Community Garden - New Developments

2014 will see some exciting new developments at the West Ardnamurchan Community Garden as we introduce a new way of working to ensure the sustainability of the Garden and broaden the opportunities for encouraging and supporting locally produced food. 

The Committee responsible for the community garden have decided to hand over responsibility for the production of fruit and vegetables this year, and for operating the commercial aspect of the garden to two Gardeners, Anna and Hanno. This will free up the committee of the Community Garden (now known as the West Ardnamurchan Produce Community Interest Company) to concentrate their efforts on looking, with local residents, at new ways of supporting and encouraging the growing and producing of local food to complement the Community Garden.

This is now our fourth year of commercial production, and building on this experience, the committee are confident that this delegation of responsibility will secure the future of the garden. The new arrangement will mean that the two Gardeners can build on their commitment and hard work to develop and improve the garden and its range of available vegetables and fruit for local people, local businesses and visitors to purchase.

In addition the Committee will continue to work with the Gardeners to provide regular ‘community gardening sessions’ so that people can support the growing of local vegetables and fruit, learn about different aspects of gardening and meet socially with others with an interest in gardening. There continue to be opportunities for local people to have their own dedicated outside ‘raised bed’ or poly-tunnel bed or to cultivate a new piece of land as an allotment, and other local producers might also be interested in having a small outlet at the Garden stall. (More information about these opportunities will be the subject of a further article).

Finally, we would like to invite anyone interested in the community garden and with ideas about other activities to support gardening and other local producers to come along to our annual meeting on May 6th. Suggestions so far have included the possibility of having some community gardening space in the village, hiring out garden machinery, running garden based community events and organising more gardening training.

If you would like more information about any of the above please contact

Ritchie Dinnes (Chair): 01972 510247 or ritchie.dinnes@btinternet.com

Dale Meegan (Secretary): 01972 510322 or dalemeegan@yahoo.com