Fittie residents have been informally ‘community gardening’ using Aberdeen City Council supplied planters since 2012. Supported by the Fittie Trust, a group of volunteers started the Gardening Group in Summer 2016 to contribute in various ways to improve the local environment.
In 2018 the Fittie gardening group received wonderful news from Keep Scotland Beautiful sub group, ‘It’s your Neighbourhood’ that their work had been rated as ‘Outstanding’ in a report generated after a visit by a IYN assessor!
Recent and on-going activities of the gardening group include;
Maintaining Flower Tubs
Individual villagers have adopted the large conical flower tubs, planting them up to their own designs throughout the year. We also maintain the large granite trough next to North Square. ACC continues to support us with bedding plants, bulbs and compost.
Clean-up Events
We occasionally organise clean-up events or tackle problem spots in the village of Fittie, recently taking part in the Great British Spring Clean
Community Garden around the ‘Gospel Hall’
An integral part of the Community Hall project is the establishment of a garden that can provide additional outdoor space for the diverse activities and events taking place in the hall. The Fittie gardening group have been working with the Fittie Trust to gather ideas from residents for a community garden and draft up plans ready for when the Hall refurbishment is completed. For more information on how you can contribute to these plans visit the Community Garden page.
Plant Sales
Although Fittie houses have tiny gardens, or sometimes just pots outside the front door, there are many keen gardeners and the Fittie gardening group host a plant stall at community hall events which raises money for the community hall project. Plants are donated by villagers and friends who pot up any surplus plants from their own gardens they might otherwise just throw away.
‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ Campaign
In 2016 the Fittie Community Development Trust signed up for the RHS, It’s Your Neighbourhood campaign, which is run in partnership with the RHS and supports community groups striving towards Community Participation, Environmental Responsibility and Gardening Achievements. We achieved a Level 3 Certificate – ‘Advancing’ for our combined efforts of maintaining flower displays in Fittie, keeping the village and beach clean and developing plans for a potential community garden in connection with the Gospel Hall project.
The gardening group have taken in IYN annual projects: The theme for 2017 was “Birds, Bees and Trees”. And the group established three new planter tubs near the Fittie playpark, planting the tubs with local coastal plants and bee-friendly Scottish wild flowers.
Any further ideas are very welcome, so please pass these on to our email address. If you would like further information on any of this, please contact us via fittietrust@gmail.com
We hold monthly meetings to chat about our ideas and plan projects. Everybody is welcome, so please come along!
Next meeting:
TBA