Greener Leith

 

 An outdoor classroom, a haven for wildlife and room to grow fruit and vegetables: the vision for Redbraes Community Garden.

While Persevere Community Garden is taking shape, something equally inspiring  is happening not far away. Among the houses of Redbraes, just off Broughton Road, there are plans to turn a hidden green space into a thriving community garden where people of all ages can come together to grow food and flowers on the banks of the Water of Leith

This is the vision of local community police officer Simon Daley backed by members of Redbraes Residents Association. Local residents, who have already built the Park Centre in Redbraes Park, met in October 2007 to pool ideas for a community garden that will offer an outdoor classroom for local school children, a haven for wildlife and allotments for fruit and vegetables.

Since then the community garden steering group has lost no time. Garden designer Rebecca Govier used residents’ ideas to draw up plans making the most of the sheltered site visited by herons, ducks and occasionally kingfishers.  The City of Edinburgh Council has agreed to build the garden paths and Simon Daley has applied to Breathing Places, the Lottery fund that encourages local people to create space for wildlife, nature and community involvement.

“It’s ambitious,” says Davie Thomson, chair of Redbraes Residents Association, “but if we all work together we can show how to create a wee bit of sanity in the every day hustle and bustle of city life."

That’s why Davie, Simon and the rest of the steering group are inviting local volunteers of all ages to get involved. To find out more, they say you are welcome to pop into the Redbraes Park Centre where you can see the plans and details. Your opinions and help are welcome too!

Telephone  0131 467 3879 or e-mail redbraes@blueyonder.co.uk

 

How heavy is your carbon footprint? Would you like to do more to reduce climate change but simply don’t know where to start?

Rosie Lewis offers some answers in Going Green, a ten week evening course to help you reduce your carbon footprint which starts at the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh on September 24.

“The sessions will be friendly, chatty and very un-intimdating,” says Rosie who is events co-ordinator at the Botanics in her day job. “The course is designed for people who would like to be greener but are confused about where to start or feel overwhelmed by all the information that’s out there.”

So Going Green begins by measuring your footprint then, like all the most effective weight watchers classes, uses friendly group support to help you reduce your size.  Focusing on a different topic each week – shopping, holidays, transport, energy in the home – the course outlines how all our everyday activities contribute to global warming and then offers practical alternatives.  Group members can choose changes to make before the next class and the final session measures your footprint to see how far you have come.

Going Green is at the Botanics every Monday 6.30-8.30pm from September 24-December 3.  Cost £80/£72 concession.  
For more information contact Rosie Lewis on  0131 248 2979.
 

Is there room in Leith for a community orchard where trees bloom in spring, people meet to chat and gather fruit in autumn and kids play all year round?

Fruit trees can thrive in cities and orchards can provide fantastic green spaces for local communities as I discovered when I was visiting Prague recently.  One afternoon I went looking for the public orchards described by Catherine Lloyd of the Central Core Network (now part of the National Orchard Forum).  She had given me a pretty tantalising picture of finding the old fruit trees at sunset with church bells ringing round her.  I am pretty sure I found it  – with the sunset and church bells too – and it was such a great place we went back there several times to sit and look out across the city through apple, cherry and almond trees – along with a lot of other tourists, parties of school kids and local people meeting friends. 

Admittedly Prague has a head start.  These orchards pictured here  are a legacy of the monastery near the Castle.  But it doesn’t take long to establish new fruit trees. Community orchards are growing across Scotland and one of the best examples I know is just up the M90 in the Tayside town of Newburgh.

You can find more details by clicking here for the Newburgh Orchard Group website and discover how to start a local fruit group through the National Orchard Forum. And if you think there is room to do something like this in Leith please get in touch with Greener Leith and Leith Open Space Group!
 
by Fay Young of Leith Open Space Group