Ranger Journal
Our work around the Isle of Arran
Welcome to our Ranger Journal, where we report each month on the work of our team around the island. The role of APP Island Ranger is currently shared by Zabdi and Simon and is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund until September 2025.
March 2024
The spring is well and truly upon us and the APP Island Rangers have had a lot going on in March. Again, we thank the a href="https://www.energyagency.org.uk/ayrshire-climate-hub">Ayrshire Climate Hub, who have supported our work in February and March setting up the seed nursery, composting, and running workshops.
in March one of our focusses has been on food forests, and we have planted fruit trees and soft fruit bushes at the gardens in Kilpatrick and Clauchlands. The idea is to develop these sites into forest gardens, and you can read more about this in our Spring 2024 Newsletter.
We have also been sharing around lots of strawberries, including Corrie, Cordon, Kildonan, Pirnmill, Kilpatrick and Clauchlands. And a few additional fruit trees and soft fruit have been planted at Pirnmill, Cordon and Cladach.
We helped to organise a Drystone Walling Workshop at the Pirnmill Community Garden which was well attended despite the rain.
The seedlings from the glasshouse have been available in regular supply and we have shared seedlings with Cladach and Pirnmill, who have started to plant into their "no dig" beds.
The majority of seedlings from the Glasshouse have gone along the road in Lamlash to the Cordon Community Garden. You can follow progress at the garden on the following Facebook group: Cordon Community Garden.
We have also shared seedlings at the Spring Arran Farmers Market at Bellevue, which was a great opportunity to talk to people about the work being done to grow food around the island, and also a tour to the nearby garden at Kilpatrick.
Towards the end of March we have had a fruit tree grafting workshop with Stuart Smith, and are grateful to have received his tuition. Thanks to the COAST Discovery Centre for letting us use their space.
On top of all this we have fit in time for willow harvesting at Robin Gray's farm, to be used at the Whiting Bay Primary School garden to make a willow arch; we've given a talk at the WRI event in Lamlash; we went to watch Six Inches of Soil at Corrie Hall which was well attended with growers from around the island; and we've continued to distribute hazel and other native trees to farmers, gardeners and other environmental and land projects.
On a final note, we took a leaf out of the Arran Geopark Rangers book and cleared up mess from a campsite that had been left for 2 years in woodland near Lamlash.
That’s it for this month! We'll back at the end of April with all the latest. You can also follow our progress on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Zabdi and Simon - APP Island Rangers
February 2024
We are back with another action packed addition of the Island Ranger Journal. A shout out this month to the Ayrshire Climate Hub, who have supported our work this month setting up the seed nursery, composting, and running workshops. You can find out more about this initiative on the following link: Ayrshire Climate Hub.
This February, we have turned our efforts to sowing seeds, and we have access to a beautiful glass greenhouse in the centre of Lamlash which has a rich heritage of island horticulture... more on that soon. We have set the glasshouse up with heat mats and a propagation cold frame so that we can germinate seeds early.
In Whiting Bay we ran a composting workshop with Robin Gray, at his farm in Sandbraes, and we have built piles of compost from well rotted horse dung, seaweed, straw and mycellium. The compost piles have black pipes running through them in order to bring oxygen to the centre of the pile.
We attended a planning meeting with Cladach Community Garden, where the group spent time discussing all the annual veg that they want to grow. We have helped to plant raspberry canes along with a bit of weeding, and also held scything sessions earlier in the month.
At Cordon Community Garden, we kicked off February with a celebration of Imbolc, featuring soft fruit pruning with Kathy Sayer and then we headed along to the COAST Discovery Centre to make some St Brigid's crosses. Kathy also helped us to prune our fruit trees. The group here have done a lot of work mulching soft fruit and fruit trees. You can also follow progress at the garden on the following Facebook group: Cordon Community Garden.
At the Pirnmill Community Garden we have lent a hand putting woodchip down on their no dig beds, and we held a fruit tree pruning demonstration with Kathy Sayer. There is a dry stone walling workshop coming up on March 10th - please email us on arran@pioneerproject.scot for more details.
At the Clauchlands Community Garden we welcomed a group from the Arran Outdoor Education Centre, who helped us to clear brambles to make space for fruit trees, and also planted hazel trees. We'll be down on the morning of Tuesday March 5th to plant fruit trees for anyone who wants to get involved.
At the Kilpatrick Community Garden we have continued to clear the brambles and we are planning for more soft fruit as we work towards establishing a forest garden or food forest. Come and join us on March 7th from 11am when we will be planting some soft fruit.
We have also visited the Corrie Community Garden where there has been more great progress, you can follow their progress on the following Facebook group: Corrie Community Garden CIC
Hazel Coppices - We are distributing hazel trees to various organisations and individuals, including the Arran Community Land Initiative, Roots of Arran Communuity Woodland, and other Arran farmers and gardeners. We also received a large order of fruit trees and soft fruit, which we are planting at various sites around the island.
That’s it for this month! Our Newsletter is due in March so keep an eye out for that, you can sign up by clicking here. You can also follow our progress on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Zabdi and Simon - APP Island Rangers
January 2024
Hello and welcome to the first Island Ranger Journal from the Arran Pioneer Project, where we’ll be reporting each month on our work around the island. The role of APP Island ranger is currently shared by Zabdi and Simon.
January has been a very busy month as we prepare for the season ahead. Our team has been involved with a range of projects, including the gardens that we have helped to set up since 2020, and also other organisations on the island. We’ve also visited the High School to talk with the Roots and Shoots class, who helped paint veg signs for the Cordon garden.
We have visited the Pirnmill Community Garden to work with the volunteers there, and have helped to build a hotbox propagator in the polytunnel. We lined an open bottom box with sheeps wool then filled it with layers of bracken, horse dung and wood chip - this will heat up as the thermophile bacteria start munching and provide seedlings with a good start. You have to shield their roots from getting too much heat and monitor the temperature. It will provide great compost teaming with beneficial local micro organisms in time once it has broken down.
At the Kilpatrick Community Garden we are working to establish a food forest. We have worked to clear the bramble growth and mulching around the fruit trees and soft fruit bushes. We are planning to plant some strawberries. You can see a video update from the site on our Instagram reels by following this link: Kilpatrick Community Garden: Progress Update.
At Cladach Community Garden, we have started to clear the space ahead of the new season, we've helped to prune the Grape vine and take cuttings as well as general bramble bashing. We have Scything Sessions planned for this Saturday 3rd of February if anyone wants to get involved.
We have also visited the Corrie Community Garden to take part in their No Dig garden workshop. You can follow their progress on the following Facebook group: Corrie Community Garden CIC
In addition, we have continued our work establishing the Cordon Community Garden. We have brought a lot of seaweed off of the beach and horsedung from the neighbouring field, which we have been using in our compost bays. We have also added the seaweed directly to the no dig beds. This year we have decided not to use sheepswool and wood chip paths between the beds, as this will make it easier to weed, but we are still using these around the beds as a border. You can also follow progress at the garden on the following Facebook group: Cordon Community Garden.
At the Glasshouse in the centre of Lamlash, we are working on setting up our Seed Nursery we want to have plants ready to go into beds when the weather warms up.
Hazel Coppices - We have provided trees and helped plant some Hazel coppices with some other Island organisations: Roots of Arran, Easmor, Arran Animal rescue centre, Pirnmill Community Garden, and other individuals.
Snowdrop rescue - we have replanted some snow drops that were ripped up as they were in the roots that were torn out of the ground as the trees fell in the recent storms.
That’s it for this month! See you in February. You can also follow our progress on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Zabdi and Simon - APP Island Rangers