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Pollok Grows Together

During 2024-25, Eco Drama collaborated with community members and organisations in Pollok, Glasgow, to plant a Community Orchard in the grounds of Pollok Community Centre.

Project Summary

During 2024-25, supported in part by the Glasgow Communities and Place fund, we collaborated with community members of all ages in Pollok, plus orchard specialists, to design and plant Pollok’s first community orchard. We also supported the planting of 21 School Orchards across Glasgow, and 10 fruit trees in local gardens. Eco Drama led on the creative engagement, engaging children and their communities through our unique arts-based approach. Since then, we have nurtured and grown a core group of committed Orchard Volunteers that tend and care for the trees, and support the delivery of creative community engagement events.

Creative Engagement

Eco Drama’s production The Forgotten Orchard toured to schools and community audiences in 2024 to engage, inspire and support the planting of the orchards.

Drama Artist’s led creative workshops in spring and autumn 2024, working with local children to create informal performances inspired by Scotland’s rich orchard heritage, which were showcased at a Harvest Festival event for their families and wider community. We continued delivering a range of creative community events in 2025-2026 including a Summer Picnic, Harvest Festival, Wassailing Event & Blossom Festival.

Community Involvement

22 heritage apple, pear and plum trees were planted in Pollok Community Orchard, plus 10 fruit trees were gifted to Pollok residents to plant in their gardens. The current programme of events centred around the Orchard from 2024 – 2027, has been shaped with the community. Aswell as creative events, we’ve hosted an Orchard Planting Workshop & Pruning & Aftercare Workshop, led by experienced horticulturists The Appletreeman, and plan to host another session in January 2027. We currently host monthly Orchard Volunteer meet-ups, to tend and care for the trees and support the delivery of community events. All welcome.

Get Involved

Our next Pollok Community Orchard Event is a Summer Picnic taking place on Saturday 18th July 2026 from 12noon-3pm, outside in the orchard (Langton Road, G53 5DP – opposite Pollok Community Centre). The picnic is free and all ages are very welcome! There will be fun for the whole family with facepainting, arts & crafts, bird food making, free food, storytelling and more! It will also be an opportunity to learn about volunteering in the orchard, and for sharing recipes and stories.

To find out more about events/activities and volunteering in the orchard, please contact Suzanne Prak-Sandilands, Schools & Communities Project Manager: suzanne@ecodrama.co.uk.

Gallery

Swipe or scroll across for more images. Click to enlarge.

Child in blue outdoor wear digs with a shovel while looking intensely into the hole. Eco Drama Pollok Grows Together.A person with a great bushy beard points to the map of the Pollok Community Orchard while a young child stares directly into the lens.Smiling child wearing a blue jumper with stars with star face paint operates the handle of the apple pressWoman wearing blue jumper, black trousers and a grey bobble hat kneels down next to a shovel and looks towards the camera with a neutral expression while another person wearing brown trousers, grey socks, black boots and a black jacket digs a hole in the grass in the background. Eco Drama Pollok Grows TogetherPoster with an illustration of a red apple, asking "Have you tasted the discovery apple?"A woman and a man present a map of the area and where the various types of trees will be planted to an audience outside the Pollok Community Centre. Eco Drama Pollok Grows Together.Young boy wearing a blue star-quilted jacket peers curiously into a black planter next to the planted saplings.Child uses a wooden implement to push apples into the apple press under the supervision of an adult while two other girls observe.Pupils from St Marnock's on stage for their performance at Pollok Grows Together. They are pointing out to the audience and laughing heartily off stage.Pollok Grows Together apple tasting station with discovery apple sign.Empty wire cages standing ready in the field.Hands tying the sprig of the tree to a wooden pole. Eco Drama Pollok Grows TogetherChild with rainbow face paint on their forehead smiling using craft supplies to make an apple monster.Women wearing blue jumper and black jacket gently smiles while looking down and holding a baby with short black hair, purple quilted jacket and puzzled facial expression.Children gazing at the planting of the trees with curiosity.Women in blue jacket smiling holding a mallet on top of a wooden pole.An audience looks on while a man wearing traditional Scottish dress, including a kilt, plays the bagpipes.In a field, one woman bends holding a hammer about to use it drive a wooden pole into the ground while two other women consult a clipboard. Eco Drama Pollok Grows Together.A group picture of some of the attendants of the Pollok Grows Together planting day. There is an air of joy and community.Child with brown hair and blue jumper playfully holds the end of a red pen to her closed eye and pretends to draw with it on the nose of a man with stubble and a grey hat who has scrunched up his face.Man in black jacket with short brown hair looking at a black and white drawing of a tree with orange and red pieces of paper shaped like apples attached.A crowd gathered around in a field waiting in anticipation for the long red ribbon to be cut.
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The Story of
Pollok Community Orchard

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