics. Allocating to a class/year group also ensures that all pupils as part of their, ‘StJV Pupil Learning Journey’ have this learning experience.
Oxgangs Community mini-orchard and harvest festival
2025-05-10 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
Oxgangs (North) Community Organisation (OCA) and Oxgangs Community Growers (OCG), propose to establish a vibrant community orchard in Oxgangs. This project will create a welcoming public green space that encourages local food growing, supports biodiversity, and fosters community cohesion.
This project builds on a community-led climate adaptation planning process carried out between January and May 2025 by Oxgangs Community Growers with Edible Estates. This engagement involved a wide cross-section of the Oxgangs community, and identified fruit tree planting and community events as key local priorities for adapting to climate change while also strengthening community resilience and improving public green space. This community planning exercise also identified several locations for fruit trees; which will be finalised in the initial stages of the project.
Alongside a range of fruits trees, we will install benches, a community-designed “green man” sculpture by local creative social enterprise Best Bib n Tucker, and an educational information board explaining the tree types, the orchard’s purpose, and community involvement.
Pollinator-friendly planters will be added to support biodiversity and beautify the site. Orchard installation and maintenance will be carried out by OCG, supported by Edible Estates. OCG are already maintaining public green spaces in Oxgangs, which have been well received by locals.
Benches and planters will be constructed in partnership with Firrhill High School, providing experience and skills for local young people and protecting against vandalism.
The project will launch with a community harvest festival in Autumn 2025, organised by OCA, with various activities such as apple juice pressing, a fruit preserve workshop and a local food swap. This will help to build local momentum and buy-in ahead of planting and construction.
Following planting of the orchard in Winter 2025/26, and building of planters and benches in early 2026, OCG will continue maintaining the mini-orchard so that it is attractive and accessible to all community members. OCA will continue to organise events in the orchard space.
Redhall Grows
2025-05-12 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
Redhall Grows would utilise the current garden space we have for growing food, cooking, and enjoying it together. We would implement raised beds, along with a polytunnel, to grow a variety of fruit and vegetables. Each of our nine classes would take an active role in the planting and tending to our food growing project. It would also become a key part of our outdoor learning sessions and Eco Group remit. At the moment, we are quite limited in funding for fresh fruits and vegetables for our children to try. The food grown in our garden project could become an incredible tool for our children’s communication. Most of our children are nonspeaking and utilise alternative types of communication. Their diets are also frequently quite limited. Trying new things and learning how to indicate what they like and don’t like would be an invaluable activity for our learners.
Further to the empowering benefits of our learners being able to grow food from seed and figure out what they do and don’t like, with an outdoor kitchen and pizza oven, the garden could be used to cooking sessions (life skills related to health and wellbeing are a large part of our curriculum).
To involve parents and the local community, we would aim to host a series of food-related engagements within the garden, such as a pizza night and a soup night. We would signpost this widely to draw in local community members into the life of our school.
We are currently working on achieving our Green Flag award with Eco Schools, and are hoping to create a more sustainable environment for our leaners and the wider community.