Two groups of students have been cultivating their skills to transform unused areas around the new Falkirk Campus.
English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Workstart students have identified one of the three internal courtyards and the kerbside areas near the service yard and carpark for landscaping and planting that will benefit staff, students and wildlife!
The project has received funding from NHS Forth Valley Public Health Nutrition Grant programme in order to push ahead with the work.
Fidelma Guest, Dietitian, Public Health Nutrition Team, NHS Forth Valley, said: “Growing food together is a great way to learn English as a foreign language and also to learn about local food. As well as providing a supply of nutritious fruit and vegetables, it encourages people to build relationships, develop and share food skills and feel part of the community.”
Care, Sport, Business and Communities Lecturer Duncan Carmichael, said: “In the courtyard, the students have now erected cold frames and planted herbs, potatoes, tomatoes, salad leaves, red onions and blueberries, with the hope that they can be used in the refectory. We hope that the salad and blueberries could be used by the College’s training kitchen and the herbs could be used by the refectory.
“At the entrance to the service yard and near the car park, they have planted flowers that are both rabbit resistant and good for wildlife, including salvias, catmint, lady’s mantle and ferns. They will provide flowers for pollinators and dry stalks and leaves in which insects can overwinter.
“My colleagues and I are all very proud of their efforts and their enthusiasm for this project and it will be great to see them harvest their crops in the months to come.”
Fellow Lecturer Leanne Orr, added: “Hopefully staff and students will take pleasure from using the vegetables and herbs once they are ready. Already the WorkStart students have tasted the freshly picked lettuce leaves and spinach and the ESOL class the spinach. So it’s a success already.”
