An Aberdeenshire men’s shed has moved one step closer to fruition after opening up a space for its members to grow plants and crops.
The Inverurie Men’s Shed group formed last year and is in the process of setting up within a garage in the town’s Harlaw Road.
This week the group welcomed the Beechgrove Garden’s Jim McColl to the opening of its polytunnel in the Harlaw Day Centre – where their green-fingered members will work from.
Inverurie is one of around 10 men’s sheds in the works within Aberdeenshire, with Westhill – the first in Scotland – open for around two years.
Archie Peebles, trustee and chairman of the Inverurie Men’s Shed, said: “We were very happy to open up our polytunnel, we were lucky that Jim McColl officiated the event.
“The funding came from the health improvement fund of NHS Grampian and through Caroline Lamb. She approved the allocation.
“We’re growing stuff in the polytunnel of course and we are looking to grow carrots and cabbages and so on. Some of it might end up being used as part of Inverurie’s Garioch Community Kitchen.”
He added work was progressing to open up the men’s shed as soon as possible.
“We have been going as a trust for less than a year while there are other men’s sheds being put together,” he said. “In general the men’s sheds are going very well over the area in Westhill, Ellon, Huntly and Portlethen.
“We are not open as a men’s shed, we are still working on that. The polytunnel was one of the first ideas that came to our men’s sheds members.”