ABOUT OUR GARDEN.

We now have 5-years’ experience of growing, recently moving from Newton Garden to Monkton Garden on the outskirts of Edinburgh. We’re aiming for full sustainability to supply l'escargot bleu with all its vegetables, herbs, salads and flowers.

At the garden we have 1000 square metres dedicated to small vegetables, salads, herbs and flowers, with another 3000 square metres for growing larger crops like carrots, leeks, brassicas, potatoes and parsley. Our 100-square-metre polytunnel is used to grow herbs and fresh salad leaves year-round, and for tomato growing during summer. 

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do, with an emphasis on reducing waste. The garden helps supply food to the restaurant and we use 100% of our food waste to make compost, including coffee grounds, cardboard and paper. This also reduces our waste costs by around 60%. Our 7-bay compost bins provide us with up to 6 tonnes of compost a year.

We have opted for the “no-dig” growing method to help preserve the soil beneath the beds we create. This method also reduces maintenance, helps control the weeds control and nourished the ground with an added layer of compost once a year. We needed an initial input of 24 tonnes of old manure and compost to establish the first 12 beds at 1.2 x 10m each.

When growing vegetables, it’s vital to feed them and this is where compost comes in. It can be as difficult to source quality compost as it to source premium quality vegetables - nearly impossible! Hence the need to produce both ourselves.

We grow everything from seed, buying from small seed suppliers avoiding GM whenever possible. Our seed bank grows every year as we produce many seeds ourselves. No-dig’s other benefit is the ability to multi-crop, meaning beds are always full of matured salads alongside fledgling vegetables in preparation for the next season. The beds are always working and never left unused.