The community of Netherthird is using the COP26 Climate Change Conference in Glasgow to promote the ways in which they are working to reduce their carbon footprint.

For starters, Netherthird Community Garden is off the grid.

They don’t have electricity or gas in the garden, they recycle everything they can and the vegetables that they grow from seed gets shared between the volunteers, the people from the community and Netherthird Community Café.

Those at the garden use old recycling black boxes to grow tomatoes, cardboard to make new flower beds and ask all their customers to bring their plant pots back to be refilled.

Over at the community centre, they have a full roof of solar panels that help reduce energy costs, have renewed all the bulbs in the centre to LED.

They also have an electric car charger although they are currently seeking funding for an electric van and an alternative way to heat the centre.

Maggie Campbell at the Centre continued: “Netherthird Community Action Training (NCAT) have planted 5,000 trees in Netherthird in the last year which will make hedge rows for the birds and wildlife.

“NCAT have a five year plan to plant 5,000 trees and shrubs a year.

“This will help global warming by absorbing carbon dioxide removing and storing carbon while releasing oxygen back into the air.”

After hearing that Cumnock car dealership, Kerr & Smith, were looking to recycle their growing pile of used cardboard boxes, too, the Community Garden took some off their hands for a new garden area that will form part of a nature trail.

Tommy Samson, an employee at Kerr & Smith, told the Chronicle: “We’ve always got loads of empty cardboard boxes from deliveries of parts and components.

“We were looking for a better way of recycling these boxes and helping out others.”