Alyson will be easily recognisable in her outdoor gear so if you see her up to her elbows in compost please do say hello.

Each week they come to the garden and diligently attend to the raised beds, turning over the coffee grinds that are put in from the café to enrich the soil. They have also been very hard at work preparing an area of the garden for a wildflower meadow!

We have received a small grant from Volunteering Matters which has allowed us to purchase some wonderful meadow, bee and butterfly seeds from Scotia Seeds. We received some great advice from them on what would be the best type to buy to fit in with our garden. We were also able to buy some new junior tools so that our younger members can participate in the digging!

The ground is now all ready and just awaiting planting in March.

The children have also been very busy making natural bird feeders to place around the garden so hopefully that will attract more wildlife.

Of course, it is not all just hard work. There is always time for play and the children have had great fun with loose parts play, making up nature potions in the mud kitchen and den building.
Every session we finish with a snack of treats provided by the Gorebridge Community Fridge which is something the children greatly enjoy and look forward to.

Looking ahead we will be planting some bulbs and developing our nature play area as well as planning what to plant in our raised beds.

We are still looking for resources for den building so if you happen to have any tarps or ropes or bungee cords please do let us know.
contact me at lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

Lorna and Michaela organised a guided walk around the birch woods where children looked for little witches and wizards (friends of the Gore Glen fairies!) that were hidden in amongst the hedgerows. The children were also tasked with choosing one particular stick that was deemed to have magical properties for a special activity at the end of the walk.

Once again we were blessed with beautiful Autumnal weather. The woods were looking beautiful. We really are very fortunate to have such lovely walking routes around Gorebridge. This particular route was new to most of the families and everyone marvelled at the scenery.

We finished up back at the Beacon and gathered in the tree circle in the community garden where Lorna made hot chocolate using the storm kettle and Michaela produced some fantastic Halloween cupcakes. The sticks that children had collected were then transformed into wonderful nature wands using wool, recycled card stars and hearts and a variety of nature treasures such as leaves, berries, pine needles and conkers.

Our guided walks are proving very popular and bringing lots of new people to the Beacon as well as Gore Glen and all it has to offer. We will definitely be doing more of these themed walks in the future.

See what we got up to on our Facebook pages ‘Gorebridge Community Gardens’, @Greening Gorebridge’ and ‘Gorebridge Beacon’

The weather was spectacular with bright blue skies, crisp fresh air and crunchy leaves underfoot as well as being reasonably warm for the time of the year. Gore Glen was looking particularly beautiful with the trees in various degrees of Autumnal splendour. The children looked for fairy peg dolls and fairy houses that were hidden throughout the walk, as well as taking part in a nature scavenger hunt.

After exploring the Glen and pausing by the river for some necessary stone skimming, we picnicked by a grove of majestic Oak trees and used some plant and flower ID spotter guides to help identify the different nature treasures that were collected on the way.

After the walk we gathered back at Community Garden at the Beacon where everyone enjoyed some delicious pumpkin soup made by Keith in the café. We also whittled cooking sticks and cooked bread twists over a campfire. It was a wonderful experience enjoyed by all the families who came, further enhanced by the beautiful weather.

See what we got up to on our Facebook pages ‘Gorebridge Community Gardens‘ and ‘Gorebridge Beacon‘.

It is so lovely to have the connection between the Beacon and Gorebridge Primary as we have been very fortunate to have established similar links with Stobhill Primary and Newbyres Village as well.

At the end of each session we get out the storm kettle and make hot chocolate as well as enjoy some treats from the Community Fridge to reward all their hard work and dedication.

We are also keen to collect donations of the following items for the children to use in the garden, so if you have any of these, they will be most welcome. Please contact me at lornalagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

We need:
crates
pallets
tarps
ropes/string/cord
bungees
tree stumps/logs
tent pegs
clips/pegs

Thank you

The Beacon recently hosted its first BBQ and Sausage Sizzle event which was a great success (the glorious sunshine being an added bonus). It was lovely to see the garden being used by families and visitors. Children enjoyed taking part in a scavenger hunt as well as decorating our resident wishing tree!

