2023 Horticultural Show – 26 August

26 August 2023 marked the welcome return of our annual horticultural show. Thanks to Rosa for organising a wonderful day, to everyone who helps with the organising and judging, and to Bailie Cllr Gerry McGarvey for awarding the prizes.

Here are the entries and winners in each category:

Plant Sale 13 May 2023

Saturday 13th May saw our annual plant sale.

We welcomed almost 300 people through the gates, many visiting for the first time.

Our growing team have been busy for several months preparing for the day, and had a wonderful selection of vegetable, fruit and flowering plants for sale. Also on offer, were a variety of goods from our craft team and some home baking from members served with tea, coffee and soft drinks.

After a cloudy start, the sun came out and the temperatures rose.

Thanks to all of the garden volunteers who helped us to raise almost £1,500.

Don’t worry if you missed the sale. There are still lots of plants available to buy in polytunnel 1.

Preparing for the Plant Sale

Our Growing Team have been busy through the spring and now you can see the fruits of their labours.

All sorts of fruit, vegetable and flower plants will be available.

All proceeds will help us to run the garden.

Open Streets Day 2023

On Saturday 22 April 2023, we took part in Stirling Council’s Open Streets Day, which also marked EarthDay.org

We set up our stand in King Street, and provided compostable pots, compost and a variety of seeds.

Lots of children and adults planyed them up and took them away to nuture them.

We had tomato, sunflower, sweetcorn, peas and runner beans available.

The sunflower seeds were especially popular with children.

It also gave us a chance to talk about the garden and promote the upcoming plant sale on Saturday 13th May.

 

Mary, Rosa and Nikki
Mary, Rosa and Nikki

Celebrate Halloween 2021 with a Chilli encounter at Braehead Community Garden on Saturday

If you’re looking for a chiling encounter this Halloween weekend, Braehead Community Garden are serving up all the right ingredients. On Saturday, the community project is hosting a Chilli Pepper sale after growing some of the hottest varieties on the planet this year.

One of the varieties on sale is a Chilli which looks like a miniature pumpkin. Another is called ‘Black Pearl’ and is similar in heat to the chilli found in Tabasco sauce.

Other varieties available include the scary sounding ‘Trinidad Scorpions’, ‘Medusa’, ‘Demon Red’ and ‘Satan’s Kiss’.  Others will will try to fool you with sweetshop sounding names including ‘Peruvian Lemon Drops’; but buyer beware – this South American creation is still three times hotter than a Jalapeno.

If you want to hang out with the ultimate strong man of the culinary world, then look out for the ‘Carolina Reaper’, officially the hottest food on the planet.  On the Scoville Scale, which is used to measure the heat of a chilli, the grim Reaper comes in at 2.2million units. That’s nearly 1000 times hotter than a jalapeno!

It’s not all about the hot celebrities of the chilli world;  there are over a dozen varieties for sale including mild chillies you can eat in a salad and the Gogosari, a savoury chilli from Transylvania.  You can dilute the chillies to your taste, by making  hot sauces, infused oils, jams and chutneys.

The chillies were grown by volunteer gardeners at the popular community project, all under the guidance of Braehead man Alasdair Forsyth.  Alasdair has been growing chillies for over thirty years and the polytunnels at Braehead have allowed him space to grow a larger crop.  Alasdair will be on hand to offer advice.

The sale runs from 11am-1pm on Saturday 30 October at Braehead Community Garden, Broom Road, Stirling, FK7 7GU.