The West Pilton Gardening Group is seeking funding to expand and further develop our existing community garden, increasing access to fresh, locally grown produce for people in our area. Our project supports food security, environmental sustainability, and community wellbeing. By enhancing the garden’s infrastructure and capacity, we will be able to grow food for our local sharing initiatives, involve more volunteers in meaningful activity, and provide opportunities for informal learning and skill-building.

Our community garden is already a valued local resource. With additional support, we aim to increase its impact by producing food, engaging more people, and creating a greener, healthier neighbourhood. Produce grown in the garden will be shared via our Community Sharing Shelf at the PEP Centre and used in our community groups. The project will also promote mental and physical wellbeing by offering regular opportunities for residents to connect with nature, learn new skills, and contribute to a shared purpose.

Project Objectives:

• Expand and improve our community garden to boost food production.
• Provide fresh, sustainable produce to our community groups and local residents, supporting the City of Edinburgh Council’s Net Zero and Anti-Poverty priorities, as well as aligning with the priority goal of Creating Good Places to Live and Work.
• Promote wellbeing and social connection by involving volunteers in growing activities, skill-sharing, and informal education.
• Foster a greater understanding of urban food growing and sustainable practices through hands-on experience.

How We Will Use the Funding: A grant of £4,000 will allow us to:

1. Install Two Greenhouses – These will extend the growing season, support seed propagation, and increase our ability to produce food year-round.
2. Purchase Tools, Equipment, Seeds, and Plants – Essential resources to expand and maintain the garden effectively and sustainably.
3. Employ a Sessional Gardener – We will hire an experienced gardener for 3 hours per week over 6 months (£25/hour). This role will involve planning and overseeing growing activities, supporting volunteers in the Gardening Group, and delivering informal education and skills sessions.
4. Increase Volunteer Engagement – We will involve a diverse group of at least 15 local volunteers, including existing PEP service users, in regular gardening sessions. Funding will help us promote the project widely across the community, making volunteering accessible and inclusive.

This project will be an inclusive, community-led initiative. The garden will serve as a space not only for food production, but for social connection, skill-building, and positive action on climate and health.

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.

To develop the community garden site – realising all infrastructure developments over the course of a year: laying paths, constructing a rain shelter and compost bays, establishing a cordoned orchard etc. – whilst overseeing the community garden for its first growing year and preparing for its second. The Development Worker/Gardener will also coordinate the development of a soft fruit and native plant foraging trail. All of these activities will be undertaken with volunteers. In addition to establishing the community garden’s infrastructure and planting, the Development Worker/Gardener will be introduced to users of Walpole Hall, Old Coates House and the A+E project space (all located onsite) – including the NHS Lothian Mental Health Information Station, Edinburgh Cyrenians Recovery Cafe (for those in recovery from alcohol and/or illicit substances), Three Spires Lunch Club (for those over 60), an English Language Class (supporting early asylum arrivals), and Early Days Nursery – to establish links between the community garden and wider grounds (including fork to plate volunteer initiatives, therapeutic gardening and the development of a foraging trail). The Development Worker/Gardener will also liaise with West End Medical Practice (also located onsite) to develop a social prescribing initiative for those who attend the practice. Once established, a social prescribing pathway will be expanded for all Edinburgh residents.     

The events and activities on offer the chance to take part in gardening and growing workshops, cooking on a fire and wood oven, sessions with music and movement, woodland crafts, planting growing your own food at home and celebration events.  All the activities will be developed around the needs of the community and we plan to be led by their ideas moving forward.

Addressing current barriers preventing the local community from connecting whilst engaging them to develop their own social hub.  A place where they can grow, socialise and enjoy food together.  Helping local people to develop friendships and feel more invested in the area, making it sustainable in the longer term.

ELGT’s team who currently deliver Out & About in and around South Edinburgh, which has been successful for many years, will plan and deliver the programme on behalf of the management committee and centre.  We have collaborated on many programmes over the years with families, kids groups, youth groups and older adults, which have all been very successful.  Their aim is to introduce communities to outdoor based activities in an affordable way, making them more sustainable for the future.  These should be offered in a comfortable and fun way – with lots of positivity to encourage further attendance.

In the longer term aiming to give the local community tools to move forward with a sustainable and achievable plan to improve health and well being.

Collaboratively we will be getting people involved, building relationships and developing trust by using innovative ways to engage with those that are hard to reach.  Using our knowledge and skills to bring the young people we work with along to activities, whilst the team at ELGT will gain referrals through Community Link Workers, GP’s and clinicians, other organisations and key stake holders.  We will also promote these activities thorough our popular social media platforms as well as distributing and displaying promotional materials locally too.

