Celebrating Remembrance Day – Our Linburn Walled Garden

Linburn Walled Garden is a community garden for veterans, volunteers and military personnel. In this blog, Laura Mulcahy reflects on the journey from wild unloved space to the thriving hub of learning, recovery, and community it has become.

In the last three years, as part of Scotland’s Veterans Wellbeing Alliance (SVWA), Linburn Walled Garden has been transformed from a derelict wasteland to a sanctuary for veterans, their families and the wider local community.

 Within the veteran community - trust, consistency and authenticity are key to developing relationships – their life once depended on it.  “You must be All In, or you're Out” as they say, and trust me as soon as people enter the garden – they quickly become all in!

As early as 1910, the garden fed veterans, their families, and the local community with thriving vegetable plots. Today we feed bellies as well as souls through our wellbeing activities, weekly veteran therapeutic horticulture sessions, organic produce and our monthly Veterans Ladies Day where we put the world to rights over a cup of tea and a chocolate hob nob (other biscuits available!).

From the beginning of the project, I became acutely aware that the garden has a mind of its own. It’s not hard to imagine that a garden which has served veterans and military families for over 115 years would be far from a wallflower. This was a learning curve in and of itself. One such example was the making of the firepit - the garden had other ideas making sure it became waterlogged DESPITE being positioned in the dryest and sunniest part of the garden. The garden won and the firepit is now a beautiful pond, a haven for insects and birds.

Just as the garden leaves a lasting impression – so does everyone who enters as they shape the garden to suit the needs of the collective. The garden’s volunteers bring bright and colourful ideas that turn into reality through passion and enthusiasm. The cut flowers, kitchen garden, and veg patch are testament to that!  And our SVWA partners make good use of the garden too, hosting BBQs, dog shows, gardening courses, historical re-enactments and much more. The veteran art workshops shaped the permanent art pieces that intrigue young and old. Not to mention the herculean effort of the polytunnel construction being testament to what can be done with a hardy determined corporate volunteer group combined with support of our veteran attendees and local community.

The garden is a place for people to let go of the heaviness of their every day, have a little fun and leave a little lighter. This is why it's been important to hold a variety of different events to suit everyone. The wholesome family day events with let's say ‘characterful props’ enable veterans and their families to relax, have fun and make good long-lasting memories. Our corporate days encourage the entire of West Lothian to join in the party with 80s/90s classics filling the air while we work them hard reimagining the garden season to season. Our workshops and sessions enable the community and veterans to come learn something new together, leaving more confident and fulfilled. Cyrenians’ projects also have made a home at Linburn with Opal, our Residential Communities and Creative Natives having played their part in the development of the garden – with a fair few laughs thrown in for good measure.

I think it is safe to say, those that enter the garden are often changed for the better, we might not be able to lift all the weight of the world, but being close to nature, connecting with people and providing a safe slice of life is what we can do, and we do it well.

We can’t put a price on the impact and importance of this.  I was reminded of this recently when one of our regular veteran volunteers came with his family to help decorate the garden for an up-and-coming family fun day.

In conversation his wife said ‘A year ago he was crying, not having a purpose, he is a different man now. He doesn't get stressed about things to the same high level anymore, he is calmer’ and ‘he helps do older peoples gardens when at the caravan – it's his chill out time. He has made friends and doesn't feel like he is stuck talking about the past.’ His grandson added, ‘I love seeing papa so content, he's in his happy place’.

Our core NASA values - Nature, Authenticity, Sense of community and Acceptance are at the centre of what we do at Linburn Walled Garden’s Veterans Project. Together we can help each other to get back to being at the top of their world, or if that's a little out of reach, we sit with them to look at the stars instead.