Tag Archive
2009 2010 2011 allotments attacks bbc bees bulbs cca cowcaddens dates for the diary dear green place drumchapel fund raising gardening gardening pictures glasgow glasgow city council Glasgow South Glasgow West GROW guerrilla gardening guerrilla gardening hayes garden world help international sunflower guerrilla day nasturtium day North kelvin meadow North Kelvinside Meadow planting recruitment scotland seed SEEDBOM southside sponsors Spring street planters ten thousand bulb challenge tenthousandbulbchallenge townhead trees wildlife wildlife gardening Wilson Street
3rd march – Urgent Help Wanted (Townhead site)
Ending 2009
Once again a massive thanks to everyone who came out on Saturday, despite falling short of the number of volunteers we were hoping for we still managed to plant an amazing 600 Snakeshead Fritallaries, 200 Tulips, 30 Daffodils and 50 bluebells -just short of 900 bulbs.
That still leaves us with lots of bulbs to get in the ground before new year. I shall be doing some planting at some stage on Christmas Day, inbetween the usual family commitments. As a group we only have a further two planting sessions before the New Year. We’ll next be meeting at Townhead on 26th December at 11:30am and again on Wednesday 30th December at 12pm to get the planting finished.
In order to get things finished and move on with the site it is important that anyone who is available to help out with the planting comes along -even if it’s just for 10 minutes.
If you’ve never been to the site before it’s just over the road from the Glasgow Royal Infirmary on the lane that connects Stirling Rd and Parson St -at the side entrance to St Mungo’s primary. As we have bulbs to plant all you need to bring is a pair of gloves and a hand fork, trowel or a bulb planter.
Any help you can offer with this really would be much appreciated, if you’d like to attend please email us to let us know if we can expect you along on either day.
Feed The Bee
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.
17th October – Townhead
Just south of the A on this map, on the path that links parson Street to Stirling Road.
11th October – North Kelvin Meadow
Taken from North Kelvin Meadow:
“Hi all
Your all invited to a bulb planting event at North Kelvin Meadow on
Sunday 11th October at 2pm. That’s a week this Sunday so mark it in
your dairies.
We’ve got 400 bulbs all ready to plant. If all goes well the Meadow
should be a wash with colour next spring / summer.
Things to bring?
Yourself! Bulbs should be handled with gloves so bring an old pair.
Bring a trowel or spade if you have one (we have a few spare). That
it.
How long will the event last?
Don’t worry about coming down for a long time - 30 minutes to an 1
hour is all that’s required.
How to plant a bulb?
Each bulb needs to be planted to a depth of 3 times its size. So dig a
small hole and place the bulb with its top facing upwards. If not sure
what is the top then plant it on its side. Cover with soil making sure
there are no obvious air pockets. If you need some decent soil to
surround the bulb then take some from the big white bags in the far
corner. