You know how it is, you are walking along a street, minding your own business, when you spot it...a potential guerrilla gardening project.You start picturing carrots and courgettes where there are currently cans and carrier bags, pansies and pots instead of pizza packaging, nesting boxes instead of nettles... (you get the picture).
If there is just such an area that you know about in the Lothians/EH postcode area, please tell us about it by leaving a comment.
We can't guarantee we will take it on but we would love to hear from you.
At midnight on Wednesday 22nd April (Earth Day), four names will be drawn at random from all comments published. We will then get in touch with the winners to send a packet of our very own Burning Bee mix.
The work Edinburgh Guerrilla Gardening association (EGG)undertakes is an interesting contributed to regeneration wasteland.
ReplyDeleteA few concerns have come to my attention which cast a shadow over EGG work; an enthusiast, who volunteers for EGG seem to be unaware of best practice or the legalities required before undertaking work in gardens around the area that do not belong to him.
I would hope that part of EGG’s remit is to ensure that best practice is followed and that volunteers are educated in this and the legal requirements before undertaking work. the Edinburgh City Council has a leaflet that may be of use to you.
The garden and the path leading to our garden are all listed in our title deeds and are only common to those living within the actual building. However, one of EGG .volunteers has undertaken pruning without the owners and council consent (we are a conservation area), This persons own private garden is not adjacent to ours nor does he have any legal access to our garden. He has also been told many times by a fellow owner that he has no right of access and should not enter our communal garden. The EGG volunteer has off his own back undertaken pruning including a Leyland cypress, a line of Lawson cypress and the Holm Oak. After inspection by the councils arboriculturist we have been advised the above work has not been done in accordance with good practice, and has been left unsightly and leaves branch stubs which will die and be a potential source of infection and decay, which we are now left to rectify.
There also seems to be lack of understanding In terms of the suitability of species of trees for the garden area and the important consideration in choosing trees which will be in scale with the size of the area. The advice I have been given by the arboriculturist is “The rear garden area is considerable and can accommodate large growing trees. Small ornamental trees alone would be out of scale with the space and provide reduced landscape, wildlife and environmental benefits”
Front gardens are also important, some of which might be considered untidy and an eye sore which makes the whole street look less attractive, Surely the ECBA volunteers should set a good example and ensure their own gardens are not an eyesore.
I appreciate the EGG has not been directly involved in the above issue. However, EGG has been quoted as a point of reference. If EGG volunteers are not aware of best practice it brings into question the reputation of EGG and how projects are undertaken by the organisation.
I request your reassurance that EGG will implement best practice and that the responsible person for leading the project, undertaken a full consultation with owners and gained written consent from a majority of owners prior to undertake work, also that EGG take advice on all matters to do with trees from a professional and finally ensure that EGG volunteers are educated in the legalities of ownership of property they would like to work-in and know their limitations of their skills.
As I am sure you can understand we are very annoyed at what amounts to vandalism of the trees and find it unacceptable.
I look forward to your response
Just to clear a rather important point...
ReplyDelete..this blog serves purely to document the activities of individuals who garden in their community. A bit like a knitting website or photography forum.
We are not a constituted group, have no members and only exist in cyberspace. Most people gardening have not met each other. There is no particular person responsible for any project.
If any of the five people with authorship access to this blog wish to answer Anonymous's points they are of course free to do so.
As an individual,I don't toe any 'party line' and can give no assurances.
I sincerely hope there is a happy conclusion to the situation outlined above.