‘We’re the only gardeners that go to the Royal Mile for one-hour maintenance visits during the Fringe’
How the seed of an idea helped the cycling gardeners grow a new business model for our congested city centre
Welcome to your midweek edition of The Inquirer.
We don’t normally think of innovators as using technology that was invented before Queen Victoria was on the throne. That is exactly what events worker turned entrepreneur Callum Ross has done.
Faced with massive city centre congestion at the height of the tourist season, his solution was as simple as it has proved effective. Sarah McArthur met the Cycling Gardeners to find out more for today’s long read.
More on that below, but first your regular midweek news roundup and your cultural highlights for the week ahead.
Your Edinburgh Briefing
OBSERVATORY ‘AT RISK’: Union leaders are warning the future of the Royal Observatory Edinburgh on Blackford Hill is “at risk” as a result of a UK Government funding review. The Prospect union says it may face cuts of 5% in its national laboratory funding and 30% in project grants. The Science and Technology Facilities Council says its funding review is ongoing has yet to reach conclusions.
MARKING BOYCOTT: University staff are to stage a marking and assessment boycott from 1 May in their ongoing protest against £140 million cuts and an estimated at 1800 job losses. University Principal Sir Peter Mathieson said he was “profoundly disappointed, disheartened and frustrated that UCU (the University College Union) Edinburgh members have again voted in favour of purposefully targeting our students”.
STOTT OF THE POPS: Grant Stott, Edinburgh’s favourite DJ cum panto villain, is to return as presenter of Radio Scotland’s prestigious Afternoons show on Mondays to Thursdays. He will replace the current presenting line-up of Michelle McManus, Len Pennie, and Nicola Meighan, after May 29.
BRIBERY BANKER JAILED: A former relationships manager with RBS has been jailed for 21 months. Stuart Holloway, 49, who worked at the bank’s St Andrew Square office from 2010 until being suspended in 2016, admitted seeking payments to the tune of £275,000 in exchange for releasing customers from personal guarantees or otherwise treating them more favourably.
NEW TOWN HOTEL: Plans for a 143-bedroom Dakota Hotel on the corner of Dundas Street and Fettes Row have been lodged with the city council. The boutique hotel would replace two 7-storey 1980s office blocks, Centrum House and Bupa House.
LEAKS SHUT VENUE: Bannerman’s Bar, the award-winning music venue in the Cowgate, has had to change plans for more than 40 gigs due to ongoing problems with water leaking into the venue. It will close for at least two months from 26 April for major work to tackle the problem. The gigs affected are being rescheduled or moved to alternative venues where possible.
ROWERS’ APPEAL: The Edinburgh-based rowing club the St Andrews Boat Club has launched a fundraiser to help replace five boats and a trailer worth £100,000 destroyed in a serious motorway crash. The club, based on the Union Canal, at Meggetland, were returning from a training camp in Chester when the crash took place. Thankfully, no one was hurt.
Your Pick of the (Cultural) Pops
Greetings, Pop Pickers!
As April barrels towards its conclusion, the volume of arts programming in Edinburgh is starting to mount up. You’d be forgiven for thinking we were already knee-deep in August festival madness. This week’s countdown is a wonderously mixed bag, swinging from psychoanalytical intrigue at Summerhall to cutting-edge contemporary dance, with a healthy dose of country music legends and classical mastery thrown in for good measure, writes Will Quinn.
Let’s count them down…
Honourable Mentions: Tim Key, GUSH & A Play, A Pie and a Pint.
It’s a packed week for our near-misses! Tim Key’s Loganberry (Monkey Barrel Comedy) was so popular at last year’s Fringe that I couldn’t even squeeze in for a review. It may be brilliant, but not every Fringe smash survives the transfer to the year-round circuit, so Tim must settle for just shy of the Top 5. Dropping down the chart is Jess Brodie’s playwriting debut, GUSH (Traverse Theatre). As my recent review notes, this tale of a mother-to-be’s sexually charged identity crisis is elevated by a commanding Jessica Hardwick, and if the ending drags, it’s still a highly competent one-woman show. Finally, Scotland’s premier hotbed of new writing expands beyond its usual Traverse home: from the 29th, pick up hot food, a cold drink, and (probably) a cracking new play with A Play, A Pie and a Pint: Off The Rails at the Assembly Roxy!
New in at Number 5 is... Jackals (Summerhall, Friday and Saturday).
Scissor Kick and HissyFit are practically single-handedly bringing drama back to Summerhall outside of the Fringe - a rare treat since the McDowell family sold the venue out from under its founder. Jackals offers a dark, surreal exploration of the troubling historical relationship between a young Emma Eckstein and a fledgling Sigmund Freud. Scissor Kick earned my trust by bringing the cracking Pickled Republic to the stage; if they back Jackals, I’m minded to believe them. Get to Summerhall while you can, before developers AMA Homes enshrine the site’s artistic mission with the same dedication with which they’ve delivered Cramond’s promised sports complex (22 years and counting...).
