About our Garden

In 2023, we started planning and creating the Community Garden in an otherwise neglected space (35m long x 4.5m wide) behind the Coldstream Larder which is located in the Primary School grounds. The aims of the garden are to:

  • Reduce landfill by providing facilities to compost green waste from the Larder;
  • Demonstrate fruit and vegetable growing;
  • Share gardening skills within the wider community and involve the primary school children where possible;
  • Grow some fresh produce for the Larder;
  • Use nature-friendly cultivation methods to create a space that is good for people to enjoy and for biodiversity to thrive.

How the Larder Community Garden has developed in 2025

This was our second growing season. We continued to grow a range of vegetables, including onions, shallots, leeks, salads, parsnip, carrots, peas and beans, and pumpkin. We also grew outdoor tomatoes, which were very successful, and had small harvests from strawberries, blueberries and blackcurrants. We shared the produce between larder users and the gardeners. We refined the selection towards the most popular varieties so as a result we reduced the amount of chard and didn’t grow runner beans. Between the hotbin and the traditional composting bays we made our first batches of lovely garden compost which will be used on the beds. We also planted bulbs such as crocuses in the grass to the south of the garden fence and started managing the cutting of the grass ourselves.

This year we also adopted and planted up the new community raised bed which is beside the school’s new raised beds in the outdoor classroom area. We planted potatoes, a pumpkin and some flowers. The school’s nursery class greatly enjoyed watching the pumpkin growing and they eventually used it to make some soup, enhanced with onions, potatoes and sage grown in the garden.

We continued to look after the apple, pear and plum trees in the school orchard, pruning them in the winter and summer. The harvest was very good this year and was shared with the school and the larder. In September we used our apple press during the school’s launch of their outdoor classroom and the children enjoyed picking apples and tasting juice. They also enjoyed harvesting the potatoes from the community bed
We ran the apple press on two other occasions: once in September in the Community Centre Garden on one of the days the new Community café was open; and a second time in October at the new outdoor classroom. Both were successful and attracted local residents who brought us bags of apples for pressing.

In February we ran an open day as part of SBCAN’s Act for Change initiative and were visited by several local people and made some bird feeders with the school children. SBCAN had awarded us a £250 grant to buy tools.
In September we once again won Gold at the Scottish Borders Council Greener Gateway’s Award for Sustainability and received the trophy for best in class.

We have a small group of active local volunteers who on average contribute at least about 45 hours per month managing the garden and hotbin, and running any events. In addition, other local people and businesses have made in-kind donations:

  • another trailer load of woodchip from a local tree surgeon
  • a wheelbarrow
  • the contents of garden shed no longer needed by a resident, including some hand tools
  • help from Coldstream Gateway with relocating a shed, some steps and tyres donated by a local resident
  • some fence wire and pallets
  • a large water tank which will be used as a water butt collecting water from a shed roof
  • horse manure collected from a local paddock

We are currently planning for the 2026 season:

  • hopefully installing some smaller raised beds for flowers
  • we are investigating a polytunnel which would provide space for raising seeds and growing more tender plants such as tomatoes, peppers and basil
  • continue running regular weekly meetings, sharing skills within the community
  • run more apple pressing days (this time restricting people to one bag of apples each)
  • possibly running some other events or activities based in the outdoor classroom.

We continue to benefit from Scottish Borders Council’s Community Growing Network. Their regular meetings and newsletter provide informal advice and support by linking us to other community gardens in the Scottish Borders.