Last year’s harvest at Persevere: time to plant this year’s crop.

It really must be spring. Ally Tibbitt of Greener Leith reminds us there is a spring clean at Persevere Community Garden too on Saturday 21st March. There’s a pond to dig, topsoil to spread, weeds to pull and (almost certainly) some rubbish  to tidy up. The  garden is open from 11 am until early afternoon.  And the more who can come to help, the merrier!

Unbelievably it is almost a year since Leith Open Space joined Greener Leith and Persevere Community Flat in digging the very hard ground compacted by years of construction work and general neglect.

Flashback to hard labour

Between all of us, in the first growing season we planted potatoes, salad veg, fruit trees, herbs and spring bulbs.   This year Greener Leith is hoping to grow more so there is enough to give local community cafes to sell.

Looking ahead, Greener Leith is also looking for volunteers to help with their next community clean-up on Sunday 5th April. This one is organised with Leith Links community council and aims,  “to tackle another stretch of the cycle path that runs from Easter Road, around to Restalrig and loops back to Leith Links.”

Meet at 2pm at the Hermitage Park Grove/ Lochend Rd Junction.

For more information about any of these events email greenerleith@hotmail.com

Harvest time in Persevere Community Garden

The sun was shining through the window and there was a pot of tea on the go. To be honest, I could have been tempted to stay at home last Saturday but I am very glad I didn’t. The open day at Persevere Community Garden was a great way to spend a day off. There was hot soup, a blazing bonfire, great company and to our amazement, there was a good crop of potatoes growing beneath the weeds in our plot. Hard to believe that just six months ago this ground was so hard we had to use a pick axe to get into it.

Before and after a lot of digging…

What a difference a growing season can make. Back in April the walled garden surrounded by tall flats was a fairly daunting sight. But last weekend it was full of people enjoying the results of their hard work: raised beds of Upward Mobility have produced a fine crop of flowers and vegetables; Persevere Community Flat grew a great mix of veg including beetroot, carrots, and kohlrabi; and Greener Leith and Leith Open Space dug up a very respectable 8 kilos of potatoes.

Enthusiastic helpers surround Charlotte beside Upward Mobility produce – they were rewarded with bags of tatties and lettuce to take home.

Teamwork: Fay, Linda, Charlotte and Dawn enjoy a well earned cuppa…

We enjoyed that cup of tea but won’t be taking it easy for long. Our plot has been planted with blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and spring bulbs. But the weeds will always be trying to make come back so we will be covering the ground with carpet and woodbark…

Then there are plans to dig a pond and encourage wildlife (other than the two legged kind) into the shady area at the end of the garden. And that sunny corner full of rubble by the gate is just waiting to be transformed into a place for sitting and admiring a good day’s work.

Come and join us. It really is a great way to spend a few hours. Ask Flossie.

[This open view posted by Fay]

We are about to dig up the potatoes we planted on one of the coldest and wettest midsummer days on record. Come and join us for the Persevere Tattie Harvest from 12noon on Saturday 11 October. Grab a spade and tuck in to the hot and delicious soup we will be making from local potatoes. (No, no, you don’t need a spade for the soup but there is always digging to be done!)

The Persevere potatoes were planted on the plot shared by Leith Open Space and Greener Leith way back on 21 June. After our long, wet summer we are curious to see what the harvest will be like. But the apple trees, planted in April, are doing well and there are plans to add fruit trees and Charlotte Encombe will be bringing daffodils to plant on Saturday for colour in the spring. Gardeners are always full of hope!

Look forward to seeing you in the community garden at Persevere between 12 and 2pm on Saturday.

Groundbreaking work at Persevere Community Garden, thanks to Mary Moriarty whose appeal at the Port O’ Leith produced some very welcome voluntary help.

Thanks to Mary Moriarty we had excellent help to dig the toughest plot at Persevere Community Garden on a grey Saturday afternoon.

After spotting our appeal for help in the last Leith Open Space newsletter, Mary put a notice in her Port O’Leith bar asking for volunteers (adding ‘bring your own spade’ ). The following week Christopher Webb and Kinnon turned up with spades (and buckets of energy) to help Ray, Nick and myself turn over the challenging first plot.

“Last time I was in here it looked very different,” was Christopher’s comment looking at the site he remembered from primary school football games. During the afternoon he developed his own athletic approach to digging the hard ground: using the spade as a kind of pogo stick proved to be very effective at breaking through clay and concrete!

Despite the hard work of all the voluntary groups (Greener Leith, Green Seeds, Persevere Community Flat and Leith Open Space) there is much more preparation to do before we can start planting veg. But Alastair Tibbitt of Greener Leith is organising a delivery of topsoil and Councillor Gordon Munro is helping to chase up a load of compost. So Leith Open Space has invested in a nice bag of main crop potatoes to plant once we have removed all the stones and lumps of cement.

So keep watching this space…and get in touch whenever you feel like a bit of healthy exercise!

Caught on CCTV: volunteers from Leith Open Space in Persevere Community Garden. “You’ve been working hard,” commented the concierge when we went to return the key to the walled garden. He’d been watching us on the screen.

This is a challenging piece of ground. After two hours of heavy digging with spade, fork and mattock (that’s the evil looking object you can see in the corner), we had covered one third of the plot we are sharing with Greener Leith. In that time we dug up several empty bottles and cans, a huge concrete block, lots of stones and two very optimistic worms (or was that the same worm twice?).

Never mind going to the gymn, never mind jogging: if you want to burn off a few calories this is definitely the way to do it. So if you want to help please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We might even lend you the mattock…

There’s lots of hard work going on. Congratulations to Greener Leith volunteers who have been hard at work since the opening – most of the spiky berberis bushes round the edge of the garden have been cleared away. Persevere Community Flat have got their plot dug already. And there are buds on all our fruit trees!

Posted by Fay

Just wanted to add this picture pinched from the Greener Leith website (thanks to Alastair Tibbitt who is behind the camera) because it really seems to sum up the spirit of Persevere Community Garden. We’re really looking forward to working with all the other groups involved: Persevere Community Flat, Green Seeds and Greener Leith.

Unbelievably the picture was taken two weeks ago. Since then Greener Leith have planted the berry hedge in Pilrig Park, more than 65 metres of hawthorn, guelder rose, elderflower, ivy, hazel, gooseberries, rasperries, crab apples, and blackberries!

A lot of rain has fallen in the last two weeks which is at least good news for all these new plants.