Growing wild

A NATURE project transforming derelict land around community toilets into a wild garden with the help of local primary schoolchildren and the youth club is taking shape in Hillswick.

Hillswick Wildlife Sanctuary is reporting “great progress” with its Nature Calls project, funded with £2,640 from the Kew Royal Botanic Gardens’ Let’s Grow Wild campaign to transform unloved spaces with wild flowers.

The Hillswick project now has turned an old Shetland model boat into a wild flower garden, built a raised bed out of straw bales, constructed a spiral wild heather garden, a communal seating area looking out onto cliffs and a “Bee and Bee” hotel, which has already had its first visitors.

Sanctuary owner Jan Bevington said she was amazed by the enthusiasm the project had generated in the area.

“I can’t get over the amount of ideas that are growing out of this,” she said.

“We’re finding it hard to keep up with it all. It seems to have developed a life of its own and we’re getting lots of support from local people, as well as tourists.

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“The local kids have really thrown their hearts and souls into this project and their parents say they are driving them mad because they won’t stop talking about it!

“We’ve even had two beekeepers over from the US who helped build the bee and bee hotel and are now going to keep in touch with the local school, so the kids can follow the progress of their hives in Nebraska. Talk about connections!”

There are 13 community projects across Scotland, which have been awarded a total of £41,070 including sites in Edinburgh and the Lothians, Glasgow, Fife, Argyll and Bute, Stirling, Falkirk, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire and the Scottish Borders.