Dawson Park Community Garden

From this 🥒🧅 to this 🥗🍲
We love seeing what people make with the veg from the garden and this time we got to try the results! Friend of the garden Magsoodah made an incredible courgette curry with chapatis for us last week 😍 🌟

Wishing all our SAMH colleagues all the best for the Edinburgh kiltwalk!

Cheering on at the Edinburgh Kiltwalk! 🌟

Good luck to all of , and thank you for your dedication to improving Scotland's mental health.

Don't forget, you can find us at pitstop 3 on Portobello Promenade!

Together, we're making a difference!

Do you have apples to be juiced?

As part of our community apple pressing project we will be arranging Apple Tree pruning workshops in winter to teach you all things apple trees!

Still looking for lots of apples to be juiced, please drop them off to us

Question: What do you do when you've a glut of tomatoes?

Answer: Enjoy them! A simple salad with onion and a little cucumber, dressed with a drizzle of olive oil and cider vinegar with salt and pepper and mixed herbs. Yum!

Today is World Su***de Prevention Day. Two people die by su***de every day in Scotland.

Each one of these deaths is a tragedy; which is why SAMH works every day to prevent su***de, and to support those affected. Please follow the link below to the SAMH website if you are having suicidal thoughts or are concerned about someone else. There is help available.

https://www.samh.org.uk/about-mental-health/su***de/su***de-prevention

Love the new sign that went up today ❤️

We're very proud of our apples this year. Just look how shiny they are. They're not quite ready to harvest yet but we're hoping they taste as good as they look. 😋🍎👍

Friday evening was our Volunteer Pizza Night, a perfect opportunity to fire up our amazing pizza oven, generously donated by the family and friends of Fraser Ross Smith. We were blessed with a warm evening, fantastic food, and some truly delicious pizzas, topped with fresh ingredients from the garden. A big thank you to all our volunteers for their hard work and for making it such a special evening in the garden!

Underneath the leaves there are squashes growing. They’re looking good 🍂🎃🍃

Our wild flower beds have gone over and have been left to set seed. They still have a charm and a beauty all of their own. Have you grown wild flowers in your garden this year? If you have pictures, drop them in the comments or post them on Instagram and tag us so we can see!

Just a quick reminder...

We are one of three nominated local charities at Tesco’s for which you can vote. All three charities will receive a donation but the charity that gets the most votes gets a little more. We were in the lead at Tesco’s in Monifieth but the boxes have now been emptied for the new month. We’d love it if you could vote for us at Tesco’s in the Ferry, at the filling station on Dalhousie Road or in the supermarket in Monifieth. Pop a few blue tokens in the SAMH box and help us get that little extra. Please share and thanks from everyone at the garden for your support 🥰

Another fab week in the garden. Why not pop along and have a look for yourself. We are open Mon-Thurs, 8.30-3.30.

There are some jobs in the garden that we do now so that next year is even better. And collecting some seed from the tastiest tomatoes is just one of them. Our Scotland Yellow tomatoes have cropped really well and are delicious so we plan on growing them again next year and for free with this seed we have collected that will be dried out and stored in a small envelope until early next year. 🍅🏡 😋👍

We'd love to say a big thank you to our corporate volunteers from the DWP who came and worked in the garden with us last week. We got loads done with the potatoes harvested and leeks planted amongst the jobs we did together. Our volunteers said:

"We all hope to participate at the community garden again soon as we can see how rewarding it is and what impact we could all make in just 1 day to our community. We would 100% recommend everyone to do this, not just for the community but for their own wellbeing too!"

Thank you again to Cheryl, Leanne, Danielle, Paula, Monika, Chris, Robert and Bill

These plants need new homes before winter.

Do you have a space you want to fill in your garden? We have plants for sale (at very reasonable prices). Shoana at Duntrune Cocoon - Tales from the Potting Shed has lots of plants that will fare much better planted in your garden than in a pot over winter. So why not pop in and see what's available. You'll find the blue Cocoon in the opposite corner from our conservatory and Shoana is usually here Mondays and Thursdays. She'd also be grateful for any donations of unwanted large plant pots - the size you can wear as a hat is good. All monies raised from the Cocoon go into our funds for the Community Garden.

