News from the village of Ardentinny, Argyll, Scotland.
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.
It’s been a busy week for the Glenfinart Walled Garden volunteers who today put on an amazing display of produce and crafts at Blairmore’s Local Produce Christmas Market.
Anna Williamson, Linda Naismith, Ann Morrison, Janette Reilly, Merle Ferguson, Lynn Kerr, Margaret Robinson and the Community Payback Team created beautiful wreaths and Christmas decorations to raise funds for the Walled Garden. Linda Naismith provided the venue for the village crafters and was a wonderful host, keeping the workers fed and watered (not to mention dealing with the mess left behind!).
Forest foragers gathered berries, hundreds of pine cones, holly and greenery for the wreaths and many from the community donated Christmas decorations, ribbons and craft items to complete the wreaths. Locals also donated home baking and preserves, hand crafts and designer jewellery. The creative hands of Chris Emmett constructed bird boxes and feeders, the proceeds from which will buy wood for raised beds for the Walled Garden.
A big thank you to everyone!!
On Saturday 9 November, unbeknown to Ardentinny Community Trust, Glenfinart Walled Garden won Gold in the Community Partnership’s Initiative of the Year Award ‘for the work of volunteers in transforming a walled garden that had been more or less abandoned in the 1920’s into something the local community can treasure’
The Community Partnership is a charitable membership organisation run by its members for the benefit of communities within the National Park. It runs a programme of events, including its Annual Gathering, at which its annual awards were presented last Saturday.
Another Ardentinny resident was also an award recipient. Eileen Connell received silver in the over 25 Volunteer category ‘for her work on the Ardentinny memorial Wood (Coronation Wood)’ which is the wooded area opposite Ardentinny car park which belongs to Gauld Estates Ltd. Mr. Gauld apparently granted permission to a group of enthusiastic volunteers to clear and restore the area for the benefit of the community. 
And there’s more. The Walled Garden has been shortlisted for the 2013 UK National Park Volunteer Awards in the Projects category. This will be judged at the end of the month. So, fingers crossed, Glenfinart Walled Garden will do it again!