Plan for Phase 1 of Community Garden Development. Plan drawn up by Donald McCormick from MyGarden.co.uk, member of PLANT. Click here to see general location of the Community Garden.
We have news that everyone has been waiting for – work on the Community Garden site will start before Christmas!
PLANT Committee agreed a detailed plan for Phase 1 of site development and this plan, together with detailed instructions, has now been passed on to the Fife Allotments Officer, Peter Duncan, who will be coordinating the contractors’ work for us, in consultation with local residents.
We have had an initial meeting with Peter and the contractors last Friday and it looks like the work will go ahead before Christmas.
Phase 1 of the development will establish areas of hard standing, including paths (marked in grey), fence and gates. It will develop beds South of the main path, with 8 raised community group beds (edged in beige on the plan), and 10 ground-level beds – closer to the main gate (edged in dark brown on the plan). Six larger ground beds will be used for the PLANT demonstration/produce garden, and the remaining 4 – for children groups, such as Tayport Primary School. The ground along the fence will be prepared for the fruiting hedge planting (in dark green). We are planning a community hedge planting event early in 2016, so keep your eyes peeled:)
The largest structure on the hard standing area will be the polytunnel, with one end serving as a classroom/potting up area facing the main gate. Its position is determined by the need for good access either side of it. Rain water will be collected off the polytunnel into water butts (shown in dark blue). The tool shed (shown in light blue) will be a shipping container clad in wood and its position will allow for the creation of a wooden veranda and sitting area looking across the garden. While the shed may create a bit of shading onto the polytunnel, the aspect means that this should only be the case in winter. The composting toilet (shown in yellow) is tucked away behind the polytunnel for some privacy. We are quite excited about it – it is not only environmentally friendly – it’s also shaped like an apple!
The Phase 1 plan leaves plenty of space to the North of the central path for further ‘soft’ development such as imaginative use of more ground-level beds and plantings, sitting and activity areas and so on. We expect this to evolve at a later stage with the needs and ideas of participants, taking into account the site’s limitations.
Update 26 January 2016: You probably realised by now that the work did not start before Christmas. This was largely due to the weather interfering with our plans. We will keep you posted on the new start date for the contactors. In the interim we are all getting ready for action ‘behind the scenes’ and should be able to hit the ground running once the contactor is done with his bit.
Update 3 February 2016: We have lift off! The first contractor has entered the site. Updates to follow.
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