Greening our Street year report 2017 – 2018
Greening our Street was founded in 2014 by 10 local people who were concerned by the lack of biodiversity in Lauriston Street and LauristonGardens. We are constituted
as a community group.We soon branched out into the Meadows, where we started our Wildflower plot, and in 2017 we established our community garden and orchard.
We have a large online following of about 250 but our day-to-day existence depends on a small dedicated group of about 12 individuals.
We are grateful to our supporters, who include the children and parents of SciennesPrimary School, FOMBL volunteers, the Lauriston Green Group, various University groups, the Southside History Group, and the Parks Management along with the Trees and Woodlands department. Our funders include Trees for Cities, the Southside Partnership Community Fund, and the Co-Op community fund.
We hold regular Saturday sessions and about 3 wildflower plot sessions. Friends help by contributing to the watering rota, and running sessions. We have a website, a Twitter account and run a Meetup account too (109 members). Regular monthly newsletters are sent out via Mail Chimp. We published a leaflet in 2017, and need a new design for 2018. Every year, we organise 2 planning meetings and an annual AGM.
During the last 12 months our Saturday meetings ran from 10 to 12 but in 2018 they have been held later due to the cold weather. The snow and Easter were marked by building a snow man, and hiding eggs.
In the course of this year, the garden has been transformed from a potato growing project with the P2s from Sciennes in 2017, toa complete delivery of the original design withan orchard, raised beds and benches in 2018. Our picnic table was delivered in February.We’ve built two cold frames and our seedlings are now taking off.
Our Friends have performed wonders, and we’ve had amazing group efforts, as when the Sciennes families helped us bag up a mountain of compost, donated by the Parks management.On 9th September the six raised beds were carried from the Greyfriars workshop all the way to the community garden.
The Parks management also installed our new noticeboard on 20th Jan, and gave the go-ahead forhiring Rob Brodie to scythe the meadow that had grown up around the garden on Wednesday 16 August, 2017.
Our other summer event was the Power of Food Festival on 15 June. We were number 13, which perhaps accounts forwhy we had a few problems. However, we were delighted to welcome three refugee families on a very lovely day.
Our schools involvement continued on 18 Jan 2018 when the Sciennes ecogroup invited Anne and Sarah to talk about insect hotels. We now have permission to grow a small meadow close to the community garden, and build an insect hotel within it.
The Sciennes P5 (one class) visited the garden to make pots and learn about seeds. We look forward to visits from the other classes.
Our community Orchard was funded by Trees for Cities, and was planted on 6 May 2017 by volunteers from Bloomberg, along with a team from the Trees and Woodlands department. We had to procure the trees, the mesh and the poles, and a brilliant group of volunteers.
During the Meadows Festival on 3rd June, we provided a willow weaving activity and made arches for the Wildflower plot and a fence for the community garden.We ran further craft sessions in the winter months, inside Lauriston Centre. Both the Advent Crafts on 9 Dec 2017 and the Bird crafts session on 27 Jan 2018 were very well attended; many thanks to Fernando for coming with his whistle-making tools.
Birds are a constant interest, and we ran a bird spotting event with a RSPB expert on 29 July, a gusty day when only 10 species were spotted. Guess which ones they were?
Other interests include collecting seeds; on 15 April, Sarah and Alastair sowed wildflower seeds collected in Granton as part of Living Landscape project. Emma has designed a growing plan and will be collecting seeds for the community garden. We joined with Fombl in visiting Graham Bell’s permaculture garden on 4 May.
Our members have also attended lectures at the Botanical Gardens, and we support the City Sounds project currently being run by the University Informatics department. We also provide activities for student groups; the toddler play area was created by group of international students in October 2017.
Bulb planting has been a regular activity; one thousand bluebells were planted by a large group of volunteers in May 2017 during a heat wave, and kept watered by Anne and family. The bluebells have survived and have been marked to keep the mowers away.Then in the autumn, we planted loads of narcissi and crocuses in the orchard, which can be enjoyed now. Thanks especially to Bela and Max for this.
Other projects included providing a little garden for a refugee family on 15 Oct 2017, and advising the HimalayanCafé about transforming their back garden.A small publicity opportunity was provided by Humans of Edinburgh who interviewed Sarah about the Wildflower plot on 13 September.
Looking forward, the Southside History Society has invited us to speak to them for the 3rd time about our community garden project – last time was on 5 June and they gave us a donation. We also hope to install a tool shed because we have been given a large number of refurbished tools by the Scottish Prison Service and need somewhere to keep them.
Another important development has been setting up our own bank account; our friendly arrangement with Fombl has now ceased.
Our meetings in 2017 included a Planning Meeting for the MeadowsCommunityGarden and Orchard on 24 Feb 2017 at 7.30 pm in Lauriston Hall. Well attended including James Gardiner, who came to support us.
An Autumn meeting on 5 October 2017 Lauriston Centre; 15 attended; the new constitution was agreed and events planned.
A Photoshoot in the Co-Op on 25 November 2017 followed byPlanning meeting in Uni Library Café with Sarah, Emma, Bela, Max, Grant, Anne and Kim