New in at Number 4 is... The Ballad of Johnny and June (Festival Theatre, April 28th – May 2nd)
Despite a stellar cast, director Des McAnuff, and development input from John Carter Cash, this production probably expected warmer critical acclaim since hitting the road. However, audiences are absolutely loving it, and there’s no doubting the sheer talent or earnest dedication to its legendary inspirations. At the very least, the music is bound to be good, and with Christina Bianco and Christopher Ryan Grant in the title roles, they are going to get some Rolls-Royce delivery. Ultimately, some of my favourite shows ever are solid 3-star productions, and this looks to be a textbook example of a 3-star hit that is super, smashing, and — you guessed it — great.
New in at Number 3 is... Triptych (The Studio, Friday and Saturday)
Since its dazzling 2024 Fringe debut, rising star Lewis Major and his mentor Russell Maliphant BE’s show has enjoyed global critical and commercial success. For critics like me, this return is a welcome chance to catch the production outside the August madness. Dance simply does not find such demand when it’s anything less than superlative. If you seek outstanding work at the bleeding edge of contemporary dance, this is undoubtedly your ticket.
New in at Number 2 is... Karine Polwart: Windblown (Royal Lyceum Theatre, April 28th – 30th)
The return of this magnificent show easily secures the runner-up spot. In fact, if the peak of our chart wasn’t occupied by a pianist considered among the greatest to ever draw breath, Windblown would take Number 1 with absolute majesty. It remains a breathtaking piece of theatrical, melodious, and heartwarmingly personal storytelling. The chances are you won’t ever have seen anything quite like it before.
Staying at Number 1 is... Sir Stephen Hough Plays Rachmaninov (Usher Hall, Friday)
It takes a truly historic concert to block Karine Polwart from the top spot. But when BBC Music Magazine‘s 7th greatest pianist of all time comes to town, the crown is unconditionally his. Sir Stephen Hough brings his effortless brilliance to the sweeping romanticism of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No. 1. Supported by conductor John Wilson and the mighty Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the evening is beautifully rounded out by Ravel’s La valse and Vaughan Williams’ Symphony No. 2 (A London Symphony). Anything less than perfect musical magic is impossible to imagine.
And that’s your Top 5!
Go forth, secure your seats, and don’t forget to let the box office know who sent you. Drop a comment below with your own verdicts - I’m always ready to be proven right, or to politely disagree with your dissent otherwise!
Don’t miss Saturday’s Inquirer to find out why the Edinburgh International Aer Festival has set up home in Leith and what that means for its future.
‘We’re the only gardeners that go to the Royal Mile for one-hour maintenance visits during the Fringe’
How the seed of an idea helped the cycling gardeners grow a new business model for our congested city centre
by Sarah McArthur
You might have seen them popping up over the last few years. Cargo bikes. These big, boxy bikes can carry food supplies, deliveries, and even children. The maximum haulage goes all the way up to 200kg these days. But they still can’t be used for more than daily cafe deliveries and the school run… right?
Wrong, according to Callum Ross. The events worker turned entrepreneur has been running a growing gardening business for six years now - and for the last four of those, the only vehicles he has owned are bicycles. Like a number of small businesses and charities, you could say they’re environmentally driven…
Edinburgh’s first fully electric gardening business
Tucked away in a triangular yard, sandwiched between high tenement walls, Callum and operations manager Heather unpack a gardening bike for me. The crate on the front contains all of the tools needed for a standard gardening job; longer tools like rakes and strimmers break down into detachable parts to fit length-ways in the box. In the middle, one chunky battery-powered motor can be connected to any of the motor tools in the kit. There doesn’t seem to be a tetris game required to make this all fit either; if anything the crate is roomy. Once the crate is closed up, a lightweight (and also electric) lawnmower sits sturdily on top.
With this setup, and an occasional spare battery pack thrown in for long days, the Cycling Gardeners can get everywhere they need to go, and do everything they need to, without using any fossil fuels.
And they don’t just do standard gardening jobs either- the Cycling Gardeners can take on larger landscaping projects (if they’ve got enough free time left over from all their other clients, that is). In the quieter winter months, the Cycling Gardeners work on bigger projects exactly as other gardening companies do- the only adjustment required is to order materials to the site rather than bringing them with gardeners. And while the gardeners generally encourage their clients to compost, and will build and manage compost bins for them, a weekly run around town with a hired electric van deals with any leftover garden waste for disposal.
