Community Involvement

The Hopetoun Steering Group was very important in the 1990s. It's role, under the auspices of City of Edinburgh Council, was to oversee the intensive development of the Hopetoun area, control the nature and quality of the development and protect and enhance the amenity for residential and business occupiers; local people played a vital role in this Group and it was thanks to them and the interest and expertise of Richard Barclay of City Development that the garden was planted with wild flowers and grasses, the benches in the setts put into place and the garden opened to all of us. 

Local school involvement

In the mid 1990s Tim Puntis, at that time the Biology teacher at Drummond Community High School, and some of his students were very pro-active in trying to make the Garden a more wildlife-friendly site and from November 1998 to the present day, the community has been involved in planting bluebells, wild flowers, crocuses, daffodils. Our local primary schools, Broughton PS, Leith Walk PS & St. Mary’s PS have been very actively involved in these plantings and it is hoped that the schools will continue to use the gardens as an educational resource, and that the young pupils will feel involved and interested in the local Garden.