In November 2023, I received funding from the Student Partnership Agreement (SPA) Fund to work on a project involving the community garden based at the BioQuarter campus at the University of Edinburgh. I carried out the project in collaboration with Kelly Douglas and Nick Mullin, both of whom are staff members based on the campus at the Institute for Regeneration and Repair (IRR). Kelly and Nick had been instrumental in the creation of the garden and have been involved in its maintenance for some time, alongside some other staff members who have helped out on occasion. Receiving the SPA fund was crucial in starting the ‘Garden @ BioQuarter’ project, which aimed to promote the garden to more students and staff at the BioQuarter campus. The objective of the community garden is to create a green space that can serve as a community hub where students and staff can come together to relax whilst gardening. The fund was instrumental in allowing for the purchase of new tools and supplies in the winter. After receiving the funds, all of the regular garden volunteers met together to discuss the project. We outlined the plan we would follow for the next few months, which was closely aligned with the plans discussed in our grant application. The winter was spent preparing the garden for the upcoming spring and summer when we would be planning a seed planting event in the garden, where students and staff could come together to plant vegetables and herbs. We purchased new tools and, over the weeks, volunteers helped to clear out the garden, cleaning it up and removing weeds to make room for new plants. In the meantime, we held a berry picking event where students and staff joined for a walk around the campus, following a trail where participants could pick edible berries. Then, we started to plan for the upcoming seed planting event. To advertise, we sent emails around the institute to inform staff and students about the upcoming event and created a poster that we placed around the institute.
We placed instructions for volunteers to follow. They could choose from several herbs to plan into their own personal plot to take home or they could choose some vegetables to plant into freshly cleared plots in the garden itself. Several students and staff members joined for the event, and it was an excellent opportunity for them to relax and do something therapeutic during their busy day.
Following the event, three new members from IRR joined the garden group, showing how community involvement is growing. We also shared news of the event on the website, thanking volunteers and updating the IRR community on the garden’s progress.
Alessia Stanistreet-Welsh
Kelly Douglas