• • Increased food production for community cooking groups and pantry
  • Forming friendships and reducing social isolation
  • Trying new activities
  • Learning new skills
  • Greater connections with community
  • Improved confidence
  • Increased independence
  • Intergenerational opportunities for the community
  • Connected with nature in their local greenspace
  • Increased community participation and volunteering
  • Build strong, inclusive and resilient communities
  • Opportunities that meet community needs to address health inequalities

The bunker is well placed at the north end of Costorphine Hill to be a hub for locals who like to experience nature. We are aware that there is food poverty in the local area and are working with Tummies not Trash to establish a partnership to host weekly meals, and we have joined ECCAN. As we have plenty of outdoor space, we would like to set up a community garden that will simultaneously provide food for volunteers and also give people an opportunity to socialise and interact with the land in a positive way. Ideally, we would run a weekly drop in event that ties in with the live-in volunteers on site who could monitor the progress and keep things going in between sessions. We are a young charity and it is important to us to work in a sustainable way and establish relationships with the local area, filling a need that exists in the community. We could also potentially buy more chickens (we currently have 5) or ducks to provide eggs.

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.

Gracemount Medical Practice Community Garden Project   Led by Transition Edinburgh South  

Transition Edinburgh South (TES) seeks to transform the underused outdoor space at Gracemount Medical Practice into a vibrant, biodiverse community garden that promotes health, sustainability, and connection. This collaborative project will bring together patients, staff, volunteers, and local residents to co-create a space that benefits both people and planet.

The project is rooted in four key objectives:

1. Enhance Biodiversity:

We will introduce pollinator-friendly planting schemes, wildflower areas, and a diverse range of native plants to support local wildlife. The garden will act as a green corridor for insects and birds, increasing biodiversity in an urban setting.

2. Community Engagement:

Through regular workshops, planting sessions, and seasonal events, the garden will provide a space for people to come together, build relationships, and foster a shared sense of stewardship and pride in their local environment.

3. Improve Well-being:

The garden will offer a calm, accessible space for relaxation and therapeutic activity, supporting both mental and physical health. Patients referred through social prescribing will be able to engage in gentle gardening, nature connection, and group activities tailored to their needs.

4. Build Skills and Knowledge:

Participants of all ages will have the opportunity to learn about gardening, ecology, and sustainable practices. Skills gained will help people feel more confident in caring for green spaces and contributing to a more resilient local environment.

Target Audience  This project is open to:

- Patients of Gracemount Medical Practice, including those referred through social prescribing.   - Local residents of all ages and backgrounds.   - Community volunteers and TES members.  

Planned Activities   We will run a series of inclusive, hands-on activities to bring the garden to life:

Garden Design Workshops:

We’ll invite the community to shape the vision for the space through co-design sessions.    

Wildflower Planting Days:

Participants will learn about and plant native wildflowers to attract pollinators.    

Educational Sessions:

We’ll host practical workshops on biodiversity, composting, and sustainable growing techniques.    

Creative Engagement:

Art, poetry, and storytelling workshops will connect people emotionally to the space, encouraging a sense of ownership and joy.

Outcomes   By the end of the project, we expect:

1. A thriving, biodiverse garden that enhances local ecology and supports pollinators.   2. Stronger community connections through shared, meaningful outdoor activities.   3. Improved well-being for participants, with positive impacts on physical and mental health.   4. Increased awareness and understanding of biodiversity and sustainable living.  

This project will be managed by Transition Edinburgh South in close partnership with Gracemount Medical Practice, with ongoing input from the local community. It builds on our 15 years of experience running community growing projects and supporting local climate action.

Together, we aim to create a welcoming, healing, and life-affirming space — a small oasis where biodiversity and community can flourish side by side.

We would like to develop the outdoor farm area of Longstone Primary School.  We have so far constructed 5 large raised beds for growing vegetables and further space is available around it.  We would like to add fruit bushes and plants to this.  The area will help develop the children's understanding of where our food originates, allow them to learn how we can grow our own and then enjoy the reward of picking and eating it.  Our goal is to provide further outdoor learning opportunities and a space that the children can be proud to take care of.

How do we hope to spend the money?

We would like to purchase and plant a selection of fruit plants, including raspberries, blackcurrants, strawberries and rhubard.  We would also like a supply of seeds and seedlings for the vegetable area, including herbs for a sensory area.  We would also purchase some child-sized gardening equipment, including gloves, small trowels/forks and watering cans.  Other gardening supplies such as compost, seed pots and growing supports/trellises would also be needed.  We would also look to purchase a folding fire pit and safety equipment so that small groups could be involved with outdoor cooking.

Who will benefit from this project?

The site is accessed by 300 children - 250 from the primary school and 50 from the attached nursery.  This project would provide garden areas accessible to all of these children, giving the option for teachers to incorporate outdoor learning into their classes.  It would also be available for use in extra-curricular activites with a gardening club.  This project is coordinated by the parent council so would also provide volunteering and social activities for the parents and carers willing to help.