The Sanctuary Garden

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!

With the help of our volunteers, van was loaded with rubbish and unloaded at the tip.

A second load of metal was dropped off at WM Russel just down the road and half a tonne gave us £59 that paid for half the van hire.

All the effort, collecting, piling, loading and unloading has made a significant difference and made the garden look like things are moving. Next is a digger to level the beds ready for compost.

Today lifted my spirits, and by the smiles on faces, lifted lots of others too.

Thank you again.

The drawing below is of two gardens: The Sanctuary Garden is the large blank green canvas and the upper drawing is the garden at Grow West Fife. The drawing helped to design new bed layouts with the help of the volunteers.

Grow West Fife’s garden area is about 2800sqm and in 2025 the volunteers grew 2000kg of vegetables which were distributed to pantries, kitchens and shared with volunteers and visitors!

East Neuk Market garden started with 2 acres, which is about 8100 sqm, and their methods allow tonnes of organic vegetables to be harvested every year.

The Sanctuary Garden has around 7125sqm, similar to East Neuk Market Garden and 2.5 times the area of Grow West Fife, giving us the space to expand and grow vast amounts of vegetables that we will share far and wide.

Our volunteers are making a positive impact on the state of the garden. Thank you!

We’ve hired a transit van for Monday 10th November: The steel we may get some money as scrap metal and the rest of the waste will be recycled. More of the rotten timber was burned and it’s made the place look significantly neater.

Halfords have donated bicycle boxes that will be used when we make raised beds.
Buy a bike for Christmas so we can have the cardboard box!

Mar Scaffolding donated scaffolding poles that will be cut into short lengths and used as foundations for the new polytunnel.