The Sanctuary Garden

Fife Climate Hub has awarded £70,000 to 35 local community groups, supporting grassroots projects that tackle the climate emergency while strengthening communities across Fife, including The Sanctuary Garden.

The Sanctuary Garden has been awarded funding to purchase a composting toilet, not particularly glamorous, but a fundamental facility for a community garden. Eats Rosyth have two composting toilets that they have been in use for 7 years and based on their experience, the same model will be ordered for our garden in January 2026.

The fund also allows a wormery to setup that allows the ‘solid’ from the composting toilet to be added to the top of the wormery and the resulting vericompost will be tested for pathogens.

“Achieving Pathogen Stabilization Using Vermicomposting” by Bruce R. Eastman, published in BioCycle (Journal of Composting and Recycling), November 1999, pages 62-64. The paper details a two-year testing project in Florida where vermicomposting reduced levels of key pathogens—including fecal coliform, Salmonella, enteric viruses, and helminth ova—by three to four times within 72 to 144 hours. This is below the thresholds required for EPA Class A biosolids classification, making the material suitable for unrestricted land application.

In December 2025, Fife Climate Hub awarded £70,000 in Seed and Development funding to 35 community organisations. This major investment will help groups across Fife deliver practical action for climate and nature, while also supporting community wellbeing and resilience.

Now in its third year, the funding forms part of the Community Climate Grants scheme, a joint initiative between Fife Climate Hub and Climate Action Fife. In 2025, the Seed and Development Fund was significantly boosted by £50,000 from the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund, in addition to the usual £20,000 provided by the Scottish Government.

Alice Henderson, Fife Climate Hub Manager, said:

“It is a real privilege to be part of a Fife-wide community that values climate action so highly. We received a record number of applications from groups taking action on climate, and additional support from Fife Council increased the funding pot by 250%. The quality of applications was exceptionally high, making the panel’s decisions very difficult. Alongside grants, we also offer a funded peer-to-peer learning programme that helps build capacity in community groups, independent of them receiving a grant.”

Full list of organisations which received funding:

• Saline and Steelend Fabulous Food Pantry
• Lucky Ewe
• Aberdour Climate Action Network
• Greener Kirkcaldy
• Kinghorn Community Land Association (KCLA)
• East Wemyss C.A.F.E. (Community Access For Everyone)
• The Ecology Centre
• Blue Sky Community Aid
• North Queensferry Climate Action Network
• The Sanctuary Garden
• Inverkeithing Community Garden
• Vegan Fife
• CLEAR Buckhaven and Methil
• CLP Nature Action
• Touch Community Garden Ltd
• Transition University of St Andrews
• St Andrews Environmental Network
• Footprint East Neuk
• Seafield Environmental Group
• FEAT Trading Community Interest Company
• Big Green Market
• Methilhill Childrens Community Initiative
• The Hive Kirkcaldy
• Burnturk and Kettlehill Community Trust
• Kirkcaldy Islamic Centre
• Dunnikier Country Park Development Group
• Plant Based Fife
• Over Rankeilour Walled Garden
• Forgan Arts Centre
• EATS Rosyth
• Fife Seed Library
• Floral Action Burntisland
• Fairway Fife
• Nourish Support Centre
• Levenmouth Foodbank Community Support Project

A friend asked for help to move a polytunnel to his home. I was genuinely expecting a wee home sized frame, despite him having an enchanted field and woodland behind his house. On my arrival I saw loads of commercial sized polytunnels and thought “I must be in the wrong place.”

In the past, these polytunnels were used to grow mint for supermarkets. Under the guidance of Richard the polytunnel was dismantled and loaded on the trailer in about an hour and a half. I thought it would take all day. Fiona and Richard were really interested in what we were doing at the Sanctuary Garden. “Would you like one?” pointing at another monstrous polytunnel, my heart leapt. WOW what a gift!

We are planning to pickup the polytunnel in January, weather permitting. I’m still pinching myself and am very grateful for this gift that will continue to to keep giving! My expectation is that it will allow us to produce around 1000kg of organic vegetables every year! The CAD drawing below, shows the ‘big’ polypipe tunnel we’ve been designing, next to this commercial 8m x 22m polytunnel that is double the size!

Thanks to Mimi at Eats Rosyth for inviting us to a held a fabulous Plant Dyeing Winter Workshop held by Katrina Wilde at the Rosy Botanical Gardens of Edinburgh and enjoyed by 15 volunteers and staff from both gardens; it was interesting, hands on and the results were remarkable.

We were also shown the experimental and kitchen gardens and encouraged us to visit in the spring. They have several badger sets so can’t grow root vegetables!

If you’re interested, there are volunteering opportunities at the Botanics on a Wednesday

When community gardens work together, the impact is significant, we reach more people and that is our shared aim. Our organisations also benefit from the by sharing knowledge and know-how and our social network increases exponentially. Many of us waste time, resource and money by re-inventing the wheel in a dark room. My limited experience has found the staff and volunteers are keen to work with other community gardens but some of the Trustees are less enthusiastic. My guess is that many are from the commercial world, where businesses with similar aims are seen as “the competition” and are to be treated as such and avoided at all costs. By charities working together their strength and impact dramatically increases.

It did not take much for the wind to get the better of our prototype. Fortunately there is no permanent damage. It has helped us with the design, and with lots of shared research we have a final design that takes into account how we’re going to assemble it too.

All the foundations are in, so once we have the parts list we can order the timber, boards and fixings in January. We are appealing for donations to help as this polytunnel is self funded and not reliant on a grant.

We could share this as an open source design just as Real Seeds did for their seed sorter.