We are planning some more events for Autumn time to celebrate our community garden so watch this space for more information. You can also find out more on our Facebook page Gorebridge Community Gardens or contact me at lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk for any further queries.

Newbyres Village

We are delighted to announce that UpMobility have taken on the gardening at Newbyres Village. Led by Iain Goodbrand and his team, the students have being doing fantastic work, growing a variety of fruit and vegetables for the residents to enjoy. They have also grown from seed, violas, cosmos, calendula, aster, lavatera and marigolds which have been made up into planters to put around the residents’ patios. We have had lots of great feedback from residents, staff and families at Newbyres Village about the great work UpMobility are doing and it has been an absolute delight to work alongside them. They are a wonderful group, always full of joy and bringing warmth and happiness with them.

Stobhill Primary School.

The garden club at Stobhill is run by the quite incredible Mrs. Hanley from P.6. She is quite literally a force of nature! As well as helping the school to achieve it’s Eco Green Flag status, she has also been awarded the WWF Teacher of the Year!

The work in the school’s garden has literally grown from strength to strength and they can now boast a polytunnel to continue their growing projects. The children involved are so passionate about sustainability and the environment and they were able to showcase this with a recent visit from Marie Gougeon, the MSP for Rural affairs and the Natural Environment. Ms. Gougeon was treated to a special power point presentation, hand built model of the garden area, a tour of the garden and the opportunity to take part in harvesting a crop of potatoes that were grown for a schools competition run by RHET! She was incredibly impressed with all the children have achieved as well as their knowledge on current affairs affecting the environment and has promised to visit them again in the future.

There has certainly been lots of exciting things happening in relation to the CSGN project this year.

For any more information about the project and how to volunteer, please email lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

We have a mud kitchen and children’s picnic table, made by the very talented folk at Men’s Shed in Mayfield. The mud kitchen had its first muddy cooks try it out at the recent Woodland Wildlings session and it was a great success!

Our volunteer caretaker, Jimmy, has been very busy keeping the grass cut, clearing the sensory area and building mini raised beds for the children’s area using donated pallets!

Jimmy and Dan have also been using the pallets to build composting bins so we can have a dedicated system in place to reduce waste and recycle. We are always in need of more pallets and very much welcome more of these.

We have been inundated with donations of beautiful plants and trees from the community as well R+B Nurseries and Ballantyne Nursery. We also now have an orchard with seven fruit trees donated from Vogrie!

We have so much to be thankful for with all the donations and help we have had to get the garden up and running for the community to enjoy.

So it has been a very busy place indeed! We also have some brand new spades, rakes, forks and trowels so we very much welcome anyone who would like to come along and enjoy a spot of gardening! It is so rewarding to nurture plants from seed and enjoy the benefits of healthy, home grown food.

Every Saturday from 10am-2pm, we invite you to drop in for a little outdoors gardening time. Great for the body and mind. If you would like any more information about the garden or volunteering please contact me at lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk

See you come rain or shine!

As part of the community garden project at the Beacon, we held our first ever seed swap. Despite the stormy weather we had quite a few donations and several people benefitted from the swap including Newbyres Village, Stobhill Primary and members of the community.

We still have a good selection of vegetables,herbs,annuals and wildflower seeds leftover so we will be hosting another swap in April.

We are delighted that we have also had enquiries to see if we will take some plant cuttings as well so these will be available at the swap in April. The next one will be advertised on Facebook and around the community and all are welcome to participate.

Happy growing!

There has been lots of planting going on at Newbyres Village and the greenhouse is currently home to a variety of chili seeds, cauliflower, herbs and potatoes which will be transferred to the main garden in due course.

The daffodils that we planted at the end of last year are now in bloom and adding a lovely splash of colour to the garden.

We are also making good use of one of the trees that had to come down. The tree surgeons left most of the trunk for us to reuse. We plan to create some nice features using the logs including some outdoor tabletop games, weaving looms and activities for visiting families. We’ll be running some workshops for the residents so that they are involved in the making process too.

Plenty to keep us all busy in Springtime!