Funding
Support we needed has come from several funders and local stakeholders and additional funding will be needed for the next stages of the plan. Aberdeen City Council Community Food growing fund gave us £6000.
Who are you?
Bonnymuir Green Community Trust
What did you do?
Considerable work went into setting out our vision, designing the structure and layout of garden, including building a polytunnel and developing a planting plan. With the growing programme in place work has progressed very quickly.
When did you do it?
Since January 2019 we have had over 1,800 people using the Green. This includes volunteer gardeners, projects with Primary and Secondary schools, Company Social Responsibility days, Community events, café visitors, yoga and people dropping in for a look and a chat. Compared to the previous three and half years when the Green had been allowed no visitors, this shows the great success of the project in developing so far in this short period of time.
Where did you do it?
Bonnymuir Green, Aberdeen.
Why did you do it?
We have been able to transform a completely overgrown area into a thriving community green space.
Achievements
We now have no fewer than 22 raised beds all containing produce, a wild meadow area, a polytunnel full of tomatoes and cucumbers and a beautiful pond area. We have also developed a childrens’ area with playhouse and mud kitchen.
Produce from the Green is being used in our Saturday café and some is available for members to pick.
Lessons learned and words of wisdom for others
We would like to say thank you to the Community Food Growing Fund whose support contributed to the development of our Growing Programme.
We have learned community engagement is key to project success.
Very importantly things would not be possible without the ongoing support of our dedicated volunteers.