Jim Henderson, our It’s Your Neighbourhood Assessor has passed on his assessor report. It makes very good reading. Jim visited our site in early August and was clearly impressed with many of our activities: he awarded us a second to top-level grading and considered us to be ‘thriving’.
It is clear that all our allotment holders have contributed to this success for GFAA as Jim remarked on the big number of well looked after plots he saw as well as the well maintained communal areas of our site.
Here are some highlights from the report:
We scored 32/40 points for community participation with special mention made of help for novice plotters; our community orchard; support for TAMS; the RGU connection; social and communal activities to maintain the site; and our occasional training courses.
We scored 25/30 points on evidence of environmental responsibility, getting a special mention for our promotion of composting; waste management; encouragement of educational projects from primary to university level; use of natural materials and approaches to deal with problem areas; encouragement of wildlife with bird feeders and insect boxes around the site.
Gardening achievement scored 25/30 with praise given for the variety of fruit, veg and flowers grown across the site; the sharing of advice and plants; development of wild flower areas; and the use of small plots to help new plotters.
Jim indicated he looks forward to seeing more of the exciting new project with Broomhill Primary School and the raised bed plots planned for development with RGU in the Community access area. His score of 82/100 leaves us within striking distance of the ‘outstanding’ level on our very first attempt, so we have a clear target for the coming season.
A big thank you to all who contributed to this success on their own plots and on communal areas and to our principal partners, including the City Council and RGU. It is very pleasing to see our combined efforts recognised within the IYN scheme and we hope this success will encourage even wider participation and more new projects in the coming year.
Related articles
Juliette Camburn, from the It’s Your Neighbourhood Campaign has been kind enough to send us a PDF copy of their IYN August newsletter.
You will find articles on:
· The Dundee Flower & Food festival and the Beautiful Scotland award Ceremony
· Funding – free advice available for applying for funds
· Vandalism – one groups’ experience and how they tackled it
· Ways to engage with your community
· Tips on wildlife gardening
· And a Clean Up Scotland update – lots of activities to get involved with.
Shiona was quick enough to snap this visitor to her plot – clearly popped in just to admire the flowers on Plot 71a.
Jim Henderson, our It’s Your Neighbourhood Assessor, made his first visit to our site today. Luckily, the rain held off for his visit and all involved enjoyed our wee walk around the plots and site.
Jim is a very experienced plotter himself and proved to be full of good stories and ideas which he was very willing to share with us. It was very useful to find out how other plot sites do things and where they find support for their projects and developments.
Jim spent more than an hour with us and left saying how much he had enjoyed his visit. He will deliver his judgement on our efforts in due course. Fingers crossed!