Welcome to our new regular update about the Glebe Community Garden in Keith. Hello, and thanks for stopping by to find out more about REAP’s newest project!
I’m Georgia, and I started with REAP as a Community Gardener in the middle of October this year. (Or perhaps I should say re-started, as I’ve worked with REAP on several other great gardening projects in the past.) I’ve gathered lots of additional knowledge and experience since then, especially through my ongoing apprenticeship and study for a Diploma in Applied Permaculture Design, and it’s exciting to be be back full of fresh ideas and inspiration to share.
After a full month of getting to know the garden, and some of the wonderful people who already care for it, I thought that this would be an ideal time to post something from me personally. My intention is to add something of a monthly summary here to help share our progress as the project takes shape.
For me, this has been an ideal phase of the gardening year to join the team: with the turn towards quieter winter months in the garden, we have more spacious opportunities to prepare and plan for a vibrant springtime of lively new growth! The Glebe is a new and developing space for gardening, social support and therapeutic nature-connection, and there’s lots to consider as we work together to gather ideas for its future.
In our garden sessions over the past month, one main focus has been on getting as much hardy veg into the raised beds or the greenhouse as possible, in the hope of some harvests through the winter months and into the ‘hungry gap’ of early Spring. Some of these have gone in later than is ideal, but with shifting seasonal temperatures it’s often worth a bit of experimenting, especially with older seed packets to use up!
We’ve been growing carrots, beetroot, broad beans, onions and garlic, and a wide variety of leafy winter veg like cabbage, chard, and miner’s lettuce. We’ve found homes for perennial plants such as strawberry runners, and a goji berry bush (kindly donated by The Patch, at Duffus, along with a spooky batch of Halloween pumpkins which we had lots of fun carving and eating!) More fruit bushes – including blackcurrants and redcurrants – are on their way soon thanks to the fantastic community gardening initiative One Seed Forward.
Getting to know and connect with a few of the many inspiring and active community groups that are part of the local ecosystem has already been so supportive and helpful, and I’m looking forward to doing much more of that in the new year too. We’re delighted to connect and collaborate so please do get in touch if you’d like to work together.
Over the past few weeks, participants have also sown a wide variety of hardy annual flowers for an early splash of Spring colour next year, including cornflowers, poppies, nigella, and calendula, which all like a bit of frost to germinate. We’ve been busy planting bulbs for next year, such as daffodils, snowdrops, and snake’s head fritillaries: a striking native relative of the lily which likes river banks and damp soils.
We’ve also been finding ways to be considerate of the garden’s existing residents and visitors: we have a deep sense of stewardship for the existing community of plants and animals that rely on the riverbank here. A heron has been a welcome and regular visitor to the river right beside the garden, nesting nearby, and is always a joy to see. I’m told there have also been sightings of otters locally, though we’ve not been lucky enough to spot them yet. We’re pleased to welcome some regular human visitors too, whether they’re out for some fresh air in their lunch hour, popping along for a walk and a talk to see what we’re working on, or out for a wander along the river with the dog! Our most frequent canine visitor is appropriately called Daisy, and she gets lots of attention and ear-scritches! Part of our process over the months ahead will be about how to make the garden a welcoming, cared-for and friendly place for all to appreciate and enjoy.
Even into this late point in the growing year we’ve spotted so many amazing native wildflowers, which we intend to conserve as much as possible, as well as some invasive species, like Himalayan balsalm, that we’ll have to work carefully to manage. The biodiversity and balance of the space as both a productive garden space, as well as an existing habitat to protect, is something we’ll be giving a lot of thought to as we design the Glebe Garden with input from participants and the wider local community.
Hopefully that helps sow a few more metaphorical seeds for our community gardening adventures ahead. I’ll wrap up now (it’s a chilly November day!), but will leave you with this bright little gift of an idea from a book I’ve been cosying up with, called The Service Berry, by an utterly inspiring author called Robin Wall Kimmerer: “All flourishing is mutual”. I hope the Glebe Garden can be a place for all of us to flourish.
Happy gardening,
Georgia, Keith Community Gardener.