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Projects in Progress
| "The Triangle" village green at Howwood |
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| How the site looked prior to work commencing |
Work has started on the transformation of "The Triangle" village green in Howwood, Renfrewshire, into a space that will
be much more attractive and welcoming to the local community. A local action group, the Howwood Wildlife and Woodland
Group, raised more than £35,000 in grants through the Aggregates Levy scheme and from Scottish Natural Heritage towards the
project. The Group also produced its own outline designs and artist's impressions for the project. Carts Greenspace's
practical role has been relatively minor here, finding some funding to cover professional fees and pointing the Group in the
direction of technical landscape design help from Renfrewshire Council's Planning & Transport Department when required.
Projected completion date: March 2006.
| Two weeks into the landscape construction phase... |
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| The site will have a new focus of stone raised beds around a central surfaced area. |
Langbank Primary School celebrates National Tree Week
In the early part of 2005 Carts Greenspace
helped Langbank Primary School
in Renfrewshire to secure a “Trees for Schools Fund 2005” grant from The Tree Council. This grant was awarded by The Tree Council to help the school create its own native woodland within the
school grounds.
On 1st December the Carts Greenspace
staff returned to the school to help plant this new mini-woodland. During the
morning each of the school’s 72 pupils had the opportunity to escape from classroom lessons to wrap up warm, rush outside
and plant their own individual tree.
A mixture of attractive native trees was planted:
Alder, Hazel, Hawthorn, Ash, Crab Apple, Aspen, Gean, Bird
Cherry and Rowan. Some of these will have attractive blossom in the spring and
berries that will attract more birds to the school grounds in the autumn. Together
they will create a small haven for wildlife in future years.
The children learned other important lessons
during the morning, for example:
- worms may be wriggly but they are vital for healthy soils;
- tiny trees need protecting from the elements and hungry herbivores like voles, rabbits and deer;
- Renfrewshire’s soils are extremely resistant to spades.
The Primary 1 pupils frankly did not believe
that the tiny transplants they were tending would be three times their height by the time they leave to go to secondary school.
| Tidying up after the children's planting efforts |
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| Straightening a tree stake amongst a forest of plastic tree tubes... |
Langside Parish Church Biodiversity Garden takes shape
Carts Greenspace has just finished its first "faith garden" - in partnership with Langside Parish Church. The Church
had already been awarded Eco Congregation status, in recognition of its environmental efforts, and was keen to devote a small
corner of its compact grounds to encouraging local wildlife.
After the Church’s Brownie Pack had worked with Glasgow’s Countryside Ranger Service to make bird feeders,
nest boxes, etc. Carts Greenspace was called in to provide technical advice about transforming the selected corner of the
grounds.
Given the urban neighbourhood of Victorian tenements and the carefully managed nature of the rest of the grounds, it was
decided that biodiversity would have to be encouraged within the framework of a formally designed garden. Therefore
Carts Greenspace designed a garden with a recurring motif of circles and arcs, inspired by two adjoining rounded turret shaped
extensions at the corners of the church itself.
The main landscape construction work for the garden was completed by Clyde Landscapes Ltd. in March 2006.
The garden design comprises three framing raised beds (themselves constructed from machined round timber logs), four lower
beds retained by log walls, an innovative bog garden feature for wetland plants—surrounded by a circle of artificial
sleepers (manufactured from concrete to resemble timber) and lined on one side by three backless benches made from recycled
plastic. The Biodiversity Garden is linked to the church’s main entrance by a sinuous trail of stepping stones
in the turf—each stepping stone again manufactured from concrete to resemble a tree slice (with growth rings and bark
but without the inevitable slip hazard that accompanies genuine wood).
The initial planting of the beds concentrated on ornamental species known to attract bumble bees, butterflies, hoverflies
and other pollinating insects.
Creation of the Biodiversity Garden has been enabled by a £6,000 funding award from Greenspace Scotland, supported by further
financial support from Glasgow City Council and the fund raising efforts of Langside Parish Church itself.
| Langside Parish Church Biodiversity Garden |
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| View of the garden just after planting with wildlife friendly species |
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