We now have a selection of brand-new garden tools and equipment, thanks to the grant from Community Climate Action Fund. Following are the list of items that we were able to purchase: swoe hoes, pitchforks, hoes and a hoeing claw, hand and long-handled forks, mattocks, spades, trowels, transplanting tools, brushes, trugs, secateurs, a wheelbarrow, a horse watering-can, plant labels, kneeling pads, four super composting bins, organic seed peat-free compost, peat-free spent mushroom compost, compost activator, volcanic rock-dust mineral and seaweed fertilizers and sharp sand.
Our essential gardening team has been using these on our farm and in the near future these tools will also be used by our therapeutic gardening volunteers. The garden tools will help us to improve food growth at our farm and provide educational opportunities for volunteers and local community on use of low tech gardening methods. Composting bins will help to enhance the efficiency of our composting system, reduce food and garden waste and help us to move much closer towards our aim of becoming self-sufficient in producing our own compost.
Our team-leader gardener Steve and our essential volunteers Michael, Kat, Goura and Felix have been busy making a good use of these for jobs such as planting, hoeing, weeding and composting. We have been busy planting a variety of vegetables and flowers – cabbages, french beans, asters, marigolds, calendulas, kale, rocket, spinach, beets, cauliflower, peppers, strawberries and tomatoes. We also have some new raspberry and blackberry plants in our outdoor walled garden. With the help of the knee pads, planting these has been much more comfortable.
Using the CCAF funding, we will also be building a new polytunnel with watering system, an arts and crafts learning space, new raised beds and compost bays.
The CCAF is a Scottish Government fund, administered by Keep Scotland Beautiful.
