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.

Funding Application Statement (Public-Facing):

We are seeking funding to expand community food growing and training opportunities at Lauriston Farm through the installation of a shared polytunnel. The ELREC Organic Gardening Group, made up of local beginner growers, has been cultivating organic vegetables on-site for the past three years, with expert support from volunteer Dr. Sam Page, a specialist in natural pest management with over 30 years of international experience.

Our group currently grows a variety of nutritious crops, including kale, beans, garlic, and squash. However, the short Scottish growing season limits what can be successfully cultivated outdoors. A polytunnel will allow us to extend the season, protect seedlings from early spring weather and pests, and grow a wider range of nutritious crops such as tomatoes, aubergines, and melons.

This project will also significantly expand our capacity to deliver practical horticultural training in both outdoor no-dig beds and the new indoor growing space. Importantly, the polytunnel will be a shared resource, supporting over 20 other local community groups who garden at Lauriston Farm. Funding will help us build a more resilient, inclusive, and sustainable local food system while offering hands-on learning for people of all backgrounds.

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 project wants to grow more fruit bushes and welcome more people by offering picnics and a place to meet outside and in the shade of the polytunnel and to encourage the support of others that are wanting to enjoy gardening and grow crops from their childhood. People can eat and enjoy the fresh produce as well as all the wonderful aromas that are created with the likes of tomatoes, strawberries, dill and mint. Fruit bushes offer more nutrition as well which benefit health and diet.

There is an opportunity for all ages to thrive in this space and enjoy the delights of investigating wildlife and planting and growing. A pond allows for more learning along with all the bugs in the area and the sharing of learning from the beekeepers that are near by. There is a requirement for more pond life and plants that benefit the climate in Edinburgh

There will be learning and sharing as people enjoy the beauty of the earth and its produce. 

There can be crops that are not commonly harvested and food sharing as well as cooking of food and sharing time together.

There is an opportunity to reuse materials and build on what has been established rather than creating something new and many items are recycled and shared 

There is a plan to look at developing education and learning with experts that can talk about growing in Edinburgh.

Tools, plants and cooking materials are required for this project

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:

1. To get more Old Town residents playing an active role in gardening in their community. 

2. To grow fruit, vegetables and herbs for the community to use

1. Skill sharing, civil empowerment, and creating long lasting relationships. 

2. 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.

We hope to reinvigorate our exiting planters to create a working food garden in a site shared by Tollcross Primary School and Community Centre.   This would radically improve the amenity of the area which is largely  covered in asphalt with only six large trees on the site.   A group of volunteers maintains the existing gardens but overtime the topsoil in the planters has become heavily eroded and some equipment needs replaced  -  At present the only way of watering these planter boxes involves carrying bucket loads of water by wheelbarrow! 

This grant would allow for a reinvigoration of the existing planters allowing us to develop a sustainable and educational  food garden without any further ongoing funding.  We have included costing for one wheelchair accessible picnic table to allow the space to be more accessible for the whole community.

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.