This year’s Grow Wild projects are ramping up to full swing - we caught up with Scotland Engagement Manager Sinéad Fortune to hear what they are all up to.

Sinead told us - We’ve got a great spread of projects, across locations and themes, and there are all sorts of interesting things going on.

In Beith, we’ve got Garnock’s Fantastical Forest, a project led by Beith Community Development Trust that excites the imagination while highlighting some of the amazing woodland fungi and wildflowers we have here in Scotland. To the east we have Rewilding Gorebridge, a project run by Gorebridge Community Development Trust, where the ruins of Newbyres Castle is being transformed into a wildflower meadow and community event space. The Good Shepherd Centre in Bishopton and Rossie Young People’s Trust in Montrose are currently working with some of the most vulnerable young people in Scotland to create beautiful and therapeutic outdoor spaces for learning and enjoying Scotland’s wildflowers.

We have two projects based in Glasgow this year, and both are in the process of converting previously under-loved outdoor spaces into dynamic, fun assets for the community to enjoy. The Blooming Good Garden of Readin’, led by The Conservation Volunteers, at the Bridge in Easterhouse will soon be an outdoor extension to the library, a welcoming space to sit, read, enjoy the community-designed mural or just observe the wildflowers planted along the slope. Tollcross YMCA is equally hard at work creating their Melody Meadow, an outdoor performance area flanked by wildflower planters which will celebrate music and our native flowers alike. And just a bit outside Glasgow, East Kilbride Community Trust is about to put up their polytunnel for Bushcraft Botanicals, a series of workshops to plant out and utilise native plants for lotions, potions and other beneficial purposes.

Further afield, Inverness Botanic Gardens is celebrating their 25^th anniversary with Wild 25: Sharing the word of native wild flowers showcasing how to promote and care for wildflowers. Caithness Horizons Museum is about to kick off a summer full of activities and workshops highlighting the contributions of local botanist Robert Dick with an outdoor living museum, floral printmaking and more. Finally, all the way out on the isle of Tiree, our Hebridean Flower Project is spreading the joy of machair – their very own wildflower habitat – around the gardens and public spaces of the island.

To learn more about the activities of our Grow Wild projects and how you can get involved, check out their profile pages: https://www.growwilduk.com/content/funded-projects#Scotland. And if you’re interested in running your own Grow Wild project next year and getting funding and support to do so, get in touch! Contact Scotland Engagement Manager Sinéad Fortune by email [email protected] or phone 07917 264 891.