Our Community Growing seminar goes online for the first time!

We’re delighted to announce our first ever online Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood seminar! The annual event, usually held in the Albert Halls in Stirling, is taking place on the 12 November and will be informal, relaxed and a chance to hear stories from groups across Scotland.  It’s also a time to get together and celebrate…and an opportunity for Keep Scotland Beautiful to say a big thank you for everything our groups have been doing to keep their communities connected and bright through this difficult year.

The seminar is for a closed audience, but we will share a recording of the event after the 12^th so that everyone can be inspired. Please do join in with the public vote below….

AGENDA

Welcome and highlights

• Tom Brock, Charity Trustee, and Juliette Camburn, lead for Beautiful Scotland and It’s Your Neighbourhood

Horticulture/gardening

• How we kept growing this year – Libby Morris, North Berwick in Bloom
• Keeping our community growing - Susan Lindner Kelly, Bonnie Blantyre and Friends

Gardeners’ Question Time

Our expert panel:

• David Knott – President of The Caley & Curator, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
• Anthony McCluskey – Chair of Garden for Life Forum & Project Officer, Butterfly Conservation
• Jenny Mollison, regular allotment column in The Scotsman; previous secretary of Scottish Allotments & Gardens Society (SAGS)

Environment

How to make your community gardening activities more climate friendly

• Summary from the Climate Conversations workshop held at the 2019 Seminar
• Climate Emergency Training: overview and taster
• Climate Friendly Gardening – Catherine Lawson, Bonnie Dundee

Gardening for wildlife

• Helping pollinators and engaging people through art - North Edinburgh Arts
• Engaging our community through pollinator friendly activities – Eugenie Aroutcheff, Grow 73
• 2020 It’s Your Neighbourhood NatureScot Pollinator Friendly Award announcement - Jim Jeffrey, Pollinator Strategy Manager, NatureScot

Community

• Connecting the community through food growing – Manuela de los Rios & Alison Goodfellow, The Maxwell Centre
• Community engagement through 2020 - Blooming Inverkip

Q&A

 Celebration; 2020 theme winner; plans for 2021

• John Frater, Charity Trustee and Vice Chair of the RHS Bloom Federation; Barry Fisher, Chief Executive; and Lindsay Montgomery CBE, Chair of Charity Trustees

We want your votes!

Each year we have optional themes for groups to focus activities and events around – this year’s themes were the Year of Coasts and Waters and the 20^th anniversary of Keep Scotland Beautiful.  Usually people can vote for their favourite, in person, at the seminar…but we’re having to do this digitally this year. Thank you to those groups who have sent in a submission……some great and inspiring entries!

Please email juliette.camburn@keepscotlandbeautiful.org by Monday 9 November to let her know which one, under each theme, you would like to vote for…we will reveal the most popular at the seminar on 12 November.

KSB 20^th anniversary

1. Slopefield Allotment Association – brightening up the allotment: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1566650/slopefield-allotment-association-ksb-20th-anniversary.pdf
2. Broughty Ferry in Bloom – colourful planters: (page 1) https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1566648/broughty-ferry-in-bloom-celebrating-the-themes-2020.pdf

2020 Year of Coasts & Waters

1. North Berwick in Bloom – video celebration of coastal plants and creation of a dolphin themed bed: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_WM_I8-So41-dTUWnLKpCdBLDSjlDhc7/view
2. Broughty Ferry in Bloom – wildflower boats and socially distanced litter picks:  (pages 2-3): https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1566648/broughty-ferry-in-bloom-celebrating-the-themes-2020.pdf
3. Brighter Bervie – RNLI flag feature bed: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1566647/brighter-bervie-yocw-2020.pdf
4. Lauder in Bloom – a focus on marine litter through willow art: https://www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/media/1566649/lauder-in-bloom-year-of-coasts-and-waters.pdf