At the end of last year the Slopefield Allotments Association Committee was successful in receiving a grant of £500 from the Suez Aberdeen Reuse Community Fund. The purpose of the Fund is to support schools and community groups to make environmental improvements, in support of social value, health and wellbeing, for the benefit of the wider community.
This grant funding was matched with committee funds and new planters were purchased to go around the Slopefield Allotments site.
In place now we have large corten planters which are a good low maintenance option and new wooden planters both when planted up will help encourage more pollinators to the site and help with our biodiversity efforts.
The wooden planters were obtained through Aberdeen City Council as part of their ‘Meadow In A Box’ project. They were constructed by people at an HMP workshop and gave them a chance to learn great skills whilst contributing to the community. This was a new relationship that came about because of this project when we were looking for where we could get sustainable, durable planters. Working on this is of huge benefit to the mental health & wellbeing of their workers who did an amazing job and their learning and future employment. With the help of Countryside Rangers we were also able to have the planters delivered to site giving an additional environmental benefit to us not having to collect the planters ourselves. At our recent community afternoon the planters were put in position around Slopefield Allotments and painted beautifully, all ready for the schoolchildren from Airyhall School to sow a variety of seeds that will add to the existing wildflower areas. The children love visiting the site and being hands on. It is a lovely intergenerational link to have within our community.
The previous tyre planters have done well at over ten years old and we can’t wait until the new planters are in bloom later in the year.
Photos can be found here