Trip reports

Sunshine on Leith

Margaret Harrison

Tuesday, 11 October 2011

Sunshine on Leith Community Garden is a backstreet plot of previously neglected land, now leased from Edinburgh City Council, and made available to local residents for garden plots and wildlife.

The larger part of the area is reserved for individual allotments but the residents have also planted fruit bushes, trees and flowering plants as well as building a small pond in communal areas. There are communal composting facilities for garden waste recycling. Other parts of the garden have been left to grow wild, with brambles, ivy and native trees.

Positioning the boxes was a challenge with the area patrolled by cats and squirrels. Boxes have now been installed specifically to attract robins, tits and starlings to nest within the site. Other birds visiting the area are house sparrows, blackbirds, chaffinches and feral pigeons. On the day of our visit a flock of long-tailed tits was seen foraging. We hope that the boxes will be used, initially for roosting in the winter and then for the birds to raise their brood in safety.

Margaret Harrison