News from the village of Ardentinny, Argyll, Scotland.
As a major funder of the Glenfinart Walled Garden project, Argyll and the Islands LEADER Programme staff visited the garden recently.
Project coordinator Sheila McLean and her colleague Annemarie McLean discussed and evidenced progress to date, in support of their completion report. They were both very impressed with the work that had been done and said that the project had more than met the original success criteria.
Over the past year Dunoon’s Community Payback Team has been contributing to the success of Glenfinart Walled Garden.
Including the regular strimming, weeding, planting, compost collection and general garden maintenance, the Community Payback team, under the direction of supervisor John Gilchrist, has also been laying paths with road *planings and gravel provided by Argyll & Bute Council Roads Department.
Such is the success of the contribution they have made to the garden, this year the team will be allocated a plot to enable them to grow their own produce. They will also receive training from Glenfinart Walled Garden’s volunteers’ coordinator and gardener, Glyn Topliss.
With garden art afloat and ‘Elfin Cottage’ under a foot of water, parts of Glenfinart Walled Garden remain flooded from the River Finart overflow on Saturday.
The waters rose sufficiently to penetrate the office floor, however there does not appear to be any damage to the main infrastructure of the garden. Parts of the area are still under around 18 inches of water, so it will take several days to drain off and for the clear-up to begin.
Ardentinny’s Glenfinart Walled Garden has been awarded a £768 administration grant by Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park.
According to Ardentinny Community Trust Treasurer, Dennis Gower, this most welcome additional funding will go towards insurance and other administration costs of the Walled Garden project.
The National Park previously provided support to this community initiative through the tireless efforts of its volunteers during the preparations for the Glenfinart Walled Garden’s episode of the BBC’s Beechgrove Garden programme and the Trust continues to maintain a close liaison with the Park regarding its ongoing work on the project.