The garden is closed until the new year, as it is now very muddy, its dark, cold and pouring with rain.

Hope you have a festive season, and that 2026 is going to be as good for you as it is going to be for us.

We need funds to buy fixing and timber to finish this project and your donation will have a direct and lasting impact. The expectation is that this polytunnel will produce 500kg of vegetables that include courgettes, chillies, gem squash (all of you Southern Africans know what they are), tomatoes and more tomatoes that will be shared with our community and food charities in the local area.

The polytunnel blue pipes, 100m of 63mm mdpe water pipe and the polytunnel cover was donated by my folks, Lindsay and Norma Stewart, and my Dad, despite his age, is genuinely helping the project with ideas and loads of cardboard.

The building ideas for the polytunnel just keep getting better, with trial and error and a lot of hard labour. The improvements from plan A to Plan B are evident. Ideas are not precious, rather shared and changed, making this design process a pleasure for everyone involved. There have only been few times in my long working career where I’ve witnessed this kind of generosity. Thank you to all our volunteers.

After a month or so of modifying plans, designs, redesigns and collaboration, a momentous step;
the first polytunnel hoop is up.

The design process has been led by volunteers and improved upon by volunteers and visitors alike. Witnessing and being able to support this process has been a true joy. The improvements to the design since my first solo attempt in 2020 are remarkable, incorporating ideas from caterpillar tunnels, additional bracing for impending storms, and the ability to remove the cover completely if need be.

“Keep it simple stupid” has been applied many times with this polytunnel design, removing unnecessary complications.

In a conversation about plant labeling, a laser cutter that would cut wood into shapes and burn on plant labels was quashed by a simple question, “what about using a china marker?” This is reminiscent of the urban myth “NASA spent millions of dollars developing a space pen while the Soviet Union used pencils.”

The 2 acres of land at the Sanctuary garden is big enough to be a market garden, with similar to size to the early years of East Neuk Market Garden. After our volunteer visit at the beginning of the month where Tom from East Neuk Market Garden gave us some amazing tips and contacts another was planned.

Eight of our volunteers, if you include Mimi the Greenspaces Coordinator at Eats Rosyth, visited Pillars of Hercules a well established and long running organic market garden, shop and cafe near Falkland. We were shown around by Frank, who fielded our questions with ease. The experience and knowledge he shared so freely was very useful. Thank you.

Afterwards, in the Pillar’s cafe over a steaming cup of coffee, we discussed some of the ways Pillars farm could be used in The Sanctuary Garden. Their no-dig beds would make Charles Dowding proud! Jigs to make no dig beds, using straw as a weed mulch, BCS two wheeled tractors, sumi tape for watering, crop rotation, silage tarps, propagation and where to get 20 cubes of organic compost!

The polytunnel design was also discussed and with the collective ideas, the design improved by reducing complexity both with the build and day to day usage. It is a joy to witness the power of working together and allowing an idea to bounce around, evolve and grow into something beautiful. I’m genuinely grateful for the volunteers at The Sanctuary Garden.

Building a polytunnel across the slope, East-West in our case, meant that the gables would be on a 1:10 slope causing complications for doors and thresholds. This has kept our engineering volunteers busy trying to sort out solutions we did not really need because….

Charles Dowding recommends building polytunnels North-South and for us it meant that the gables are at the top and bottom of the slope and more importantly, they are level. This orientation is supported by lots of other gardeners and polytunnel manufacturers.

The volunteers cut the pipework into 10m lengths, giving us a 6.336m wide polytunnel, and placed in a form/jig so they are in the right shape rather than curled up in the shape for delivery. Although it’s frosty now, when the sun shines, the plastic will soften and keep it’s shape. The original polytunnel pipes have also been added as the new volunteer lead design will allow narrower pipes to be re-erected. The joy of a collaborative design process.

Halfords have been very helpful supplying cardboard bicycle boxes that we’re using as a weed suppressant in the polytunnel. As it’s nearly Christmas, it’s a busy time for bike sales and apparently next week, they have 50 bikes boxes. Three car loads of bike boxes barely covered half the polytunnel footprint. On top of the cardboard layer we will roll out a bale of straw making it a pleasant surface to walk on while building the polytunnel; another brilliant volunteer idea! In the spring, we can add layers of compost to make the beds.

The wee polytunnel frame made from trampoline hoops, was moved into it’s position, although that is only plan A, so is likely to be moved again.

The impact of collaborating with volunteers is significant, the design improves over time, they are engaged and feel part of the project and walk away with a spring in their step. Without them, there would be no project!

The design of the new polytunnel is changing slightly every time we get together. Little iterations and changes make improvements in how it is being erected and it’s functionality based on our own experiences putting up the tunnel at Grow West Fife and visits to Eats Rosyth’s polycrub.

In the photo below, the green sections are beds, 3′, 4′, 4′ and 3′ with 2′ orange paths between them. The doors at each end will be the width of my outreached hands and the blue curve will be the shape of the plastic.

It is massive!

The total area including the paths is 90 sq meters, 15 x 6m (we interchange metric and imperial measurements) making it practically double the size of the polytunnel we erected at Grow West Fife, where close to quarter of a tonne of tomatoes were harvested this year.

Pictures speak a 1000 words. With the use of the JCB from the neighbouring farmers, Ian and James Adam, 2 hours work with their machine would have taken many demoralising and back-breaking days of work by hand.

The photos at the top show the area at the top of the field, where we will put down membrane and type 1 gravel (funding required) and it will become a disabled and unloading parking area.

The lower picture shows the field clear of weeds and can see SOIL!