Resources

TOP TIPS TO GARDENING IN A LOW IMPACT WAY

At the Maxwell Community Garden we were excited to welcome Neil from Buglife and Social Juice who has a wealth of experience with fruit trees. 

Get Growing Scotland is a website full of news, advice and information to help communities get started in food growing.  They share lots of stories and news about what is going on across Scotland.  We were delighted to see that they have featured the Maxwell Garden project called the Big Grow on their website.  The Big Grow is our local project aimed at supporting local families to grow their own fresh food. 

We have been delighted to participate in workshops alongside Bioregioning Tayside as we explore the ways we can help to reconnect people with nature and reorientate our activities to promote resilient environments and livelihoods.  Claire Cooper (Tayside growing map) sent out a short survey and hosted ‘live’ sessions to identify what we can do to strengthen food growing in Tayside. Read more here.https://bioregioningtayside.scot/food-system-transformation/

We are very excited to have received funding from Foundation Scotland via Dundee Changemakers hub.  This will enable us as a network to further our work and knowledge in our gardens using the principles of permaculture.   This is the most sustainable way to grow food.  Once established the growing system is self regulating.  As a network we are really lucky to have a few local experts who have learned by trying out lots of techniques in their own gardens in Dundee.  We will be sharing their local knowledge and working to create a more sustainable way of growing with minimal impact.  Whether it's about water, temperature or biodiversity we hope to provide practical solutions.  Follow us on our journey through the months ahead. 

Influencing Policy and our new Permaculture Project

We are really grateful to be working with the fantastic Carolina Rocha de Santa Maria on this research question that she helped us identify. The process and results will give us some important insight and information in terms of why people participate in community garden projects. She has led a team of community interviewers, all involved or interested in community growing. Check out this visual summary she made for us and we'll be sharing findings soon!

As part of the V+A Garden Futures: Designing with Nature Exhibition we became part of a local project to grow and harvest dye plants.  The resulting dyes have been used in various Workshops and Dye Socials run by Jek McAllister.  We are developing a collective knowledge of growing and using these plants.  It has been a great project and lots of fun for everyone involved.....and has produced some beautiful results.   You can find out more details about the project here

Over the past year or so we have been privileged to host a number of visitors from across Scotland who have come to see the gardens and to find out more about what we do and how we work in our local neighbourhoods and gatherings.  It has been so valuable to share ideas and discuss the issues we all face and to talk about how we face some of the challenges.  Sharing knowledge and experience is part of our strength and we welcome like minded groups and organisations.  We can all learn from each other.

We love hosting Christmas Wreath making Workshops but this year we went all out and did a slightly different workshop inspired by a book cover.  We created little decorative Christmas village scenes to brighten up the indoors.  

We are so delighted to have lots of knowledge about permaculture in the city of Dundee and many of our permaculture growers also work in the community growing network.  Permaculture is -the concept of utilising land, resources, people and the environment in a manner that doesn't produce any waste. Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share.

The German-British Friendship Award was awarded to our very own George Laidlaw (Volunteer at Shiell St and Queen St community gardens and all-round Super hero!).  George is Chair of the Dundee-Wurzburg Twinning Association.  The award was presented by Her Excellency Ambassador Susanne Baumann.

Our lovely Rachel led a brilliant workshop into the mysteries of using fermentation to preserve food.

It was a perfect afternoon in the garden to learn a bit about pruning fruit trees for maximum fruit output.  Plus, we had a very hands on time trying out the techniques. 

Our wonderful Herbalist Rosy Rose joined us in a very sunny garden to teach us all about the summer herbs that can support our nervous system.

We had a wonderful evening in the garden in conjunction with the VandA Dundee learning all about Hapa Zome.  This is the Japanese art of dyeing with plants where plant pigments are transferred onto fabric or paper by pounding fresh leaves and flowers with a hammer.  Jek has been working with the V&A Dundee on their plant dyeing project and came along to share her knowledge.  She has also been experimenting with using plants to dye wool and cotton.

Isn't it heartening when all the things we talk about doing come together beautifully!

Grow plants for free from pips and peelings!  

Who would have thought a jam making workshop would be such fun!  We had 15 people, 6 flavours of jam and 3 hobs all on the go at the same time.  Many of the participants had never made jam so we talked about mixing the fruit and the sugar and the role that pectin plays in setting the jam.  Blackcurrants and gooseberries were ready to harvest in the garden and they are high in pectin so they featured in most of the jams.   There are some recipes and more information here.

Sat 21st June 2025

We had a brilliant day at the University of Dundee Botanic Gardens.  It was a city wide event aimed at promoting the power of plants and some of their many uses.  It was a glorious Summer day and the gardens were full of families enjoying the event.

We are so lucky in Dundee to be surrounded by copious, healthy woodland.  We wanted to learn a bit more about using wood so the wonderful Kiri Stone, Woodswoman, came along to deliver a workshop using local Birch wood.  We were shown how to make a beautiful and unique mushroom. 

So many of us have very little garden space we thought it would be a great idea to look at how to grow successfully in pots.  

We had a brilliant afternoon in the Garden looking at how to grow some of our more common herbs and the types of conditions they like.   We had grown some young herb plants and everyone was able to choose their favourites and plant up a container with herbs to take home.