Glasgow Guerrilla Gardening

A big thanks to everyone who turned out at the weekend to get the rest of the bulbs planted. The site is looking great just now and hopefully everyone’s continued hard work in 2010 will keep the site colourful all through summer and into autumn.

In addition to bulbs we also added Brook Thistle, Anemones, French Marigolds, Garden Pinks and a very generously donated conifer. The conifer wasn’t our only donation, a passer by impressed with the job that we’ve done over the last couple years on the site stopped to hand over a fiver which was used to purchase the Garden Pinks.

We next meet at Townhead on Saturday 24th April at 11:30am. There’s lots to do with plenty weeds and litter needing removed from the site. We will also be starting to plant out seeds -if you’d like to bring some seeds along we’re looking for poppies, nasturtiums, nigella and dwarf sunflowers. If you are bringing seeds you must also bring some water along to water them in with otherwise it’s highly unlikely they’ll germinate. As I do not drive I have to carry everything along to the site and cannot carry enough water for everyone so if everyone can bring along some water hopefully we’ll have enough for our seeds.

If you’d prefer to bring a plant we’re looking for Campanula, ferns (ideally Soft Shield Ferns or Common Polypody), Aquilegias (Columbines), Oriental Poppies, Foxgloves, Mexican Fleabane and Sweet Woodruff. Please note the links above are just for information for anyone unfamiliar with the above plants -I’m not suggesting you use these suppliers -though they are very good, if pricey. You should also be able to find most, if not all of the above plants and seeds from big DIY stores, garden centres, supermarkets, poundshops and the like.

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 stumbled across this letter from an Anne Peters recently published in the Evening Times;

“If Selfridges aren’t going to do anything with their overgrown gap site in the Merchant City then perhaps it’s time Glasgow City Council called in the guerrilla gardeners.

It would be great to have somewhere nice to sit out, or a permanent base for the farmers’ market which regularly appears in Candleriggs.”

An excellent suggestion!

We next meet on 10/04/2010 at 11:30am at Townhead to plant Crocosmia bulbs, continue removing leaves and sow nasturtium seeds.

I was tending the plot at Wilson Street today when I was surprised to discover two small bushes had been added to the garden. It would appear that I am not alone in tending this patch. I’m delighted to be receiving help and would love to know who’s responsible. Can anyone help?

A big thanks to everyone who came out to garden this morning. Despite the sporadic showers it wasn’t a bad day and we got lots done with a selection of perennials, crocosmia and seeds planted. The bulbs we planted over winter are still looking good. The crocuses are beginning to die down but are being rapidly replaced by Winter Aconites, Snowdrops and Daffodils.

Not much to report in the way of wildlife this week just one large Queen Bee, a Wood Pigeon and a gaggle of ordinary Pigeons.

We next meet on 10/04/2010 at 11:30am at Townhead to plant Crocosmia bulbs, continue removing leaves and sow nasturtium seeds.

Please not this has now been cancelled. It is FREEZING out there, wet and windy as well. It would be no fun for anyone. Please keep an eye on the site for work in Dennistioun starting soon.

Thanks, Michael

Next Tuesday evening at 7pm, we will be starting a clear up of a site over in Dennistoun.

We will be meeting up just up at the corner of Glenpark Street and Millerston Street. For this first visit we will not be doing any planting, it will be a clear up of rubbish first. If you are coming to this, please bring bin bags, gloves and any tools you think would be helpful in clearing an area. We will be at the site for about half an hour.

A Google map link might help you locate the site: on this google map, the site is just up from the ‘A’.

Thanks and if you have any queries, please get on touch,

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.

A big thanks to everyone who came along on Saturday. For those of you weren’t there I can highly recommend a walk past the site over the next week or so, the first of the crocuses we planted over winter are out and the site is starting to look very colourful. The daffodils look set to bloom next and hopefully the other bulbs we planted will be following suit shortly. We also have a lot of primroses and a few hellebores in bloom just now as well which further enhance the cheerful look of the site. As if that wasn’t enough we had a brief visit from some blue tits as well as the usual pigeons. I felt quite tearful, in a joyous way at finally seeing our hard work over the bleak winter pay off.

Still a gardeners work is never done so we’ll next be meeting on 27th March at 11:30am at our Townhead site to continue planting. We’re hoping to add 1000 Crocosmia bulbs to the site between now and May. If you’d like to help out with this you can either donate via paypal on this site, buy some Crocosmia bulbs (any variety) to bring along or just turn up with gloves a trowel or bulb planter to help us get the bulbs in the ground. Crocosmia bulbs are also sometimes referred to as Monbretia and are available from garden centres and various online retailers. I purchased 250 from R&H Garden Supplies but there are other retailers selling them in smaller quantities. eBay is a good place to start if you’re stuck.

If bulbs don’t appeal we’re still on the look out for more primroses and hellebores. These are available from garden centres, online plant retailers and quite cheaply from Morrisons supermarket.

If you’re sick of Primroses and Hellebores then you might want to consider purchasing some of the following plants, Foxgloves, Solomons Seal, Ramsons, English Lavender, Alchemilla Mollis or Thyme. A word of warning on Foxgloves -you’ll often see these for sale individually in big pots at garden centres -ignore these expensive plants and instead look for the smaller ones sold in trays of six. They’re about half the price of the big Foxgloves sold singly and much better value for money.

Finally if you don’t want to bring a plant there’s still plenty for you to do to help out. We still have an alarming amount of leaves to be shifted, bulbs to be planted and litter needing picked up and help with these is always very much appreciated. Incidentially it would appear that we are attracting a better class of litter lout these days, on Saturday I was surprised to find an empty bottle of Chilean Merlot abandoned on our site rather than the usual Buckfast bottles and Transform-a-Snak packets we’re more used to.