This page is under construction – please bear with us!

It’s hard to believe that work only started on our Community Garden in December 2023, when we held our first community drop-in event to discuss finding a home for our food growing aspirations. With Glencairn Community Council permission secured to develop the (little-used) Car Park Picnic Area, work commenced on creating the garden in March 2023. Using a small allowance from our D&GCMH&W grant, we were able to purchase items and materials to start the construction. A team of volunteers helped us to refurbish a donated tool shed, to install a water butt, and to build raised beds (from baths!) and compost bins. The Community Pay Back team also provided us with three purpose-built and fully-accessible timber raised beds, to complete our infrastructure. Planting sessions commenced immediately, and we were eating the first salad crops by early June.

June 2024 also saw our first garden “Swap & Share” event, which attracted over 70 participants. In September, Katie and her volunteers supported the village Fashion Show, and some of the funds raised on the night were donated to the new garden to help establish an Outdoor Kitchen. This was used to provide lunches during the Autumn ‘Garden Planning’ sessions, and then to provide hot soup for our first Halloween event, which attracted over 40 youngsters to the garden. The outdoor kitchen has been used for almost every event since then , including the Living Advent Calendar, and community BBQs.

The Community Garden has been very well-used, providing us with outdoor space for teaching and sharing food growing, preserving and cooking skills and knowledge. A weekly work-party maintains the raised beds, and the primary school now visits regularly to enjoy gardening (their dedicated raised bed) and other outdoor activities. At the start of October 2025 our “Green Gathering” event was centred on the garden, and among other activities, local people came together to help us build a Wormery. On Halloween this year the garden attracted over 100 visitors of all ages, who came to enjoy guising, apple bobbing, hot dogs and soup. The garden shed was turned into a Fortune Teller’s booth, and became the star of the show.

We are currently in the process of setting up a Community Composting project, working with the DG Community Food Network. Find out more about what we want to do here: