Nothing tastes better than home-grown fruit & veg, and it’s a great way to get outdoors, appreciate the seasons and learn something new. Youngsters love to dig and water, and to taste what’s been grown. Fellow gardeners can help with advice and swapping resources, and you can help support wildlife by avoiding chemicals and providing different habitats, like compost heaps. Here’s a few local links to get you started:
Advice
LCDT sub-group Farmily have a friendly Facebook page where you can ask questions and share resources.
Grow Your Own Falkirk also have a Facebook page and offer similar support.
Grow your own Falkirk and Surrounding | Facebook
The Linlithgow and District Allotment Society (LADAS) provide seasonal growing tips on their website and also via the Black Bitch community magazine, which is delivered free to town residents.
Monthly growing guide – Linlithgow & District Allotment Society
Seeds
Farmily run an annual Seed Swap in the early spring – please bring along any surplus (in date) seeds, and swap for something else – keep an eye on the LCDT and Farmily Facebook pages for details.
Seed Potatoes
LADAS usually sell seed potatoes at the same event as the Farmily Seed Swap.
Veg Seedlings
Farmily run the very popular Seedling Swap around the end of May, where local residents swap their surplus veg seedlings – it’s much more fun than growing a whole packet of the same thing!
Community Gardens
St Vincent de Paul volunteers grow crops to donate to the Trussel Trust, in raised beds at St Michael’s Catholic Church on Blackness Road.
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul, Linlithgow
St Michael’s Roman Catholic Church, Linlithgow
1st Step, a local recovery charity, grow fruit and veg to share at their lovely site behind the Longcroft Hall. The group also runs the local food pantries, where surplus harvests can be donated.
Allotments
here are three allotment sites on the outskirts of Linlithgow:
Oakwell Allotments, a privately owned site at Oakwell, are run by the Linlithgow and District Allotment Society (LADAS), plotholders need to live within 5 miles of the site, and be over 16.
Linlithgow & District Allotment Society – LADAS
Muiravonside Community Growing Plots, at Muiravonside Country Park, owned by Falkirk Council & plotholders must live within 10 miles. Contact via muiravonsidegrowingarea@gmail.com
Falkirk Council: Community Growing
Rouken Glen allotments towards Blackness is a private site, and anyone can apply for a plot. The site is in the process of becoming part of the Caulders garden centre chain.
Rouken Glen Allotments | Facebook
Orchards
There are community orchards at the Vennel and the Leisure Centre, originally planted by Transition Linlithgow (now part of LCDT) and managed by Burgh Beautiful.
Linlithgow Burgh Trust – Burgh Beautiful
Muiravonside Country Park has an orchard area near the Community Growing Plots.
Vennel flower bed
The Vennel flower bed, managed by Burgh Beautiful volunteers, will be used to grow edibles from Oct 2024, demonstrating ‘A year in the vegetable garden’.