Forth Valley Food Links

Scottish Natural Heritage is offering wildflower seed packs again this year to help promote your Scottish Biodiversity Week events. People are being encouraged to plant wildflowers to create a haven for wildlife that attracts bumblebees, honeybees and other insects. The packs contain corn marigold, corn poppy, meadow buttercup, ox-eye daisy, St John's wort and yarrow. You can plant them in window boxes or planters, or in your garden where the insects will help to pollinate your produce, particularly any blossoming fruit.

People across Stirling are being urged to plant wildflowers this spring to give a boost to our bees and give them a place to dine! The campaign, 'On the Verge', is concerned about the plight of our bees and how we can take steps to ensure that there are sufficient sources of food to sustain the bee population.

There are a few remaining places left at this year's annual Trellis Conference, to take place on Tuesday, 15th March 2011, at the Perth Concert Hall from 9.30 am - 4.00 pm.  Entitled, "Gardening – the original feel-good activity", the conference this year celebrates the very positive benefits of gardening to health and well being.

Forty people turned up at Strathblane’s Village Club last Sunday for a workshop to share ideas for an allotments and community garden project.  An enthusiastic discussion gave rise to all sorts of bright ideas about how the project could work and what it would bring to the village – everything from food festivals, educational activities and skill-swaps to fundraising produce sales and cook-ins, and even deliveries of bulky materials by horse and cart!