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Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March.

NATIONAL TRUST FOR SCOTLAND MEDIA RELEASE
Culross courses in gardening arts

Fife's budding gardeners can learn the arts of pruning and grafting with two specialist courses at the National Trust for Scotland's Culross on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March.
On Saturday, attendees will learn how to prune fruit trees and bushes, with practical instructions on most kinds a pruner would be likely to encounter. There will also be a talk about the basics of pruning, covering when and why the technique is necessary and how to achieve desirable results. The emphasis will be on practicality, with the option to practice on trees in the Palace garden.
The Sunday course, meanwhile, will revolve around grafting. After a short, practical talk on history and theory, there will again be a practical demonstration of the art. Attendees are welcome to take away their own grafts, and to plant them in their gardens to see how they grow!
Mark Jeffery, Head Gardener at Culross, said:
"Culross Palace boasts some of Fife's most beautiful gardens, and it is thanks to the efforts of our staff that we are able to maintain them to such a high standard. I am delighted that they will be teaching others the tricks of the trade, so that Fife's knowledge of gardening may continue to grow."
The courses run on Saturday 13 and Sunday 14 March and each cost £25 day. Booking is essential, and can be carried out by contacting the property on 0844 4932189.

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Tuesday, 16 March 2010 from 7.00 ? 9.00 pm at the Smith Art Gallery & Museum, Dumbarton Road, Stirling, FK8 2RQ, and is open to all in Clackmannanshire, Falkirk and Stirling areas who are interested in the future of Forth Valley?s orchards and fruit trees. Refreshments will be served. You are invited to an evening event that will report on the outcomes of the Forth Valley Orchard Regeneration Initiative Mapping & Feasibility Study, and to help plot the next steps. This research has been on-going since May 2009, and has focused on heritage orchards, school orchards, and GreenMapping workshops (open public discussions about orchards / community orchards)

For further information contact Diane at Forth Environment Link on 01786 449215 or email diane@forthenvironmentlink.org.
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Mayfield Community Centre @ Stirling on Google map
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Saturday 27 March 2010
WWF's Earth Hour takes place @ 8:30pm,
They want a billion people around the world to turn off their lights for one hour.
Switch off and support people and wildlife threatened by climate change.
Register your support at: wwfscotland.org.uk/earthhour
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Peat free compost campaign

Zero Waste Scotland is running a national awareness raising campaign that aims to encourage the use of and change public attitudes and behaviour towards using Peat Free compost products. We are currently working with a number of Retailers and Conservation Charities as part of our campaign to introduce promotional materials into stores and public events and would be very keen for you to be involved.

We would like to ask you to become involved in this campaign and promote the use of peat free and recycled content compost to your plot holders. Through working together with retailers, charities, allotment and gardening societies and councils we hope to reduce the amount of garden waste sent to landfill and prevent the destruction of peat beds which have taken thousands of years to form. By promoting the environmental benefits of choosing Peat Free compost you will be allowing your allotmenteers to make a more informed choice of compost product.

We would like to offer you free 'Peat Free-The Natural Choice' leaflets for distribution among your group and to create website link with groups where possible. I have attached an example of our information leaflet so you can see the campaign branding and style.

If you would like to be involved, please contact me by Friday 5th February 2010 so I can arrange to have materials to you for the launch week of 8th March. To date the Peat Free campaign has had a small launch at Glasgow Botanical Gardens in March 09 with press adverts and online advertising since. We will roll the campaign out fully in March 2010 by which time our partners will have all the information leaflets and promotional materials required to get involved with the national launch. The launch will involve Local and National press activity and direct members of the public to Sort it to find their local stockist.

By providing support to this campaign you will be helping allotmenteers to reduce their waste and protect the fragile eco systems which exist only in peat beds. In turn you may benefit from free links on our website, which has been visited by over 66,000 new users last year alone.

We do hope that you will be happy to support this campaign.

Contact details:
Isla K Myles
Campaigns Officer
Waste Aware Scotland
Wallace House
17-21 Maxwell Place
Stirling
FK8 1JU
Tel: 01786 468780
Fax: 01786 464611
www.wasteawarescotland.org.uk