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.
May 2024
In May, we started off the month with a Beltane Celebration at the Cordon Community Garden, which is the transition from spring to summer in the Celtic calander. We had a big fire, which was an opportunity to burn some of the brash that has been cleared, and also get rid of old pallets. Our colleague Ida gave a demonstration on starting a fire using a natural and traditional technique. We also had some scything sessions and woodcarving sessions among other activities. We went on a dawn chorus walk, to see what birds we can find being attracted by the green space we are developing, also walking to the shore and the nearby woods, looking at the connection between the garden and surrounding natural spaces.
Of course with the transition to summer the nature of our work changes, and we have been making use of scythes to cut back the brash and summer growth.
With a wet spring, the slugs have been a real problem, especially at Cordon Community Garden where we lost a lot of seedlings to slugs. We have been trying various methods to protect the plants.
We have continued to plant ancient grains around the Scotland The Bread “Soil to Slice” ancient grains project, as we reported last month, this month we have planted at Kilpatrick, Pirnmill and Cordon, as well as in Whiting Bay at the Arran Community Land Initiative.
We have also been along to a couple of ACLI's volunteer days, which are held on Thursdays. You can check out their Facebook page for more details: Arran Community Land Initiative
Zabdi's work has also continued with the kids at Whiting Bay Primary School helping out at Robin Gray's farm in Sandbraes, planting peas, beans and strawberries as well as weeding and preparing beds. The kids also got involved with willow weaving and building structures for the peas.
We've also continued our work at the Clauchlands Community Garden, including planting a late round of tatties and scything back some of the summer growth of bracken, brambles and more.
At Cladach Community Garden we have helped to set up a timer for the polyunnel. This will be a great improvement as this garden is managed remotely by people living in Brodick and further afield, so it will save us a few trips to water the polytunnel.
We also continued to plant trees at various sites, including Easmor Ecology in Kildonan
On a final note, Simon was representing COAST as he co led a walk to the top of Holy Isle with the Arran Mountain Festival, though it was a bit misty you could catch a glimpse of both of the community gardens we are supporting in Lamlash Bay. He also had a far-too-brief look at the beautiful gardens at Holy Isle as the ferry was waiting to take us back, we will need to go back over soon.
That’s all the news from May, we'll be back next month. You can also follow our progress on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Zabdi and Simon - APP Island Rangers
April 2024
In this month's journal, we give a shout out to the Mushroom Trust, who have awarded funding to cover a portion of the capital expenditure at the gardens this year for the 2024 season, including bulk load of compost from Dalefoot compost for the gardens at Pirnmill, Cladach and Cordon.
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This Spring, we are excited to have started planting ancient grain seeds at various sites around Arran. We have joined the Scotland The Bread “Soil to Slice” ancient grains project as we are planting varieties such as Wheat, Rye, Emmer and Spelt. As well as testing these grains for future resilience, we are also helping George Grassie of Blackwater Bakehouse realise his dream of baking a local loaf of bread.
In April, we have planted heritage grains with Whiting Bay Primary School, at Robin Gray's farm as well as Corrie Community Garden. We plan to plant more test plots on other community gardens and try to get local farmers interested in joining the project and fulfilling George's dream of a Local Arran loaf, as well as building future resilience for our community as we produce our own grains.
We also hope to harvest the long straw for weaving and thatching.
We have also been working with the kids at Whiting Bay Primary School on a variety of activities, including building a willow dome and learning to grow veg at Robin Gray's farm in Sandbraes (as well as planting the ancient grains). We have been helping the school with their plans for a sensory garden.
We've also continued our work with groups from the Arran Outdoor Education Centre, at the Clauchlands Community Garden, and one of the groups has filled an old Kayak with soil to plant strawberries, after lining the base with sheepswool to retain water.
At Cladach Community Garden we had more Scything Sessions with our colleague Ida Fabrizio. We are planning more for the summer, so if you'd like to register your interest please email arran@pioneerproject.scot.
We went on a dawn chorus walk at the Cordon Community Garden, to see what birds we can find being attracted by the green space we are developing, also walking to the shore and the nearby woods, looking at the connection between the garden and surrounding natural spaces.
The gardens have also planted out different tattie varieties, and at Cordon they have been plante direct in seaweed, for the fourth year in a row. Not only was the field historically used for tatties, we have used Arran Victory and Arran Pilot among other varieties. These were actually chitted at Donald McKelvie's Glasshouse, as we reveealed in our Spring 2024 Newsletter
Cladach and Pirnmill have also planted a number of early and maincrop varieties, including Charlotte, Setanta, Sunset, Swift, Santiago, Foremost
April started with an unexpected setback - our vehicle, which we only got into action in February, went off the road. Thankfully no one was injured, and we were able to recover the fruit trees we had in the back.
We had a bit of a dry spell in the second half of April and have had to keep the fruit trees and soft fruit we have planted at various sites. At Clauchlands, this has involved using a bike trailer to bring water to the site.
Our work around the island is ongoing, and we've planted trees at Easmor Ecology in Kildonan as well as a few other places. We also attended the Free For All event organised by Arran Community Voluntary Service at Arran High School at the end of April.
On a final note, it has been lovely to see all of the apple trees around the island in blossom, such as the ones below at our developing forest gardens in Clauchlands and Kilpatrick
That’s all the news from this month - We'll back in May. You can also follow our progress on our Instagram and Facebook pages.
Zabdi and Simon - APP Island Rangers
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