10 July: Fairlie Community Garden

10 July

This morning dawned overcast and windy. I was picked up by Ron Gilchrist who I had been told was the person with the original vision for the Fairlie community garden. Ron first took me up the hill to a lookout and explained to me which islands were which and other points of geographical interest.
Just north of here is where ships head into Glasgow. However, opposite my B&B is a very long, and quite ugly, wharf. It turns out that this wharf houses the longest conveyor belt in UK. This little village happens to have the deepest water in the channel next to it, and so is the port in which all the coal ships from Australia and Africa comes to the west coast of Scotland. The coal is unloaded via the conveyor belt onto trains and then shipped up and down the country. Some is also reloaded onto other vessels where it is taken over to Ireland.

Ron then drove me down to the Community Garden. During the conversation that had already taken place I realized that this was far more than a hobby for Ron. Once we got to the Garden, he told me I was now subject to the Ron Gilchrist bootcamp! The garden is extraordinary and Ron is a gifted communicator and teacher. His enthusiasm and passion is contagious.
The garden is situated on what was a wasteland. The soil itself was/is contaminated by the industry that used to be on the site.


The garden is not divided into allotments as is quite common in other places, with individual garden sheds etc. Instead this garden comprises 200 raised garden beds, including 2 polytunnels. And instead of the individual sheds, there are 2 containter terminals which house all necessary materials and tools. The containers are placed approx 15 m apart and then roofed providing a lovely big community area to sit, chat, eat, have a coffee etc. It has solar panels on one side (other side to picture). The power is fed back into the general supply so the garden earns money for it. The garden draws on the power occasionally on winter but pays less for it than is paid for it!

The raised beds have several advantages including the accessibility to those in wheelchairs. The polytunnels allow for year round growth of summer vegetables.


Each garden bed costs GBP 50.00 per annum ie 1.00 per week. You do not need to produce much food to recoup that cost. The reason that beds are only available for one year is, at least partly, due to the waiting list. Then if someone does not use their bed, they have to go to the back of the queue if they want a bed again the following year. Those who tend and produce their beds just keep renting them. This to me is the amazing thing – the garden beds are only available to be rented by residents of Fairlie which has a population of 600. There are 200 beds with a waiting list. Some people/families may have more than 1 bed. Nevertheless that indicates 1/3 of the population is involved in this garden. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could get 1/3 of our local community involved in anything?!

Ron is a composting guru. He explained how many people tend to be ‘rotters’ rather than composters. One smells (producing methane), the other does not. Ron has a process in which organic waste goes into a ‘hot box’ (simply a polystyrene box) for 2 weeks. During that time as the temperature can get up to 60’C all the weed seeds and pathogens are killed. The amount of material is also greatly reduced. Then in the maturing stage which lasts 6 weeks, the material really becomes highly valued compost, particularly with the help of worms. Ron simply uses a wooden box and explained the life cycle of these worms to me, how quickly they reproduce etc. The result at the end is ‘wormcast’ – not juice as we often have it in Australia (Ron hates those plastic bins with taps) – but highly nutritious, full of millions of good microbes, but with no pathogens, compost. In this day and age where our fruit and vegetables are far lower in nutrient value than they were 50 years ago, and much less in taste, this has to be something we consider. There is much else Ron talked about that I won’t bore you with here. He then took me back to his home where I was treated to lunch with Ron and his wife Marion, including of course produce from their own amazing home garden.

Ron then dropped me into Largs so I could try and purchase another power adaptor. I did manage to find one and had another wander around Largs. It was raining though so quite different to yesterday. I took shelter in a shop from time to time and was surprised that 2 shopkeepers immediately picked up the source of my accent. As I type this, the weather has certainly closed in and I cannot see much of the channel.

Tomorrow, it is church at the local Fairlie Parish church where I will get to meet with those involved with the Eco-Congregation program. If it’s a nice day I am hoping to go across to the island of Cumbrae in the afternoon.