In this guest blog, Gwen Barrell, the Project Officer for Knoydart's Powerdown project reports on plans for their their Community Garden project funded throug the Climate Challenge Fund.The costs of bringing fresh food into the area is expensive both in terms of haulage costs and “food miles”. The project will enable the community to reduce its carbon footprint by up to 9 tonnes of carbon dioxide saved in the reduction of food transport miles.
The funding will be used to employ a community gardener for a year to work with local residents to create a community garden on the site of the former market garden, and to provide training and advice in growing produce.
Sam Gardener has been appointed as the community gardener and is looking forward to the challenges and rewards ahead. “I am excited about the prospect of bringing this area of land back into use for community benefit.”
Deer fencing, tools, equipment, seeds and training events will also be covered from the grant. Twelve community members have already signed up to have their own little veg patch with the community garden and many others are keen to come and help out with communal tasks.One of our ideas is to have a carbon neutral community Burns Supper in 2011. We’ll grow all our own neeps and tatties in the garden this year.
“It’s crazy to be importing fruit and vegetables when we could grow them closer to home,” said Aaran Watson, Community Director of Knoydart Foundation and local school teacher. “As an Eco School we will also be interested in joining in with the project and learning more about gardening.”
In order to reduce our carbon footprint even further, the funding will also enable the community to pilot an electric quad bike and trailer for moving things like compost and vegetables around. As Knoydart already has its own renewable electricity the quad bike will be recharged on green electricity.
A few volunteer events have already been held in the garden, to clear rubbish, remove old fencing, and repair a polytunnel. Community members have attended three volunteer sessions, and we benefited over the Easter holidays from John Muir Trust volunteers who cleared a stretch of fencing from debris, enabling trees to be pruned and new ones planted to create a windbreak.
This week, potatoes, herbs, onions and a variety of green vegetables and herbs have been planted out of doors, under cloches and within the polytunnel. Compost bins have been arriving on the ferry, and gardeners have been eying up the horse manure from the Foundation’s stalking ponies!
There will be a few opportunities for others to find out what’s going on – we hope to have a presence at the Road to the Isles Agricultural Show on 12th June, there is a guided walk taking in the Knoydart Community Garden on 28th July and there is a fantastic Crafts and Produce Day being planned for Saturday 28th August.
Knoydart Foundation’s Community Powerdown Project is working within the community on a range of initiatives to reduce carbon emissions – as well as the garden and electric quad project, we have a number of other initiatives “in the pipeline” and other events coming up, which we will report on shortly. More info: gwen@knoydart.org www.knoydart-foundation.com
Within the UK it has been estimated that we import more than 90% of our fruit and 38% of our vegetables and that food accounts for around 19% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions - though most of the emisssions come from use of chemicals rather than 'food miles'.
Would growing more locally make a difference? Do you have examples of what might work or is working in your area?
The work that is being done in the Knoydart Community Garden is very inspirational. This article has prompted me to be more ambitious about growing my own vegetables this year.
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