Tomorrow in the garden

1.00 - 300pm Craft and Natter group. Come along and join in.

1.30-2.15pm we have Yoga in the Park with Ali Henderson. Bring water and a mat. It's free and beginners are welcome.

We are open 8.30 to 3.30 Monday to Thursday 🌽🥕🌹🌷

Thank you to all our volunteers for their hard work this week but especially John and Tam, who have been busy. New guttering on the compost shed, a wood store added in the middle, new cold frames built and a bench by the shed. They were busy installing a rain water harvesting tank this afternoon. If you want to volunteer with us it doesn't have to be gardening. We have lots of things needing done. Our volunteer days are Monday and Thursday but we're open Monday to Thursday 8.30 to 3.30 if you'd like to pop along and see what we do here in Dawson Park next to the tennis courts.

The garden will be closed today (Wednesday) for a team SAMH planning day! We will be open again tomorrow as usual (Thursday 22nd August).

Resilience border at Dawson Park Community Garden

Back in Summer 2022, we faced a hot, dry summer. Every week, the SEPA water scarcity report painted a more concerning picture about the levels of water across Scotland. In Dundee we were "extremely dry" and one of our borders was especially impacted by this. So follow the link to see what we did.

https://growdundee.blog/resources/66bf2cfaca6e95010003bb33

Monday is a busy day in the garden and not just for the bees. Our volunteers will be busy in all parts of the garden today. Flowers and produce are looking good!

We have our second Craft and Natter group from 1.00-3.00pm Do come along if you fancy joining in.

And at 1.30-2.15pm we have Yoga in the Park with Ali Henderson. Bring water and a mat. It's free and beginners are welcome.

We are open 8.30 to 3.30 Monday to Thursday 🐝

Watch this space for more pollinator friendly improvements to come next year!

The rain wasn't just good for our flowers. Our veggies are coming on well too! If you like growing veggies but don't have the space in your own garden, you could volunteer with us and help us with ours. You'd be welcome to come regularly or just now and again when you can. There's something rather special about working in a garden with other people. 👨‍👨‍👧‍👧🥕🌽🥔🥬❤

We were delighted to welcome the judges from Britain in Bloom to the garden this morning. It was a pleasure to show them around and we hope they liked our garden as much as we do although it was shame about the rain. But that's gardening for you. We can't have sunshine every day. 🏵🌧🥕🥒🌽🍅

Just look what a little rain has done for the flowers in the garden. The plants are looking spectacular right now so if you're passing, pop in and have a look. Ten minutes out of a busy day in a garden can be a great boost for your mental health. Make a little time for yourself 🌷🌺❤

We are open Mon-Thurs 8.30-3.30

Our beach crafters had a great afternoon making from things found on the beach. So good in fact they've decided to make Monday 1.00 - 3.00pm a regular Craft & Natter group here in the garden. So if you'd like to join in come along. There will always be something to craft with or bring your favourite things with you and show us what you love to do. Free tea and coffee and a friendly welcome guaranteed. Who fancies joining us next Monday?

Thank you to everyone who came along yesterday! We had a brilliant day. Did you come along? Please share any photos of your visit in the comments.

What was your favourite part of the garden?

We've checked the weather and the headline might say rain but it's forecast to stay dry until late afternoon so we can all enjoy our Community Day this afternoon from 12.30-2.30. Come along to Dawson Park and bring your children to enjoy some fun in the garden. We're looking forward to seeing you all. And when it's all over our plants will get a good watering tonight 😎👨‍👩‍👧‍👦🌺🌷❤

🌻TOMORROW Community Day 8th August 12:30-2:30 🌻

Everyone is invited to join us for garden fun, activities and refreshments 😎🌿
Free event, no booking required, open to all ages!
🌟PLEASE SHARE🌟