Community Fund – Royal Edinburgh Community Gardens – September Update
The gardens have been very busy this month with many jobs being late due to the late growing season. We have completed laying the path network with new mulch, whilst the old mulch has been recycled and used as compost on beds throughout the garden. The soft fruit has been mulched, ready for a bumper crop next year, and the rhubarb and the apples in the north garden have all had a good amount of mulch. We are all looking forward to huge strawberries next summer!
In the North garden things are slowing down now that autumn is upon us. We have thinned the parsnips, and lifted the red and white onions which are drying out ready for eating. They look really good and we can’t wait to try them. The beds in the north garden are looking a bit sorry for themselves at the moment and we’ll mulch them over the next couple of months to mulch ready for next spring.
The big news is that we won Highly Commended in The Edible Garden Project at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh for the white onion that was huge! So big in fact that it took two of us to lift and carry it. Well done all of you that helped look after and grow this wonderful onion, it was well worth the effort and thankyou Jenny for taking care of it when it visited RBGE. We are going to replant the onion in the garden and take seed from it for next year: hopefully there will be more awards!!
The other big news is that we all had a great day on Open Doors Day with over an estimated 150 people coming along to support us and find out about the community garden and what we get up to. On the same Saturday as the Open Doors weekend we had a wonderful day at our Community day with lots of members and volunteers enjoying the day shared with a BBQ and great food. Thanks for Robbie for bringing in an amazing homemade BBQ sauce and to Eddie for bringing the very warmly welcomed reggae reggae sauce. Beechgrove Gardens revisited us, and filmed a follow up to see how the gardens have developed. All the team at Beechgrove were very impressed with our efforts and amazing produce… a real community success.
A big welcome to all our new volunteers and members, we’re all looking forward to sharing the gardens and the produce with you, and of course a cup of tea! Natureplay have been coming on Tuesday mornings and the group have been helping us plant spring cabbage and manage the woodland. Thankyou everyone for all your help, it’s great to have you in the gardens. We are still supplying Edinburgh Larder with a weekly veg box and Duncan the restaurant manager comes over every Friday on his bike to pick up the veg. Thankyou for your support and we hope your customers enjoy wholesome veg.
Next month we’ll be looking at the growing calendar for next year and reflecting on the past 12 months. And what a year it’s been!! We’ll be keeping a close eye on the lettuce and tomatoes that are still growing in the greenhouse and should be ready in the next couple of weeks for harvesting. We’re looking forward to sharing them. As the autumn draws closer the plants in the garden will slow down, however there are lots of project to get involved with including woodland management, orchard restoration, and preparing the beds for next year. So if you would like to get involved in the community gardens and meet us feel free to come over for a chat. And don’t forget we’re still running free events ever week so please check the calendar on our web site.
Many thanks to all the members and volunteers for all your hard work.