Glasgow Guerrilla Gardening

I’ve been up at the site several times over the Easter weekend and have been very pleased to see that our hard work over winter is paying off with a fine display of daffodils and plenty other green shoots popping up meaning a lot of the site will be in bloom for the next couple of months. I have added 40 Alchemilla Mollis, 15 Foxgloves and 3 Columbines to the already colourful display and hope to have some Anemones, Burnet, Brook Thistle, Ox Eye Daisy, Echinacea, Musk Mallow, Wild Strawberry, Bee Balm and Red Valerian arriving later on in the week.

With that in mind it’s time to turn our attention to filling the gaps that will open up once the late winter/spring blooms have faded. We still have a couple of hundred monbretia bulbs which need planted before the end of April so any help at all with planting these would be greatly appreciated -we had hoped to get about 1000 of these planted this year, however there isn’t the time or the money to do so now but I’m sure the 250 added to the site will make for a fine display.

For those of you who are heartily sick of bulbs, you’ll be relieved to hear that once the monbretia go in we won’t be planting any other bulbs until August this year and will instead be focusing our energies on plants and seeds between now and August.

Seed wise we’re after Nasturtium and Dwarf Sunflower seeds as these both did well on the site last year-the various poundshops and supermarkets have lots of these seeds in stock quite cheaply if you fancy bring a packet along. With regard to plants the full list for Townhead can be seen here.

If that list offer to much choice to be going on with, you might want to focus your attention on perennials -ideally perennials that self seed/spread as these are the best way to make a big and lasting impact on the site without breaking the bank. Aquilegias (Columbines), Foxgloves, Sweet Woodruff, Oriental Poppies and Campanula are all fairly easy to lay hands on and would help us cover a lot of ground fairly quickly. So if you can help out by donating one or more of these plants it would be very much appreciated. Failing that a donation to the plant fund never goes wrong.

We next meet up on Saturday 10th April at 11:30am at Townhead, hope to see you all there.

I spent a very happy and productive morning up at Townhead planting Cardoon, Brook Thistle, Mexican Fleabane, English Mace and Wild Garlic. The site continues to look very colourful with yet more crocuses in bloom, the first daffodils flowering and a few snowdrops popping up here and there.

I also saw my first bees of 2010, always a welcome sight! There were three very large bumblebees rolling about the crocuses like drunks as I arrived at the site and a few of their friends flew in and out during the course of the morning.

We also had a visit from a Thrush collecting leaves and twigs for her nest as well as some wood pigeons, common pigeons and a less welcome visit from some vast seagulls.

Oh I must say a big thank-you to whoever has been up at the site and given our roses a much needed prune. I’m slightly embarrassed at not having got round to this task myself but very grateful at being able to score something else off my to do list.

We’ll be meeting up again at 11:30am on Saturday 27th March, to see what we’ll be doing and what to bring please refer to this post.

Townhead site.

Saturday morning 11:30 till 12:30.

Townhead site is at ‘B’, A is Queen Street, to give you a guide on where to go.

If you’d like to attend on either or any day can you please respond to this message or email  so that we have an idea of numbers.  If you haven’t attended before you’d be more than welcome on any of our Digs.

Thanks,

This Saturday then, 11:30 am. The Townhead Site. Just outside St Mungo’s Primary School on the lane connecting Stirling Rd and Parson St. It is just down from the ‘A’ on this map:

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=parson+street+glasgow&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=19.983648,38.979492&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Parson+St,+Glasgow,+Lanarkshire+G4,+United+Kingdom&t=h&z=16

Unsure what to bring, just ask,

Here is a short interview with Richard Reynolds on The Browser in which he discusses five books which have inspired him in his guerrilla gardening activities. It looks an interesting list and should be of interest to anyone involved in guerrilla gardening. I’ll certainly be adding a few of the titles to my never ending list of things to read.

Returning to books I have got round to reading I can highly recommend Richard Reynolds On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening without Boundaries
and Chris Baines very readable How to Make a Wildlife Garden

A wet Wednesday in November might not seem like the most obvious time to be giving thought to helping out bees but like many gardeners I always have a beady eye on the next season.

There is a great deal on the internet about making your garden attractive to bees but much of tends to be long lists of flowers without much information on when they bloom and where is best to plant them. It’s good advice and well worth following however my attention for the time being is firmly focused on the bees lean season in the early spring.

Gardens don’t become a riot of colour, offering abundant nectar and pollen sources for bees until the summer but the poor souls still need a meal in the spring and hurrah for nature, there is lots to plant that will bring a bit of early colour to your garden and keep the bees well fed.

Crocuses and Snowdrops are a good source of early nectar and pollen and provide one of the years first signs that there might be an end to this terrible darkness, misery and cold. Winter flowering heathers should still be in bloom very early in the spring and provide another source of food. As indeed do my personal favourites the Hellebores which provide both nectar and pollen as well as treating us to flowers from winter to spring and beautiful, glossy leaves all year round.

To bridge the gap between early spring and summer Grape Hyacinths are a very pretty, easy to grow choice that will keep the bees coming. Grape Hyacinths are particularly impressive planted in vast drifts which if done properly will seem from a distance more like a mysterious blue haze hovering over the ground than flowers. Planted at fortnightly intervals from September to December these should be in bloom up until May after which the choice is endless for keeping bees happy.

There are of course many, many more varieties you can plant throughout the year. Nevertheless with very little effort you can keep our Bumblebees fat from Spring to Autumn. A little simple planning is all it takes to ensure you have a bit of early colour and the bees have somewhere to feed. This is one of the best online guides I’ve found for ensuring your garden has a wee morsel or two for the liitle gentleman in the striped fur coats.

Whilst we’ve always aimed to garden in a bee friendly fashion on all our sites and been rewarded with some very impressive bees. Next year we aim to do even better with all our fundraising and activity being directed towards establishing at least one new bee friendly garden in each quarter of the city as well as maintaining what we have. 2010 will be our busiest year since starting up in 2008 and there are lots of ways you can help out from propagating to planting to general garden stuff. If you’d like to nominate a site for a bee garden in your part of Glasgow or help out with our existing sites please email here for further details.

Taking advantage of the a lovely dry but cold winters day I nipped up to Townhead to plant some hostas, carex and a chocolate vine.

The bad news is that the garden has suffered it’s most serious attack to date, in addition to the dumping of an almost unbelievable amount of rubbish several plants have been stolen. Needless to say this is very frustrating and disappointing. I sincerely hope those responsible have a thoroughly miserable and unpleasant 2009. Still I suppose that we should be grateful that it’s them and not us going through life with such rancid and ugly personalities.

It is also worth remembering that despite this set back most people have been supportive and most of the plants have been left alone. What has been stolen will be replaced as soon as I can get to the garden centre and believe me they’ll get sick of this long before I do.

All in all there’s a lot to look forward to in 2009, more of which in another post.