Greener Peebles

05/06/2026

Happy Volunteers' Week everyone! Today we gathered together for two important activities - to plant up our new Bee Bed with the lovely plants courtesy of RePollinate, and then to celebrate by singing along to lots of well-known songs performed by the fantastic Mind the Music! group from Nomad Beat - community music school, and enjoying delicious lemon drizzle cakes made by The Food Foundation. A massive thank you to all of our brilliant volunteers - the garden is the wonderful community asset that it is thanks to your dedication and awesome vibes! 🥰🌿🥦

03/06/2026

It's Survey Time!

Your feedback is important to us! Please take part in our Community Consultation https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/GVQHPTQ

Only 7 questions – each one is multiple choice, with an option to add a comment.

Every 2 years we run a Consultation Survey. This helps us know which areas to develop, so the design and activities in the community garden have been directly chosen by the local people who enjoy and grow the garden. Please do have your say!

As you know, every year we fundraise to secure the running costs of the garden. With inflation and rising costs, this is an ongoing challenge. By completing the survey, you can help us to demonstrate the difference having the garden makes to you – this will help us to secure the funding required to keep the community garden running and open to everyone.

Thank you so much for your time.

01/06/2026

29/05/2026

Boom shakalaka! There's a fantastic momentum going on at the moment in the community garden! Our brilliant maintenance and watering teams have been keeping the plants alive in this week's heat, the paths mown, continuing the repairs of the small polytunnel, and installing a gutter along the side of Takiwātanga, the polycarbonate tunnel, to enable us to harvest more rainwater.
We've also been preparing the new 'Bee Bed' - an area of the garden that hadn't been cultivated for a number of years and that, thanks to RePollinate, we are soon to be planting with a mixture of native and non-native bee-friendly plants: watch this space for developments!
Our gorgeous forest garden at the other end of the garden is really starting to take shape, we're excited to see how it grows over the coming years.
What a week! A thousand thank yous to everyone who gives up their precious time and energy to make our community garden thrive 🤩🐝🌿

22/05/2026

It's not just this tree bumblebee that's buzzing in the garden at the moment - we are too! We are loving this busy time of seed sowing, potting on, planting out, weeding, mulching, repairing, grass cutting, watering, hoeing - there's a lot of ING in our ZING! Today at our Young Plant Share, however, we did more perusing, choosing, and eating than gardening - it was great to welcome back some garden friends as well as welcome some new folks, and we enjoyed a super tasty lunch provided by The Food Foundation. The Eyed ladybird that we found among the leftover plants by the pines (see post below for more info about those plants) was the final delight of a delightful morning!
Huge thanks to all our fabulous volunteers, to all who joined us today, and to all who kindly donated to our special community garden. Have a lovely weekend everyone! 🐝🌞🪴🐞

22/05/2026

🪴 Plants by donation 🪴

These green pals are left over from our plant share and looking for homes. Mostly hardy herbaceous perennials, but a few veggies, herbs and annual flowers too. Some are unlabelled and "potluck"!

We are behind the Victoria Park Centre, Kingsmeadows Road. Garden gates always open. Help yourself and donate via our website here
https://greenerpeebles.org/donations/

19/05/2026

*** TODAY *** Don't forget to label your plants clearly and bring cash if you can.

Still plenty of spaces for lunch at our Plant Share and Community Meal *** this Friday ***, folks. If you'd like to secure a space for food, please book (details on poster), if not, simply rock up between 10am and 12 noon 🪴🥖🍰

~ FLAT WORMS ~
As well as sharing plants and scran, we are raising awareness of the invasive New Zealand flat worm that has been increasing in numbers across UK gardens, including our community garden. These worms predate our crucial native earthworms, which we have been working hard to protect. Flat worms easily spread between gardens through shared/bought plants and compost, and so we ask that if you are bringing spare plants to share, please check that they don't have any secret stowaways! In potted plants, they seem to hide between the root ball and plastic pot. They are also often found under plastic bags/tarps/sheets/bins.

Follow this link to find out more, including what they, and their eggs look like, and how to manage them.
https://www.earth-ways.co.uk/how-to-live-with-flatworm-in-a-permaculture-garden/ #:~:text=Flatworms%20were%20probably%20introduced%20into,centres%20without%20people%20realising%20it

Don't worry, we'll keep the slimy worm chat to before lunch!

14/05/2026

🌾🌾🌾 In search of straw 🌾🌾🌾

Can anyone local help us out with 3 or 4 bales/bags of herbicide-free straw for mulching the community garden?

Donations very welcome but funds available if selling.

Comment below or email [email protected] if you can help.

Thank you 🌿🌿🌿

10/05/2026

Just 2 weeks to go until our Plant Share and Community Picnic, and you are all welcome!

See poster for details 🪴🪴🪴

08/05/2026

The temperature might have been cooler in the garden this week but we're always hot on activities! We've been busy potting on tomatoes and brassicas seedlings; sowing French bean, runner bean, and courgette seeds; and, of course, watering, repairing, grass cutting, weeding and hoeing. Today we also held our monthly volunteer meeting, with plenty of updates and developments to discuss. The harvest board is bursting with lots of delectable culinary delights at the moment; most of them are perennial, such as 'nine star' broccoli, rhubarb, chives, Korean celery, and asparagus. Yum!
If you haven't been to the garden for while (or ever!), do pop in sometime and discover our fantastic new garden information boards, funded by Destination Tweed UK, and heritage trail boards, funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Thank you to everyone who joined us this week, and have a lovely weekend everyone! 🙂🐦🌿🥦