We are in the middle of nature and climate change emergencies. 
Sadly, Scotland is one of the most nature-depleted nations in the World. 
We will do everything we can in our park to help nature recover, make us more resilient and cut greenhouse gas emissions. 

Rosebay willowherb/fire-weed 

When we took over the park much of it was dominated by a 6 ft high dense sward of the invasive plant 'rosebay willowherb'. Not only did it make large parts of the site inaccessible, it also out competed almost all other plants resulting in low biodiversity.
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What are we doing about it?
We didn't want to solve the problem with another problem by using herbicide, so we are taking an ecological/natural approach. Rosebay willowherb doesn't withstand grazing. We don't have any grazers so have been working away, year by year, to cut the plant back and allow a diversity of other plants to take control.
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​Slowly but surely it's working, as you can see in the slideshow to the right/below. We are also planting native trees in this area, which will eventually cast shade and help keep the willowherb in check. We need lots of volunteers to keep on top of this task so please get in touch if you can help at [email protected].
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Plants

We are managing different areas of the park in different ways to gradually increase the diversity of plants across the park. See the photo grid below this text for photos of some of the amazing variety of plants already established, either through seeding or habitat management.

Wet meadow
The flat area around the future play park is very heavy soil and remains damp throughout much of the year. However, it was also one of the best areas for wild flowers when the park came into community ownership with abundant cuckoo flower in the spring followed by and abundance of northern marsh orchids, white clover, speedwell and buttercups in the summer (see banner at the top of this page). We will manage this area like a traditional meadow by cutting areas each year, once flower seeds have set, thereby encouraging an even richer diversity of flowering plants. Ideally we would like to remove the cuttings once the seeds have shed, and indeed, in 2022 we cut and bailed our own hay. We have also enriched with a sowing of Scotia Seeds wet meadow mix (spring 2022), so we'll see what comes next year.

Woodland flowers
Our small but expanding woodland has a fairly low diversity ground flora at present. In spring 2022 we experimented by raking areas and enriching with Scotia Seed's woodland meadow mix. We'll see what happens but wouldn't it be great to have wild garlic and wood sage in years to come.

Drainage Swale
Our drainage swale was created in summer 2021. Its main function is to hold back flood water and gradually release it to stop the park contributing to flooding down-stream. However, since it stays wet and has running water throughout the year it's also a great opportunity to introduce a range of water and water-edge species. Initially we had to sow the banks of the swale with fast growing grasses, to stabilise the bare earth and prevent erosion. However, we under-sowed with Scotia Seeds pond edge mix in autumn 2021 and spring 2022 and are already seeing some success with brooklime, water forget-me-not, ragged robbin, and king cup flourishing. Higher up the bank where conditions are drier we have sown locally collected yellow-rattle seeds, which have established well. These clever (devious?) plants tap into grass roots and steal their resources, which has the knock-on effect of stopping the grass from becoming too vigorous and allowing more flowering plants to establish.

Orchard
We planted our community orchard in spring 2022. See the Orchard page for more details.

Top/top left - bottom/bottom right: Lesser stitchwort, cornflower, cuckoo flower, red campion, yellow rattle, poppy, germander speedwell, creeping buttercup, northern marsh orchid, white clover, daisy, water forget-me-not, brooklime, ragged robin, selfheal, sheep's sorrel, king cup, Timothy grass.

Native woodland

Our park already has a small established woodland, composed of native and non-native species. Our plan is to increase the area of native woodland. We are focusing on native species because they support more of Scotland's other native species than non-native trees and shrubs.

Trees provide us with many important benefits including:

• Providing a source of nuts and berries for us and wildlife
• Sucking up carbon dioxide to help combat climate change
• Providing shade and shelter for us and wildlife

With the help of the local primary school and cub-pack we planted a range of native trees in spring 2022. These photos show how well they are doing! Species include hazel, rowan, dog-rose, birch, willow, field-maple and wild cherry. Many thanks to the TCV and Woodland Trust for donating these.

We don't have plans to remove the existing mature non-native trees because they add to the park's character and are not causing any issues.

Top/top left - bottom/bottom right: hazel, hazel, willow, field-maple, rowan, wild cherry, birch, dog-rose

Animals

As we increase the quality and variety of habitats in the park we'll gradually attract more animals such as insects, amphibians, birds and mammals.

We're already seeing a variety of new species to the park in the drainage ditch, including frog tadpoles and pond-skaters and feeding/drinking swallows and house martin. The cuckoo flower, which grown in abundance in our wet meadow, attracts orange-tip butterflies every spring.
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As we increase the diversity of flowers we'll also see an increase in pollinators, which are vital to our food production and food for many other species such as birds.

​How many animals can you spot in the park?