PLANT Projects

Life at PLANT has been very busy over the last three years, and the next two years look set to be just as full. At the end of March, we successfully completed two large projects, funded by Big Lottery and the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund (CCF). We are delighted that we have been awarded a further two-years of funding by CCF for Tayport GROWS, our next project.

What we have been doing

Tayport Community Garden: Funded by Big Lottery for three years from April 2017- March 2020.

In that time, activities included:

• three supported work days per week, where volunteers learnt more about growing food for the wider community to enjoy.
  additional workshops open to all on topics such as seed sowing, pruning, making garden structures, bird-watching, Christmas decoration making and backcare for gardeners.
• regular sessions for adults with additional needs – the 5 members of the group have now successfully completed their Royal Caledonian Horticultural Society’s Grow And Learn Award through both parts of a 2-year structured programme and received their awards. 2 new members have recently joined.
• a weekly group in partnership with Alzheimers Scotland for people affected and their carers. They sow seeds, plant out seedlings and enjoy garden-related crafts and also cook soup for a shared lunch in the Scout Hall.
• A family club during the summer months.
• 2 raised beds cultivated by families with no growing space at home.
• Garden activities with Tayport Childminders Group.
• Weekly class visits from Tayport Primary School for a structured activity session, supported by our staff, including a range of gardening, craft climate awareness and biodiversity activities. 2 classes from Balmullo Primary School also visited.
• 3 Family Fun Days as well as our annual Fruit Fest. At the Fruit Fest a main activity is apple juicing, with volunteers harvesting Tayport’s surplus apple crop, donated by residents. A volunteer has developed a detailed pasteurising protocol, and runs workshops. In 2019, 690 litres of pasteurised apple juice were produced for local use.
• We extended our growing bed space from 144m2 to 373m2, and significantly increased the amount of produce and made available to local people.
• a regular Sunday produce stall at Tayport Harbour.
• Donations of vegetables to Taybridgehead Food Bank,
  placements for students from: Dundee University Community Learning and Development; Dundee University Education (Primary); St Andrews University Post-graduate GP training.
• work experience to students from Madras College in St Andrews, and young people doing Duke of Edinburgh awards. 2 young volunteers went on to college to study horticulture-related courses.
• Our blog co-ordinator continues to recruit, train and support community bloggers, who produced a large number of blogs. There are now 14 community bloggers regularly contributing pieces. https://tayportgarden.org/blog/
• PLANT website was redeveloped to fit into new Tayport Community Trust website. The move was completed just before the Covid-19 lockdown.
• Climate awareness and carbon saving are part of all our activities.
• visits from other Community Gardens and groups.

Tayport Community Garden: Carbon Conversations

Funded by the Scottish Government’s Climate Challenge Fund from April 2018-March 2020. (Download full report PDF)

Activities included:

• Carbon Conversations Workshops, with 5 groups of 40 individuals from 35 households. They tackled their household carbon footprints from home energy, travel, diet and consumption & waste. Within only one year, they cut their household carbon footprint by 62 tonnes of CO2 emissions.
• Climate Literacy Activities: 1173 local residents of all ages joined in a range of face-to-face activities focused on climate literacy and action, including primary school sessions at Tayport Community Garden, interactive stalls at events, competitions, government consultations and celebrations. Some of the outputs you can see online:
  • Tayport PLANT Kitchen vegetarian and vegan recipes – highlighting impact of diet with focus on animal products.
  • TayportGoes Green 4 Holidays – highlighting low carbon travel choices and impact of flying and cruises.
• Blog and media: Our vibrant PLANT blog has continued to reach audiences well beyond Tayport with inspiring stories showcasing community voices from people taking action on climate change. Blog posts published over the two years included contributions from volunteer bloggers, primary school children, and CC competition entrants, as well as YouTube films, attracting over 2230 visits over two years.
• On Facebook, 30 posts with Cheery Climate news had exposure of nearly 9900, and over 821 reactions
• Walking Audio Trail – ‘Taking Care of Our Tayport Home’. Developed in collaboration with SCCAN’s Future Voices, using podcast and audio materials to create stories about ‘green’ projects PLANT and the local community have been involved with. They include climate change and biodiversity information. We are still putting finishing touches on the trail but you can visit a draft here. We are planning an official launch very shortly.
• Tayport Primary School visits and activity pack: there were 16 Primary School visits to the Community Garden with 461 students and 79 adults attending. Each included a 10-15 minute slot explaining climate literacy to children, e.g the role of plants in carbon cycle and fixing energy from the Sun, effect of climate change on plants and pollinators, things children and families can do to help the planet. Activities included storytelling, board games, use of iPad apps to explore nature, scavenger hunts, as well as getting creative through story illustrations, carbon footprint pledges, designing posters and movie-making.
• 2019 Climate Hero Award: We were very proud when one of our volunteer bloggers, Kathleen Gray was awarded 2019 CCF Climate Hero award in Climate Conversations category.
• She also very eloquently talked about her experience at the 2019 CCF Gathering.

What we plan to do next

PLANT’s new Tayport GROWS project will tackle climate change by focusing on food, climate literacy and helping individual households tackle their own carbon footprints from food, travel and home energy. Working together, PLANT and Tayport Community Trust’s Larick Centre will bring all ages together to:

• grow, cook, celebrate and fully use food, especially local produce
• develop greater awareness of the climate impact of our choices
• build confidence about effective actions
• save 102.7 tCO2e
• improve wellbeing through shared food-related and outdoor activities.

Activities will include:

• building more raised beds at the Garden for families with no garden of their own.
• increasing apple juice production
• cooking workshops including local produce.
• celebration meals, food events, community festivals and families’ recipe collection.
• food waste programme with Zero Waste Scotland.
• further carbon literacy training for staff and volunteers.
• more Carbon Conversations Groups, associated activities, stalls and displays
• fuel-efficient driving course and e-car/e-bike roadshow.
• workshops on talking to others, including children, about climate change and wellbeing.
• incorporating climate literacy in all activities.
• movie screenings/expert talks on food and climate.
• digital storytelling

Tayport GROWS started on 1 April, just a week after the Covid-19 lockdown began. We have been working very hard to adapt the project to these new circumstances. In particular, PLANT has been developing online workshops and Q & A sessions – keep an eye on our website www.tayportgarden.org.