Launch of our new Community Training Garden

We launched our new Community Training Garden at Ravenscraig Walled Garden on Saturday 17th February with around 50 of our volunteers, members and invited guests. Wendy Reid from Development Trusts Association Scotland and David Wann from Kirkcaldy Community Gardens and Allotments, who have supported the project from the beginning, cut the ribbon and officially opened the Training Garden.

Guests also enjoyed spiced parsnip soup, apple cake and mulled apple juice and cider, prepared by our Community Food Volunteers Cath and Linda, and received tours of the new space, including our new indoor room. Many guests also stayed on for our annual Traditional Apple Wassail which took place in the afternoon to celebrate our harvest of 2017 and encourage growth in 2018.

The Training Garden is part of our Community Food Hub project which will also include a training kitchen and events space at our new town centre building on East Fergus Place. We are currently working on the refurbishment and fit-out of the town centre building, and we hope to open its doors in Autumn 2018.

Ravenscraig Walled Garden is part of the historic landscape of Dysart House and Ravenscraig Park. It was used for many years by Fife Council as a plant nursery, then lay derelict until 2012. The Garden is now a thriving community asset, with individual allotments and plots for community groups managed by Kirkcaldy Community Gardens & Allotments, and Greener Kirkcaldy’s established community orchard.

The new Training Garden

The Training Garden will host a range of courses and workshops on growing your own fruit and vegetables, including Growing Soft Fruit, Composting for Beginners and Organic Vegetable Growing and many more. We will also use it to run gardening activities for children, new gardening clubs and sessions for community groups. The site is looked after by our great team of volunteers.

We’re also working with Kirkcaldy Community Gardens & Allotments and the site’s landlord, Fife Council, on longer-term plans for the development of Ravenscraig Walled Garden. The Garden is Common Good land, and some of the structures within it are listed, so any future development must protect the site’s historic features and be done for the benefit of the people of Kirkcaldy. After consulting the local community and other stakeholders, we have developed a Masterplan for the site: a possible long-term plan for its restoration and development. The Masterplan could be taken forward over the next 5 to 10 years.

We could not have created the Training Garden without the help and support of our volunteers, funders and project partners. Special thanks are due to Kirkcaldy Community Gardens & Allotments and Fife Council for working with us to plan the project. And we are very grateful to the project’s funders: Fife Environment Trust, Fife
Council, Postcode Local Trust, Central Scotland Green Network, and Awards for All.