Grow Greener with Garthdee Field Allotments Association

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Season’s end 2023

Well, let’s be honest, 2023 has been a trying year as the weather this last few months has proved. Windy, wild and wet rather sums it up.

We think this was the worst flooding we had ever seen on site, but at least it was relatively short lived.

However, we have ended on a high note. Firstly, the volunteers enjoyed a good end of term bash. They have all put in a fantastic shift this year and our celebration was just a wee thank you for the 22 who have done us proud all season long. Sorry goes to those who missed out on the photo opportunity.

Special thanks go to Irene for overseeing a fantastic spread of party food and to Jordi for his Captain Morgan Mocktails. Very special!

It was a great pleasure to be invited to Aberdeen Council’s Celebration of It’s Your Neighbourhood successes. Phil 57, our Association Secretary, attended and accepted our Outstanding rating with a Certificate of Distinction award.

Our season has ended with success therefore, but the work goes on around the site. Thank go to Jordi and Danny, our most recent recruit to the volunteers, who have come in specially this week to help finish off an overdue planter build for a lone suffering and very patient plotter who placed an order some little time ago. (No name, no pack drill, but you know who you are!)

As Jordi often proves, working hard does not mean you can’t have a good laugh. Here we see him showing off his new skills with the Block Plane.

As the Season ends, we wish every plotter, volunteer and friend of Garthdee Allotments a Merry Christmas, a Happy Holiday and successful growing in 2024. Cheers!

It’s Your Neighbourhood 2023

It is a pleasure to report that Garthdee Field has retained its Outstanding rating following the recent visit by Steven Shaw, our current IYN Assessor.

Here’s how Steven’s report sums up our year in 2023.

Areas of achievement:
Garthdee Allotments Association continues to develop and grow. They are an outstanding Its Your Neighbourhood group.
This group should be congratulated on their Green Flag status. They are one of only two allotments in Scotland to achieve this award and they should be very proud of this achievement.
The group are welcoming and very enthusiastic. It is obvious they love what they do and have real pride in what they have achieved to date.
The idea to recycling and repurposing old, vintage tools is tremendous, and I look forward to hearing more about this.
The new cabin is fantastic and an asset to the group.
Garthdee Allotments Association is an absolute joy to visit and a very special place. It is an outstanding Its Your Neighbourhood group and deserves all the plaudits that come its way!
Congratulations on such a fantastic site and well done to everyone involved.

Recommendations/suggestions from your assessor:

  • Continue to engage with young people of all ages. The work that is being done with Kaimhill Primary School is fantastic.
  • The community and volunteer days are great.
  • Continue to work with and communicate to all plotters. It is important that they feel involved and have a voice.
  • Continue to maintain a good rapport with Aberdeen City Council for the benefit of the allotments, and to follow up plot holders with problems.
  • Continue to involve yourselves in Keep Scotland Beautiful and Aberdeen City Council’s environmental campaigns such as Clean Up Aberdeen.
  • Promote the great work being done at every opportunity i.e., enter for awards, involve local media.

Steven’s recommendations and suggestions are especially helpful and will frame our efforts and activities in the coming year.

Thanks go to all our plotters, volunteers, friends and partners who helped us achieve this outstanding success in 2023.

Next year GFAA will celebrate its tenth year in the IYN competition. Let’s make it a year to remember!

Read Steven’s full report in this download

IYN Award 2022

Phil (Plot 57) attended an It’s Your Neighbourhood Celebration hosted by Aberdeen City Council this week and was presented with our top ranking, “Outstanding with Distinction” Award Certificate for our 2022 entry.

It was smashing to see us maintain our ranking for another year and thanks go to all of the plotters, volunteers and friends of Garthdee Field Allotments whose efforts around the site and on plots made it possible.

Our community projects are always recognised as our strength on these occasions and we very much hope our Fresh Food for Frugal Families project will win funding in the current Scottish Government’s Just Transition Scheme. If you haven’t voted for us here’s the link and remember, everyone in the household can vote! Voting closes tomorrow at noon – so please vote now!

IYN Report 2022

Following a recent visit from Jim and Wendy Henderson, GFAA has received our It’s Your Neighbourhood assessment report for 2022. We are pleased to report we have retained our Outstanding rating. These are extracts from the final report.

Congratulations!

GFAA were delighted to receive this email from Steven Shaw of Aberdeen City Council.


We had some great news yesterday from the Beautiful Scotland Awards. We’re winners!

I’m chuffed to bits for everyone involved in our campaign. Thank you for all your help and support. Your film showcasing your group worked a treat and our success is very much yours to enjoy too. You can be very proud of helping the city achieve these awards.

Gold Medal for the city but more significantly we also won the Wright Award for Sustainability. This is for our work on wetlands, woodlands and wildlife. This is great news and does show we are on the right track with our more natural approach to the management of some of our green spaces.

Thank you again for all the help you give to our campaign. It means so much to the team and I to have your continued support. We’ve obviously had s a demanding and challenging 18 months so this is lovely recognition for everyone’s hard work.

I’m looking forward to working with you further and enjoying more success in 2022.

Thank you

Steven


Awards Time

In the year of our first Green Flag Award, we are also pleased to have these.

Thanks to all those plotters, volunteers and friends whose contributions and efforts make these successes possible. We literally could not do it without you.

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