Building an Accessible Raised Bed with the Edinburgh Tool Library Volunteer Assembly

We had a very productive weekend adding new features to our garden, including an accessible raised bed and an enchanting (or even enchanted?) perennial bed under our beautiful cherry tree.

An accessible raised bed

When we first started our garden, we had an enquiry about whether it would be possible to have some beds that were wheelchair-accessible. We decided to rise to the challenge.

When the Edinburgh Tool Library Volunteer Assembly posted an invitation to send in suggestions for community build projects that need some expert help (and tooling), we applied and were delighted to see our project selected.

Over two days, they led us in building a nifty construction that allows gardeners with limited mobility to sit in a chair or wheelchair with their legs fitting under the table. This allows them to work at a comfortable height and reach all across a large bed.

The Storytelling Tree

The big cherry tree with its beautiful twisted stem has always been a favourite for our gardeners, and we knew we wanted to turn it into a feature for our garden.

Some of our garden members created a beautiful space with donated plants and rocks and hand-crafted mushrooms, and named it the Storytelling Tree. It was already very popular with our visitors today, especially the youngest ones!

A Patio Area

Other garden members spent the weekend creating a pretty little patio space featuring a hand-crafted chair and table and some planters. A far cry from the overgrown rough ground that was there only a few weeks ago!

A Sign for our Gate

Yet another one of our garden members channelled her creative juices into making this beautiful upcycled sign for our side gate. With the help of the Tool Library volunteers, we created a mount for it that we’ll be able to attach to the top of the gate in the next weeks.

And What About Some Actual Gardening?

Indeed, let’s not forget about that! While some of us were focusing our energy into builds and decorations, others have been busy doing all the things that a garden needs: from mowing to watering to harvesting, including this massive courgette harvested last week.

Community and Volunteers

None of this would have been possible without dozens of people donating time, skills and items. From planning to execution and providing refreshments, from brilliant ideas to hours of shifting soil and learning how to use new tools, we’re grateful to everyone who came together to make this happen.

Today, we also celebrated, slightly belatedly, one year of being a charity, so this is a good time to say thanks.

The work you see in this article has been made possible with funding from:

• Edinburgh Communities Climate Action Network (ECCAN) Greenlight Fund
• The National Lottery Community Fund
• A local crafting group donating some of their Christmas sale earnings to our charity

Here are some other organisations and members of the community who have helped us get to this point:

• Help with getting the garden started, grant applications and raised bed builds (among other work) from Edible Estates
• Oxgangs Community Church giving us use of their Hub space for meetings and coffee breaks on gardening weekends
• Oxgangs Library for providing meeting rooms and printing for charities
• Perennial flowering plants from Farmer Gracy
• Vegetable seeds from Thompson and Morgan and Tesco
• Items for our celebratory BBQ donated by Tesco
• Pallets from Riddle & Coghill and St John’s Church
• Hand-made furniture, plant pots, rocks, slabs, small raised beds, tyres for planters, a hose, tools, garden chairs, shelving, leftover wood and even an entire shed from members of the local community and people kindly donating unused items on various online platforms

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few names here – and that’s entirely because we’ve had so many people supporting us.

If you have any items you think we could use, or want to get involved in our next projects or gardening in general, please use our Contact Form to get in touch!