The Sanctuary Garden

The volunteers have done it; designed and built a polytunnel using poly-pipe and timber. A remarkable and satisfying feat! Next is irrigation and ventlation. Oh yes, and we’ll need to plant some tomatoes.

The polytunnel shelves are made by cutting a pallet into two; a brilliant and copyrighted design.

BEGINNERS VEGETABLE GROWING WORKSHOP BOOK HERE
SESSION 1 (Wed 13 May/Sat 16 May)  +   SESSION 2 (Wed 20 May / Sat 23 May)

Turn curiosity into confidence with this friendly, hands-on 2-session beginners gardening course designed to demystify growing your own plants—from seed to thriving seedlings.

In this practical and engaging course, you’ll learn not just what to do, but why it works, giving you the confidence to experiment and succeed at home.

Across the two sessions, we’ll guide you through the essential building blocks of gardening. You’ll discover how to choose what to plant at the right time of year, test and store seeds, and understand the fascinating science behind germination—what actually triggers a seed to sprout and how to give it the best possible start.

We’ll explore the world beneath your plants too, breaking down composts, soils, and growing mediums in a simple, practical way. You’ll learn the pros and cons of different options (including peat-free alternatives), how to improve your soil, and what additives like perlite or vermiculite really do. By the end, you’ll know how to choose the right growing medium with confidence.

You’ll get hands-on experience sowing seeds, choosing the right pots and trays, and learning how to avoid common beginner mistakes like transplant shock, root-bound plants, or “leggy” seedlings. We’ll show you how to water effectively, feed young plants safely, and prevent issues like damping off—so your seedlings grow strong and healthy.

In the second session, we build on your progress. You’ll transplant seedlings and learn how to pot them on, handle them properly, and troubleshoot any problems. We’ll also introduce simple and rewarding propagation techniques—from cuttings and runners to division and layering—so you can multiply your plants for free.

Beyond the basics, the course opens up bigger ideas in an accessible way: how to save seeds, the difference between F1 hybrids and heirloom varieties, and how small growing choices can impact biodiversity and sustainability.

This course is perfect for complete beginners or anyone who has struggled to get seeds to grow and wants a clearer, more confident approach. Expect a relaxed, supportive environment with plenty of practical demonstrations, simple experiments, and take-home tips you can use straight away.

By the end, you won’t just have planted seeds—you’ll understand how to grow🌱

The Sanctuary Garden now has water!

Thank you to The Stafford Trust for the funding, our neighbours for installing the pipework and the volunteers for their input and ideas. We will be adding rainwater harvesting and use that as our primary water supply as rainwater is significantly benefits growth.

The three raised beds are now complete at Dunmore Nursery School in Ballingry. We’ve donated our seedlings to jump start their growing season. The Sanctuary Garden will continue to supply seedlings to the nursery school throughout the year.

Wow! We are truly grateful for the time and effort our volunteers are contributing to the garden. March is slightly skewed because we’ve been working almost every day erecting the new polytunnel and it’s nearly ready. There has been significant progress made tidying up, planting seeds, potting on and planting out.

A volunteer said “I leave here feeling better than I arrived”

Most volunteers treat volunteering as another ‘job’ and feel they must work hard and commit to every week. We are fortunate to have this natural space for volunteers to enjoy and it’s not all about ‘sweat on your brow’, it’s about enjoying your time outside, away from technology, building a community and not feeling you ‘must’ do anything. It’s also about making it fit your schedule, and that obviously means you will miss sessions to do other things.

Our aim at The Sanctuary Garden is that all volunteers leave feeling better than when they arrived.

Join us on Monday and Thursday 10-1pm

Muircockhall Farm, Killiebone Road, Dunfermline, KY12 0TQ – there is a pin on google maps.

Bring the Brood brought families into Inverkeithing High School for a 2 hour session, one hour cooking and another hour of physical activities and/or craft sessions. There was no typical family, and a wide age range of children from toddlers to teens and typically 16 families attending each event, who were split into two groups.

