Aviva Community Fund has provided £1,527 of match funding
North Kelvin Meadow
Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom
Aim
Due to the increased use of the meadow and wood by the public, we need to up the maintenance and address some health and safety issues.
The impact of Covid is that this wild natural community meadow and wood in the heart of the city has been used more than ever. We now need to restore and improve what is there - call it "build back better" but in a 100% green natural way!
Thanks for the donations so far, but we really need more to come in.
We manage 1.4 hectares of meadow and woodland (500 trees) in the heart of Glasgow. This land also has: a community orchard of 30 fruit trees, 2 tree houses, 2 mud kitchens for young kids, 3 compost bins, an Elves and Fairy corner, 30 raised beds each rented by a person or family per year to grow vegetables in, and a community allotment with 6 raised beds, 3 honey bee hives, 6 bumble bee homes and 2 hedgehog homes.
And that’s just physically what we have. We allow and promote hands on activities that help so many people, especially kids, get in touch, learn and benefit from nature.
The reason for this funding application is we are now at the stage where we need to renew and improve some of this and we’d like to better bring to the local people, nursery groups and schools the wild natural green space experience we have. This means fixing some of the heath and safety issues we have and making what we have accessible for people of all ages to benefit from the land.
Also our brick tool shed needs renovation to make it waterproof , along with internal improvements so it will last for many years to come.
We allow hands on experience regarding nature activities and believe this wild natural greenspace is of a great health benefit, both mental and physical, to this well built up area in Glasgow.
Glasgow and especially the area this land is located in needs a better connection between people and nature. Many of theses young kids for example have never been in a woodland environment. Nor have they ever picked fruit from an orchard tree or understand compost. They have been in parks with avenues of planted trees but not a self seeded woodland and meadow. The area is predominantly high tenement flats with 8 flats in each block. They don’t normally have much of a garden, just a place for their communal bins. With Glasgow near the bottom of the health tables this land of ours is in the right place and providing the right solutions. Plus all this is done via a broad long standing constituted community group in the form of a regsitered charity.
This project successfully funded on 21st September 2021