A community garden in the North section of the Roseburn to Union Canal Link cycle path. The project will enhance the local environment, create opportunities for urban food growing, and provide a welcoming green space.
Project Description
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.
Location: Russell Road and Sauchiebank, opposite Restorex
Proposed on behalf of: Friends of the Snake Garden, in partnership with Fountainbridge Canalside Community Trust
I think that this community garden is very important for creating a green oasis and for supporting nature and environment in the Sauchiebank area. As this district of Edinburgh is rather dominated by industrial areas for manufacturing, retail and railway companies, the community garden forms a strong contrast and contributes to make the area greener and healthier. It has the potential to attract a number of insects and pollinators, such as bees, bumble bees, butterflies and ladybirds, by encouraging the growth of different plants, flowers and trees. Therefore, I am convinced that the Garden @ the Snake provides a space for more biodiversity and that investing into this community garden would be an investment into a promising future of the Sauchiebank area in Edinburgh.
We are so delighted at having a community garden space on our doorstep. I look forward to seeing the team of volunteers grow and more people getting to enjoy and engage with the space. The location comes with its challenges, being at the top of a hill, and further investment would really help the project to flourish 🌱
I live in this neighborhood and would be so delighted to see this garden flourish. The new canal connection is really nice for cyclists and pedestrians, but after a few years of construction I think it would be nice to really commit to making what has been a giant dirt pile and turning it into a beautiful community garden.
Wow, it would be great to see some of these fundamental items delivered in order to get things started at this community garden. A lot of people look at the garden or stop to enquire, but when they realise there is no water, and almost rock hard soil the bewilderment sets in. The hilltop is a nice place where people convene at sunset to sit and relax, and any stewardship will help enliven the wider open space.
I think that this community garden is very important for creating a green oasis and for supporting nature and environment in the Sauchiebank area. As this district of Edinburgh is rather dominated by industrial areas for manufacturing, retail and railway companies, the community garden forms a strong contrast and contributes to make the area greener and healthier. It has the potential to attract a number of insects and pollinators, such as bees, bumble bees, butterflies and ladybirds, by encouraging the growth of different plants, flowers and trees. Therefore, I am convinced that the Garden @ the Snake provides a space for more biodiversity and that investing into this community garden would be an investment into a promising future of the Sauchiebank area in Edinburgh.
We are so delighted at having a community garden space on our doorstep. I look forward to seeing the team of volunteers grow and more people getting to enjoy and engage with the space. The location comes with its challenges, being at the top of a hill, and further investment would really help the project to flourish 🌱
I live in this neighborhood and would be so delighted to see this garden flourish. The new canal connection is really nice for cyclists and pedestrians, but after a few years of construction I think it would be nice to really commit to making what has been a giant dirt pile and turning it into a beautiful community garden.
Wow, it would be great to see some of these fundamental items delivered in order to get things started at this community garden. A lot of people look at the garden or stop to enquire, but when they realise there is no water, and almost rock hard soil the bewilderment sets in. The hilltop is a nice place where people convene at sunset to sit and relax, and any stewardship will help enliven the wider open space.