In this post, Isabelle Hanlon describes how the Student Partnership Agreement fund afforded a team in the Informatics School to establish a gardening club, Greenformatics, and renovate the 4th floor Informatics Forum Roof garden. The base organising team are Stephanie Robin, Isabelle Hanlon, Ekaterina Churkina (staff), with student, Stefi Tirkova and Dominik Grabarczyk. This post belongs to the Student Partnership Agreement 2025 series.
It was over a cup of herbal remedy tea that we discovered a combined passion: gardening – with a twist – herbalism, healing plants and natural beauty.
The roof garden on the fourth floor of the University of Edinburgh Informatics Forum was shouting for help: a shabby weed strewn set of beds, windblown and somewhat neglected: why not ask to take it over and grow some flowers and herbs? Our aim was to invite staff and students of the Informatics Forum to share experience, advice, plants, seeds, recipes, to learn and have a mindful activity to destress – not everyone living in Edinburgh has garden access or green living space.
We approached the Informatics School’s Buildings Committee for approval, and were given a trial period of one year to see if we could transform this forlorn space into a haven of mindfulness and relaxation. Picturing bees and butterflies fluttering between colourful heads of herbs and flowers, nodding in the sun, we set about applying for funding to the Student Partnership Agreement funding… and success! We were fortunate to have £1,000 allocated to the project.
Getting organised
Our first steps included setting up a Microsoft Teams hub with sections for finances, inventory, and volunteer sign-ups. We sent out a call for members across Informatics, and launched a competition to name the club. The winning name? Greenformatics.
Next, we asked for creative colleagues to make posters, suggest a logo and design some flower beds. Meanwhile, we purchased a small tool shed, tools and implements, seeds and, finally, plants. Word spread and we now have some 65 people on board. The composition of Greenformatics is students, researchers, academics, maintenance, and professional services.
Taking root
A small group met on a windy April day to build the shed. With great teamwork, we have a lovely, rustic place to store our tools.
Towards spring, we arranged a seed planting day, where we gave advice on sowing, planting and growing. Then, the difficult part: starting on the hard compacted beds to ready the soil for plants. With regular deliveries of compost and weed bags from the landscape estates team, we were able to start.
A flourishing community
We now meet monthly as a group, and a small number of people work on the garden daily when time allows. People frequently view the garden during lunch, curious about the plants and how they’re used. The labels identify the plants and we plan to use our Teams page to share folklore, herbal tea recipes, how to use culinary herbs, and even natural remedies.
By autumn’s end, we aim to complete the remaining three beds. We’re creating a vibrant space not only for Informatics Forum users and VIP visitors, but for urban wildlife too.
Unexpected lessons
We’ve learned a lot along the way. Keeping momentum, especially in bad weather, can be tough. The terrace is windy, so we selected hardy, drought-resistant plants such as Lavender, Geranium, Sage, Rosemary, Chives, Thyme, Mint, as well as Salvias, Geums, Rock Rose, and Heathers—some grown from seed on sunny windowsills acting as makeshift greenhouses.
We’ve worked closely with the Estates and Facilities teams to ensure our activities don’t create mess or extra work, and we’re proud of that respectful collaboration.
We took a group outing to Dunbar’s Close Garden for inspiration, and, on 11th July, we hosted a “Thank You” event to showcase the garden and enjoy the results of our collective efforts. Our chocolate mint was a big hit on our “pick and use” day!
Going forward, we are confident we can maintain the garden, sourcing our own plants by division and plant share initiatives within and beyond the University community.
Garden Design Team: Stephanie Robin, Isabelle Hanlon, Cristina Alexandru, Laura Antunes, Luna de Ferrari, Lola Springbett, Jack Lee, Eeva Holta, Ulrich Germann, Bjorn Ross, Adam Kirylczuk, (staff), Stefi Tirkova, Dominik Grabarczyk, Richard Kettle (students), and many other staff and students too numerous to mention.
Isabelle Hanlon
Isabelle joined the University of Edinburgh in 2015 as the Administrator for the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) MIGSAA and later the CDT MAC-MIGS in the School of Mathematics. In 2022, she joined the School of Informatics as the Robotics CDT Administrator, and is currently the co-ordinator for the Centre for Doctoral Training (CDT) in Biomedical AI in the Informatics Forum. She enjoys walking, the cinema, theatre and art. She also loves exploring wild plants and herbs and finding out about folklore, history and botanical remedies from around the world. The Informatics Garden project would not have been possible without Stephanie Robin and a team of dedicated volunteers.
