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Community Garden and Foraging Trail - Development Worker and Gardener Post
2025-05-09 • No comments • • Grow Your Own fund
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.
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.