Community Fund – Royal Edinburgh Community Gardens – July Update
After a very wet June and July, I believe the wettest on record, we’re all hoping that the sun is on our side for August. The garden over July has looked a bit more wild at times as it has been difficult to carry on with our daily jobs. However all the members have made a great effort in ensuring that the show must go on! A huge thankyou to all of you. The vegetable and the fruit are starting to grow well due to the warmer temperature and a little bit of sun. Great stuff!!
This month we ran a number of workshops here at the gardens, and had a great time exploring various topics relating to the gardens. ‘Soil and seed’ was very popular, I hope you all enjoyed it! This month we’re running another seven courses on the 3rd, 7th, 10th, 15th, 17th, 22nd and the 28th. These include The Value of Orchards to Wildlife and the Community, No dig gardening, Olympic Sowing and Papermaking so come along, have fun and learn something new! For details please visit recg@cyrenians@org.uk.
The great news this month is that we have been supporting two restaurants and started supplying fresh local fruit and vegetables. This month we supplied the Caley Sample Rooms with the veg for the Shandon local food group’s (SLFG) seasonal meal. Everyone enjoyed the meal and the vegetables and rhubarb were delicious…
We’ve also started supplying the Edinburgh Larder on a weekly basis, with Eleanor and her team coming over to gardens to help harvest their first veg box. We’re looking forward to seeing them on Fridays for some more fresh vegetables. This month we’ve had many groups in from Forest Schools, Access to Industry and also from Cyrenians Newcastle. They all had a great visit and enjoyed the wonderful spaces and opportunities that the gardens at RECG offer.
We’ve all been very busy with harvesting lettuce, peas, shallots and our first early crop of potatoes which is always a favourite with the members. The glasshouse is looking great with the tomatoes slowly ripening whilst we’re busy sowing next years spring cabbage and lettuce for successional planting. All the members have been busy in the north garden planting out the leeks and sowing more radish, thankyou John and Chris, they look great and we’re looking forward to the harvest.
A warm welcome to our new members Beth and Cath who are getting to know their way round the garden, enjoying the space and meeting the rest of the team. Thankyou, you’re doing a great job. This month is harvest time for the ever ripening strawberries, logan berries, lettuce and chard. They’re all looking wonderful.
This month we’ll be mainly focusing on weeding, cutting grass, sowing new lettuce and harvesting the crops as they’re ready. Everyone feel free to come down for a cup of tea, enjoy the sun and share the wonderful fruit and vegetables as they’re ready.
See you all soon Simon and the team..