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A GARDEN designed to bring people together and target loneliness has opened.
Dozens of fruits, vegetables and herbs will be grown in Our Community Garden in Haddington.
Invited guests were given a tour of the garden, which is based within the grounds of Knox Academy Meadowpark.
The initiative is an offshoot of the successful Our Community Kitchen, which was set up in 2018 to try to tackle isolation by getting people round the dinner table.
Elaine Gale, who founded Our Community Kitchen, was full of enthusiasm about the latest project and hoped it would bring people together.
The garden could also be used as a learning base, with staff from local businesses using their expertise to talk to various groups.
There was a big turnout at the opening of Our Community Garden
Elaine said: “We could have Erica Muirhead [of Erica’s Florist] in there talking about plants, really connecting and bringing the community together in that space.
“In the summer, we are looking to do low-key fundraising events.
“It is a really nice space to walk about in.
“The whole aim is to create friendships and to reduce isolation, people’s loneliness and to bring the community together to form friendships across all ages and abilities.”
More than 70 people attended the official opening of the garden at the end of last month.
Roderick Urquhart, Lord Lieutenant for East Lothian, was on hand to officially cut the ribbon.
READ MORE: Our Community Kitchen and Knox Academy team up for community garden
Elaine said: “This year, we have been working with pupils from Knox Academy Meadowpark, The Compass School, Haddington Primary School and Pear Tree Nursery running activities and courses around planting and growing.
“Some schoolchildren helped sell produce/plants at the Haddington Festival in June, which was wonderful.
“We have been bringing the ages together to do activities such as herb boards, a mocktail event and other activities.
“Our new garden co-ordinator Helen Nisbet is planning a programme of activities for our schools for the rest of the year and planning ways to bring our community together within the garden area.”
Among the plants being grown in the garden are various herbs, including sage, rosemary and mint, as well as potatoes, peppers, strawberries, lettuces and cabbages.
Many of the plants will be used by volunteers of Our Community Kitchen, who meet in nearby Haddington Bowling Club.
The group is getting ready to expand its operations and meet four days a week from Tuesday to Friday as hearty, home-cooked meals are dished up.
It is hoped the new community garden will help bring people together
Elaine told the Courier that the service was only getting busier and hoped the garden would help.
She said: “We want it to be a learning base to bring the ages together.
“We want them to learn about planting and growing.
“We have got a kitchen, an outdoor kitchen there, and are going to be cooking with our produce and teaching all about planting, growing and cooking.
“A lot of the produce comes to the kitchen and already we are starting to use it.
“From the end of the year, we are going to be starting to give food away as we head into a really bad winter with the cost-of-living crisis.”
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