SOL Gardens
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This group have their own website, to keep up to date with what's happening, to get involved, have a look at the
SOL Gardens Website >Background
SOL Gardens is located off Dickson Street in Leith. There are approximately 200 households living around the backgreen. We started work at SOL Gardens in June 2009. ECBA are developing the site as a 'Community Growing' site.
SOL Gardens is different from ECBA's other sites as it has direct access from the street to the greenspace within the tenement square. This has facilitated involving people from the wider community in the project as they don't need to come through a tenement stair.
We have installed 40 raised beds at the site, 10 of which are used by residents which live directly around the site, the remainder have been taken by folk who live in the Leith area.
The raised beds were installed by participants on ECBA's Grow Your Own courses (see
here) between Sept 2009 and July 2010. In all, 75 people benefited from attending the course. As there is a long allotment waiting list in the area, the 1m by 2m beds were designed to maximise the number of folk who could have a growing space on the site. We have also developed a mini-polytunnel which extends the growing season and protects the plants from pests.
Concept design for SOL Gardens.
The site is landscaped with a community orchard made up of fruit trees and bushes, which is managed collectively by the community association we have established with the members of the project. The group are now planning a fete in September to celebrate the completion of the project.