Sunshine at Silverknowes

 I met a friend for lunch in a restaurant today (while we're still allowed to do that). Beforehand I went for a walk along the fields at Silverknowes. The fields are looking beautiful in the autumnal sunshine 

A roe deer was grazing in this field, though I don't think it's in that photo! 

Across the road from the fields, the sun caught the white trunks of these silver birch trees in the golf course
 

This whole area is a haven for curlew and other wading birds when the tide is high on the nearby Firth of Forth. Today there weren't many birds in the fields or golf course as the tide was very low

Edinburgh Agroecology Co-op have ambitious plans to 'transform' the fields into a local food hub. On first look the plans (which you can see in some detail here) are exciting and seem to promise a nature rich future for the site, but on closer inspection it seems clear that the project hardly factors in the fact that the fields are already vital for considerable numbers of wading birds, many species of which are in drastic decline in the UK. Wading birds that currently spend time on open, undisturbed fields will not be able to adapt to spending time in urban food gardens, busy with people planting and harvesting food. If you share these concerns, and want the project to include space for wading birds in its plans (or have other feedback on the project) then you can respond to their survey here.

Some Photos from the Meadows Community Garden

 Yesterday after our walk along the Innocent Railway (which you can read about here) we walked home across the Meadows. The Greening Our Street community garden is looking good with various plots and a little insect hotel. The project involves local communities and schools in growing wildflowers and improving the Meadows for nature. 

 The project has a crowdfunding campaign on MyPark, to raise funds for future developments.

Granton Community Gardeners

When you walk round the Granton area of Edinburgh you can't help but notice the wonderful mini gardens that have popped up (and continue to pop up!) on street corners around the area, like this one



These thriving plots are the work of Granton Community Gardeners, a community based project that is encouraging local people to get involved in food growing.

The group then use the food  they grow (along with donated food) in community meals. Last night, I went along for the first time to their community supper in Granton Parish Church. I was very impressed by the delicious vegetarian shepherd's pie. It was great to see so many people enjoying the food and conversation too. 

Granton Hub Community Garden

Yesterday, as part of my new job with Granton Goes Greener, I visited Granton Hub, a volunteer run community project with a real environmental ethos!

There is a wonderful garden space  behind the building, with space to grow vegetables and woven willow shelters

  and a wildflower nursery.

 
The Hub sells wildflowers and has supplied Butterfly Conservation and others with plants for their projects.

Edinburgh Scrap Store is also based here, though it was shut when I was there

Granton Hub is based in the original office building of the Maldevic Motor Carriage Company which in 1899 was manufacturing electric cars!

This aspect of the history of the site is reflected in the occasional events held at the Hub that focus on the history of cars and alternative transport. The car factory itself is now derelict (the building can be seen in the background in the photo below).

The Granton Hub Garden is one of three Granton community gardening projects that are involved in the Power of Food  Festival, which is happening across Edinburgh on 16 and 17 June. The other local gardens taking part are Granton Community Gardeners and Granton Castle Garden. The Hub Garden will be making an Iron Age Boat as part of the power of Food Festival, the boat will be built in this space

and then launched into the nearby Firth of Forth. Once the boat has been built, the area will probably be turned into a wildlife area. As I stood there, several goldfinches were flying around and white butterflies too.

The garden is already very set up for wildlife, I really like the way that the ant hill has been marked out to protect the ants and their home.

A slightly different version of this blog post will appear on the Granton Goes Greener blog tomorrow.

The Secret Garden

Today's writing group from the Ripple Project spontaneously had a trip out to the nearby Lochend Community Growing Project's Secret Garden as one of the group members was involved in an event at the garden.

It's a lovely garden, tucked away between houses

with lots of raised beds that the members cultivate and decorate

There's a wonderful pizza oven for cooking and baking

and a lovely cosy corner for chatting in

We took part in a plant pot decorating workshop, which involved spray paint, and in my case, haiku

The second haiku reads

autumn garden
the lingering scent
of lavender

We also drank tea and ate some lovely vegan chocolate cake made by one of the garden members.

Furry friends at Gorgie Farm

Gorgie City Farm is a lovely place to visit, a little oasis in the city and a great place for children and young people to learn about farming and the outdoors. They've been doing some rearranging recently, for example the old duck pond has been remodelled into a nice playground for the goats, who seem to be happier than ever, as well as very cute

Meanwhile the ducks have been relocated to the other end of the farm, but this one seems to be a bit confused and is hiding in the herb garden

The guinea pigs in the Pet Lodge seem to be fluffier and cuter than ever, though very difficult to capture on camera as they run around so much and photos need to be taken either through the windows or through wire mesh

The farm doesn't seem to have their own rabbits at the moment (all my old favourites, from the time when I was based at the farm, have long since passed over the Rainbow Bridge). However, the farm offers boarding facilities for rabbits whose owners are on holiday, and there are some beauties there at the moment

Updated to add: Gorgie Farm just let me know via Twitter that the bunnies above are the farm rabbits, Thumper and Sunshine! 

I liked this scene of the sheep and pigeons all enjoying each others' company

The pigs were having fun too

And I was very impressed by this wall of ferns (the long glossy fronds are harts tongue and the other fern is maidenhair spleenwort)

Plus the Gorgie Farm Cafe offers a great lunchtime menu!

As ever, red text contains hyperlinks that take you to other pages where you can find out more. 

