Come to the first gardening workshop and start growing more at home now

Gosh, we have been busy since the open meeting!

Growing coordinators

Teresa and Andrew Widd (project growing coordinators) with the loot from Margaret’s garden (Image by Margaret Robertson)

Teresa and Andrew Widd, our growing coordinators, have started with us at the end of July. You will soon get a chance to meet them in person through one of the growing workshops,  grow-at-home advice sessions or other activities.

Tayport Community Gardens

Donald, Andrew and Teresa pondering the most discreet and sunniest location for the polytunnel at the Community Garden site (Image by Kaska Hempel)

Teresa and Andrew have been helping us work out the finer details of the community garden design, ready for further approval by the council planning required under the conditions on our planning permission. We are hoping that the work on preparing the site can start soon. Peter Duncan, Fife council allotments officer, announced at the open meeting that he will be in touch with the local residents about the work schedule and his door is open for direct communication should you have any concerns or questions. We are also more than happy to pass anything on.

Grow more at home

Kaska’s bag garden being inspected by Andrew. Tomato not doing so well outside but potatoes looking nice and healthy. ((Image by Margaret Robertson)

Margaret getting advice from Andrew on her potatoes ((Image by Margaret Robertson)

In the meantime, we are getting on with support for those who want to grow more at home.

Andrew is just now preparing a grow-at-home starter pack with advice on how to start growing more food in your own garden. He is also very keen to come out with a complimentary initial site visit to give anybody who signs up some tailored growing advice. Kaska’s bag garden and Margaret’s established veggie patch have already had a trial home visit this week (each of us got a personalised report too – thanks Teresa!). There will be plenty of opportunities to seek further advice – either through drop in sessions or gardening workshops.

We have had several sign ups for growing at home at the open meeting (we will be contacting you soon) but there is still space for more participants! You can do this through the mailing list form (select grow at home option) or by emailing us directly at plant@tayportct.org.uk. We can cater for beginners as well as more experienced growers, for those with limited space and time, and a variety of crops, ranging from a pot of herbs to all-year-round vegetable garden for the whole family. So there is absolutely no excuse to stay away:)

Let us know if you’d like to share your grow-at-home experience by blogging with us. All training and support provided.

Gardening workshops

As promised, we are also kicking off with our workshop series. The first one, on composting, is on 23rd of August 2015, 2:30 to 4:30pm at the Scout Hut, Elisabeth Street, Tayport. Everybody is welcome!

We will provide hands on training on how to make succesful, useable compost and what to compost. There will also be a demonstration on how to make a compost bin from pallets, a chance to share your composting experiences and get some personalised advice from our horticultural experts. Tea, coffee and some yummy home-made snacks should keep us going. The summary of composting advice will be posted in the Learn section after the event.

We are finalising topics for the remaining workshops and the full programme will be published soon. They will run on last Sunday every month, at the Scout Hut or at the Community Garden site. Let us know if Sundays may be difficult for you and we will try to find alternative time.

There are a lot of other learning events in the pipeline – watch this space! Do you have any workshop ideas?