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Proposals for this project: Grow Your Own fund

Total budget £52,500

Only residents in the following areas can participate:

Barnton Bunker entrance

Nuclear Growth

2025-05-07  •  No comments  •  BarntonBunker  •  Grow Your Own fund

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.

£4,640

Edible Garden at The Action Group

2025-05-06  •  1 comment  •  Tiffany The Action Group  •  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. 

£2,889