Turning a greying country green again

For 30 Days Wild today, I've been thinking about the state of greenery in the UK. 

According to a recent report from the Royal Horticultural Society in the Independent newspaper, three times as many front gardens in the UK are now completely paved over compared to the number ten years ago. The stated reasons for this include people not having the time or energy to maintain their garden. Oddly the article doesn't mention either the increased number of cars which means that owners are paving over the front garden for parking or the fact that even in a one car household, on a busy road, many people pave over the garden to give themselves a turning circle so they don't need to reverse into a busy street first thing in the morning.

The effect of paving over so many front gardens is disastrous for local plant and animal life and also increases the risks of flooding, with water unable to soak into soil and instead running off hard surfaces.

In response to this trend, the Royal Horticultural Society has set up Greening Grey Britain, an initiative that aims to transform hard grey areas into living green areas by the end of 2017.

You can join in by pledging to plant some greenery in your garden or other space. Pledges range from planting a window box to planting a tree, meaning that you can fit in with your space constraints.

The benefits of planting more greenery include:

better health for people who get outside and garden
more space for wildlife
improved air movements and over a large area can help to reduce the temperature
insulation for housing surrounded by greenery

You can read more of the benefits of Greening Grey Britain here.

The website also includes lots of inspiring resources and stories, including how a school in Dundee transformed a litter strewn eyesore into a wildflower meadow and how a group of allotment holders worked with skateboarders to green the skatepark and improve community relations.

Dunbar's Close Gardens

It's easy to walk past Dunbar's Close Garden, which is tucked away just off the Royal Mile in Edinburgh. However, it's always worth popping in (as I did yesterday), as it offers a wonderful quiet and tranquil spot in the middle of the city.

 There are lovely views from the garden across to Calton Hill

I was delighted to see this adult hawthorn shield bug in the garden

Shield bugs are lovely insects, colourful and shiny but often difficult to identify as they have so many different life stages and colour variations - see this page for how different hawthorn shield bugs can look.

St Bernard's Well, Medicinal Garden

This morning, a small group of volunteers from Water of Leith Conservation Trust gathered by St Bernard's Well to weed and plant the old medicinal garden. The weather was beautiful, mild and dry. The weeding was easy and we then had a tea break (with nice biscuits!) before starting on the planting. Robins were singing around us and a beautiful female mute swan swam slowly past on the river as we worked. We also had good views of a dipper, busily looking for food in the river.

This photo gives some idea of how the area looked to start with, pretty overgrown.

This is how it looked after we had done all the weeding (the area in the background to the right had already been planted with medicinal herbs).

And this is how it looked when we had finished!

We planted species such as sneezewort, teasels (not strictly speaking medicinal, but used in making dyes), purple loosestrife, tansy and St John's Wort. Then we planted some daffodils in a long trail in the shape of a serpent (which is the symbol of health).

It was very enjoyable to be involved in the work and I really look forward to seeing the garden develop and bloom!

As ever, text in red contains hyperlinks, which take you to other websites, where you can find out more!

Biggar Poetry Garden

We had a lovely day today in Biggar, a small market town in Lanarkshire. We started in the Biggar Poetry Garden where two of my poems are on display. You can read my poems on the Biggar Poetry website here and I'm standing next to them in the photo below.

It was lovely to read the other poems on display in the garden, including one from JoAnne MacKay, who some of you may know from her blog Titus the Dog.

There are also plaques with extracts from poems about specific flowers on display near the flowers mentioned in the poems, such as this one from Edwin Morgan, the great Scottish poet, who died last year.

Then we went for a very nice walk, which I'll blog about tomorrow...

Redhall Walled Garden

I walked along the Water of Leith this morning as I do almost every Monday morning. Today I was delighted to see a kingfisher for the first time since I've been volunteering with the Water of Leith Conservation Trust. (Before I became a volunteer I used to see kingfishers most times I walked along the river and I have seen them in other places over the past year). It wasn't just the usual flash of blue zipping along the river either, it sat quietly on a branch for quite a while and looked at me. I don't have a camera at the moment but even if I did, I would have rather enjoyed the view than try to take an inferior quality photo. I also had very good views of a dipper, a grey wagtail and a buzzard. There were lots of blue tits, great tits and coal tits in the trees all along the river too.

There are still a couple of places available on the guided walks I'm leading along the Water of Leith starting 28 September. You can find out more here. There are also still places on my Environmental Writing Course that starts the same day. You can read about that here. I've just been asked too to take over a series of birdwatching classes that start on 27 and 29 September (and then again in November). You can read about those here.

Redhall Walled Garden is one of the landmarks of the Water of Leith. This was originally a mill and later became the kitchen gardens for Redhall House across the river. Redhall is a beautiful garden that offers a supportive working environment for up to 35 people who are recovering from mental health problems. There's a lot of practical activity at Redhall - people can develop skills in all areas of organic gardening. The beautiful environment offers a safe place for people to be and to unfold, often at a time in their life when they are experiencing great distress. The garden contains lots of lovely, meditative small gardens, including a wildlife bog garden, a Zen garden and a recreation of an iron age dwelling. Redhall is open from 9am-3pm, Monday to Friday and holds information days once a month along with open days twice a year. You can read more here.

The photo and information about Redhall Gardens have been recycled from a previous post for Organic Fortnight.

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Organic Food festival from Real Food Lover