Nikki Thomas of Braehead Community Garden in Stirling tells us how a 'Come on in' micro-grant from Creative Lives helped them encourage new members, create new signage and make new links with local organisations.

"The ‘Come on in’ microgrant helped us immensely at Braehead Community Garden. The extra hours of Development Officer time meant we could finally find the ‘space’ to focus on getting our public Facebook page set up, getting ourselves better integrated within the local community and sharing info, news and events.

We are now linked in with so many more local organisations and similar trusts and this has improved our networking ability, including Transition Stirling and the local nursery which has led to increased use of the garden.

We have revamped the noticeboard outside our garden, making information more accessible to the local community. New posters have been created, one of which has led to our first man being interested in our craft group!

Having our Development Officer at the Garden whilst working on all these improvements meant we could keep the gate open more often, and more walk-ins have led to new people on the waiting list, the majority of whom are currently from local ethnic minority residents.

Signage both outside and inside the garden has become much more welcoming and encouraging, designed by our Craft Group after feedback from members and the general public. We are creating a recipe book, with a range of culturally diverse ideas for using ‘too many courgettes’ and other veggies, or just different methods of cooking.

We have a group of Nepalese women who are not members but regularly visit the garden. They are currently showing us some of their foraging tips – not everything is a weed!

Thank you so much for the grant, it has made a huge difference, and we can only get better and stronger from here!"