Restoring Planters for Sustainable Growing at Tamfourhill Community Hub
Over the last few months, the Carmuirs Primary School Climate Action Group, alongside Morag from the Food & Growing Team (FEL Scotland) and Community Safety Engager John Hosie (Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill), have been busy bringing the community garden and planters at Tamfourhill Community Hub back to life!
In February, when the young Climate Action Group were doing a DIY bird feeder activity with John Hosie in the woods, the students discovered the planters hidden away, forgotten about and full of weeds! The team soon realised that with some work and enthusiasm, they would be able to restore them, and be able to use the planters to grow their own food in a sustainable way.
Before the group got to work
When the team got to work in March, the first step in restoration was to give the planters a makeover by getting rid of all the overgrown weeds in them. The Climate Action Group students used handheld garden tools to de-weed the beds, and were led by Morag from FEL Scotland and John. Some of the weeds had very deep roots so it was definitely a team effort, and the group had to be careful to only remove the weeds from the planters and avoid any flowers or soil that they wanted to keep.
After a lot of effort, the group managed to get all four planters looking clean and ready to go!
The results!
The following week when the Climate Action Group returned to Tamfourhill Community Hub, they started on the second stage of the project – giving the planter boxes some fresh paint. FEL Scotland brought paint and paintbrushes, while Carmuirs Primary School brought some stencils along.
After a quick safety briefing about handling the paint, the team got to work. First, they started by giving all four planters a light base colour. This brightened the garden up instantly, and as it was a lovely sunny day the base colour dried quickly and they were able to start with the stencils.
The painting begins!
The group found that it was quite hard to keep the paint within the stencils, so ended up doing a lot of freehand painting instead! Morag had brought various colours of paint such as pink, blue and green; the group were very creative and each planter ended up with a unique, colourful design.
By the end of the session, the planters looked incredible, and the Carmuirs Climate Action Group had clearly transformed the area from an unloved space to a bright growing garden for the community to enjoy and reap the benefits of sustainable growing.
Next up for the group is planting. The team have decided to plant potatoes, chilies, fruit bushes and herbs in their new planters, and are all looking forward to enjoying the delicious rewards!
A massive well done from us at FEL Scotland to the Carmuirs Climate Action Group for their hard work.
The Primary 7 Climate Action Group with John Hosie (Community Safety Engager)
