Saughton Park Edinburgh Council
Raised kitchen garden at the heart of Edinburgh’s community park
Replacing aged planters
Saughton Park is one of Edinburgh’s six ‘Premier Parks’ and is located on the west of the city. In 2012 the City Council’s Parks, Greenspace and Cemeteries Service began a £6m project to restore and improve it.
Serving around half a million visitors per year Saughton Park has two main areas; an open flat area used for sports and recreation and enclosed Walled Gardens dating back to the 18th century, this space, which includes a Kitchen Garden and Physic Garden, boasts national historical significance in pioneering therapy of the mentally ill by growing plants for their health and healing properties.
The Kitchen Garden and Physic Garden is where environmental consultants, Ironside Farrar, via their contractors P1 Solutions/CCI specified WoodBlocX to replace the existing aging planters.
Accessible design
Community participation and engagement were central to the redevelopment of the garden and the architects worked closely with Friends of Saughton Park; a team of dedicated individuals who maintain the grounds.
Together they agreed upon 17 large WoodBlocX raised beds of three different heights to provide a mixture of low-level raised beds for children and higher, more accessible planters for adults of varying abilities to ensure maintaining and harvesting the plants is easy and accessible. A several structures include integrated seating to create a functional space for both visitors and volunteers to enjoy the space.
Gillian Smith from Ironside Farrar said: “Within the Saughton Park Kitchen Garden & Physic Garden the extensive use of WoodblocX planters has provided robust, high quality finishes suitable for intense use. Planters were created at 3 different heights making them easily accessible by all users”.
