The Queen’s Green Canopy is a nationwide tree-planting initiative launched by Her late Majesty to mark her Platinum Jubilee.

The ‘Tree of Trees’ stood in front of Buckingham Palace at the height of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations in London in June 22 and was seen on TV by more than one billion people worldwide.

The Lord Lieutenant for Midlothian, Richard Callander nominated Gorebridge Beacon’s community garden to receive one of the Tree of Trees in recognition of the work done by community volunteers over the past few years to develop the garden.

The unveiling of the Queens Canopy plaque took place on Friday 23^rd June in front of a small crowd of volunteers and community members as well as representatives from community organisations, local councillors, and the local MSP Christine Graham. The Chair of Gorebridge Community Development Trust, Val Cameron, gave a short speech in which she explained how the multi stemmed rowan had arrived at the community garden and how pleased the Development Trust is that the hard work of its volunteers had been recognised in this way.

The newly crowned Gorebridge Gala King Ollie and Queen Madison then cut the ribbon to reveal the tree’s plaque.

The ceremony was followed by a celebratory garden party attended by approximately 80 members of the community.

A few pictures of the day …

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

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.

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!

Stobhill gardening club is back in full swing after the Winter break. The children have been extremely busy preparing the raised beds in preparation for the new growing season. The past couple of weeks have seen various seeds planted in pots to be started off in the bottle greenhouse before being transferred to the raised beds.

The children are also involved in a potato growing competition organised by RHET Lothian and were visited by an arable farmer Mary who shared a wealth of expertise and delivered a fantastic powerpoint presentation showing the process of potato farming from seed to table. Mary brought with her some very special seed potatoes and these were planted into grow bags and she talked us through the best way to care for them. Good luck Stobhill gardeners!

The garden club have also donated some of their leftover vegetable seeds to the seed swap at the Gorebridge Beacon. These were exchanged for a selection of wildflower seeds which can be planted in the wildflower meadow that is planned for an area of the playground next to their fantastic bug hotel. With luck, we will see lots of butterflies and bees thriving by the summer time.

After the sub-zero temperatures which saw us having to forgo our usual gardening session, we were able to make up for it this week! A tidy up of the greenhouse was the first task of the day. Sorting tools and tubs and clearing away the cobwebs as well as discovering lots of useful bits and bobs that could be repurposed was a great start.

Iain and the Upmobility team arrived to do a seed sowing workshop using lots of repurposed plant pots and trays. The students did a super job planting two trays of chili seeds and will carry on with planting coriander, mustard, basil, and cauliflower when they come for their next volunteering session.

With the milder weather this week, it was possible to get on with weeding the patio areas outside the resident’s rooms and this is something that will be a regular task along with litter picking.

Our plan is to build some raised bed planters at a height that makes them wheelchair accessible. If you have any resources that could help us achieve this we would be delighted to receive them. We are specifically looking for wood, nails and even tools that need rehoming.
Please contact lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk if you think you can help. It will be greatly appreciated.

Such an exciting start to 2019 with the opening of the new Beacon building on Hunterfield Road. This will now be the meeting point for Woodland Wildlings and we will set out on our monthly adventures from there. We are now branching out (literally) to include children and families of all primary school age children, not just 0-5.

As well as our woodland adventures we will be joining in the with the Beacon’s community garden. We have an event on the 9th of February from 11am-3pm that invites you to come and share your ideas about what you would like to see in the garden space. Lunch is included and we’ll be spending time outdoors so wrap up warm. We would love to hear what you think of the space and what we could do with it.

Our January session of Woodland Wildlings saw taking part in the RSPB birdwatch. We set off with binoculars and bird seed and headed down through the birch woods to explore and look out for different birds. We made an evergreen spiral and sprinkled bird seed around it as a treat for our feathered friends in this cold weather. We enjoyed some warming apple tea and hot blackcurrant juice, sharing a picnic too. Just as we were getting ready to head for home, we found a huge worm which caused great excitement and time was spent watching him move around and building a warm house to keep him safe!

It was wonderful to be back outdoors despite the Winter chill. As the saying goes….there is no such thing as bad weather, only unsuitable clothing!

We will be meeting again at the end of February. Please contact lorna.lagerman@gorebridge.org.uk for more information or check out our Facebook page: Woodland Wildlings

In all, we made over a dozen wreathes using Dogwood, Fir, Holly and Lelylandii and pine cones. The result was some really beautiful creations.

It has been such a wonderful few months assisting in the garden and activities at Newbyres Village and I am very grateful for the opportunity to do this. Many thanks to Gail Flynn and to Catriona Moredaunt for volunteering with me.

Looking forward to more opportunities in 2019.