In this interview, Patrick discusses the unique challenges Leith Community Growers face in establishing community growing initiatives in Leith, and how they are using flexibility and creativity to deliver a range of exciting projects and workshops.
What does your role involve as the Leith Community Growers Project Lead?
All sorts of things really! The Leith Community Growers project was born out of lockdown, a time when I was cycling around Leith delivering seeds and compost from my flat as part of Edible Estates’ Home Grown initiative. From there, we were given access to the herb garden at the Leith Walk Police Box, where we were able to distribute seeds and do some fundraising. We then did various initiatives in and around Leith to engage the community and get people involved, before establishing a functional association that we could use as a vehicle to apply for funding. There are not a lot of community growing spaces in Leith, which is a densely populated town, and where there are, they are usually built upon quickly. The main part of my role therefore, is to develop and support community growing initiatives anywhere possible, from window sills to gardens.
What do you hope to achieve through the project?
I hope that we will have an ongoing and varied growing association in this community, that is more representative of the people that live here in terms of age, race etc. I would also like to be able to employ some people in the future who can contribute their skills through our projects. My hope is to have lots of interesting spaces to grow things and learn about food and food systems together, and to be able to regularly link to other organisations. For example, last year we worked with Scotland the Bread to grow our own tiny wheatfield, and though it was small, the experience gave us so much insight into how we can grow nutritious bread in a sustainable way. This year we are going to be growing flax, and use it to make linen, which will be a great opportunity to engage with the community about fast versus sustainable fashion. Given the limited greenspace available to us in Leith, we can’t do everything, but what we can do is link with other organisations and use our small spaces to do what we can.
What is your favourite part of the role?
Last summer, we would meet as a group every Monday at our Meanwhile Site, where we were growing our wheatfield, making planters and building some raised beds. The space is shared, and it’s ultimately a car park – which is not an obvious place to have some greenspace. Being there, looking around at what we were doing, and seeing the apple trees doing well, some birds visiting, and having people come along and creating both a community and that greenspace, has been a highlight for me. Additionally, it’s always great to create opportunities for people to get involved and see those come to fruition.
What are the biggest challenges in your role?
The biggest challenges are finding the time, space, and financial resources to do all of the things we would love to do. It’s figuring out how we can use limited spaces to our fullest advantage, and how to turn our lack of a permanent space on its head. In some ways the lack of a permanent site forces us to think about growing spaces differently and creatively, as we’re not tied to a one acre space that we have to manage. It’s nice to have these small spaces, so it’s important for me to encourage people to grow small things and turn a lack of greenspace into a positive experience by linking together as a community.
What projects are LCG currently working on?
At the moment, we have just established a partnership with the Leith Links Orchard, where we are going to host three or four workshops – the first of which was tree-pruning, with foraging and apple tree grafting to come later in the year. It’s a different space for us so that’s really exciting. We also have an ongoing partnership with the Leith Walk Police Box, so we’ll be continuing to have days there with seed giveaways. That’s a great space as it’s really public, which allows lots of people to come and talk to us about greenspaces in and around the town.
We’re planning to do lots more engagement with herbs following a grant we received last year from Action Earth. We have also established a partnership with Montogomery Street Park, where we will be doing some hedge planting and hopefully some other work. We’re looking forward to our upcoming flax project, which is a great opportunity to apply what worked well during our bread project, and improve on what didn’t. On a weekly basis, we’ll have the Meanwhile Site at the core of our activities, where people can come along and use our raised beds.
We’re also developing a ‘Community Greenhouse’ idea at the moment. With this, the hope is to distribute beginner seeds and compost for people to grow on their window sills around Leith, which they can then bring back to us to be planted into our various sites. The hope is to create a system where people can come monthly to engage with us, receive seeds and have the opportunity to grow leaves and herbs, which will then be put back into our community greenspaces and later harvested to be delivered to local people and community meals. Another idea we’re considering is a seed subscription, and we’re having lots of committee meetings at the moment to iron out the details.
What benefits do you think the project brings to both the community you work in generally, and to the people that volunteer?
I think we are improving greenspaces in Leith, and supporting people to reimagine what unused spaces could be. The Police Box was previously abandoned, and we have turned it into a herb garden where there are now bees and wildlife, and where we regularly give out food and other gardening supplies. For the people that get involved, I think the real benefit is creating an environment where people can come along and use their skills and experience in their community. We’re not expert gardeners, but we’re learning quickly about growing in an urban environment. We also hope to create an opportunity to grow food, which will be of benefit to our growers’ mental and physical wellbeing, and also an important skill that will result in a more resilient community.
What’s a positive change you have seen in the community as a result of the project?
We had two community meals last year, and as a group of people who had never met six months previously, I think it was really positive to see how that community has formed. With that, it’s been nice to see people come together to tend a greenspace in the heart of our very built-up area. We get lots of feedback about how much people value both the workshops we run, and the herb garden at the Police Box. It’s been positive for the community to have things to do for free with no expectations, where they can just come along and be involved and bring their own interests to what we’re doing, whether that be working with flax or wheat, making bat boxes, or planting.
Do you have any particular favourite memories of your time working on the project?
One of my favourite memories is successfully harvesting our wheat field at the end of the summer last year. We had people there from Scotland the Bread, and someone who was doing a PhD in Scottish grains, and we gave a great presentation about what we were doing. It was lovely to look around that night, with the sun going down and everything full of life, and see everyone enjoying that community project. It really became everything we hoped that it would, which was a real highlight for me.
Other Team Interviews..
Steve Pike, Edible Estates’ Head Community Gardener
Alan Gordon, Edible Estates’ Community Engagement Officer
Julie Parkin and Georgia Forsyth, Canal View Primary School Farm Leaders
Tona Sonato, Edible Estates’ Community Chef