The Sanctuary Garden led in the kitchen with different recipes each week that could be prepared and cooked within an hour in the school kitchen.

This project has had a significant impact and thanks go to the entire team at Fife Council and CLD who were able to offer a safe space for adults and children to have fun, learn and meet people. The unexepected results are at the bottom of the page.

The comments below were unexpected and significant!

Using Airtable, we are able to check how many seeds were planted last year compared to this year. It is remarkable that we have planted 3000 seeds in 2026 so far, and 3100 during the same time in 2025. I just imagined that we were behind the curve.

The DIY germination chamber (GC) is a game changer and there are various options used by market gardeners; both Pillars of Hercules and East Neuk Market Garden use a tall fridge with a slow cooker in the bottom shelf, controlled by a reptile thermostat that keeps the inside of the fridge at a constant temperature. Fridges and freezers are a well insulated cupboards, and we’re using them to keep the heat in.

The Sanctuary Garden version is an undercounter fridge with an ST1000 controller and a 60w heating element  and it’s been set to 22.5^oC. Obviously there is no light inside the fridge so it’s really important to put the seedlings under light as soon as most of them have emerged or you end up with very, very leggy seedlings. We’ve had a few failures with overly long stemmed seedlings.

The germination rate using this germination chamber (GC) is remarkable. Using heating cables beneath sand, I remember being disappointed by how few chilli and aubergines germinated last year. In the GC, the germination rate is about 75% which is great for any seed in ideal conditions. This is particularly important when you buy seed packets with a stingy 5 or 6 seeds enclosed. I’ve noticed seeds from Europe are very generous compared to seeds from the UK, especially from the big names.

This year, we have the significant advantage of a grow-tent, grow-lights and heat. helping our seedlings. The tomatoes now have their first real leaves and have been pricked out into bigger pots.

We’re lead to believe that lighting is ‘complicated’ or at least the marketing and internet forums make it look complicated quoting UV, infrared, red, blue and daylight with conflicting views. At the cheap end, LED growlights are completely useless unless you are growing one seedling.

These are my empirical findings: use a warm white LED bulb, 150w in old money, and have it on a timer so it’s on for 18 hours and off for 6. ‘Daylight’ LED bulbs are great for established plants and ‘blue’ light will make seedlings leggy. In a local general store 4x 150w warm white bulbs and 4 pendants cost £30 and 2 bulbs are hung per shelf 89cmx 50cm (IVAR from IKEA) filled with seedling trays. We could probably use just one blub. By the equinox where the days and nights are equal – not the meteorological spring (seriously who made that up) you can put the seedlings outside as there is enough light for them to not become leggy. (with heat and frost protection.)

Keeping seeds in a dry, cool and dark place is critical to their viability. A photo organiser (6″x4″) is a perfect option.

Our wormeries have tiger worms and manure, the composting toilet has yet to be delivered. They are all funded by Fife Climate Hub.
We have been donated woodchip from Crawford Tree Surgery that will be share with community gardens and used in our garden for pathways.
As part of the Mental Health and Wellbeing fund from FVA, lots of the 2700 seeds planted are starting to germinate. Our target is to donate 10,000 to the local community!

Three raised beds have been installed at Dunmore Nursery in Ballingry by volunteers at The Sanctuary Garden. These beds will be filled with compost and a regular supply of seedlings will be provided for the children to plant in the next month or so.

Following a visit to “Keeping the plot” flower garden in East Neuk, a dead hedge has been installed by volunteers to act as an eco windbreak, slowing down the wind and promoting growth while providing a home for insects, birds and bees.

20 Cubes of Mushroom compost has been delivered. We’re planting seeds in snail rolls that take up significantly less space than trays.

We have beds and it feels like a garden again.

Thank you to our volunteers who are making The Sanctuary Garden come alive.

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!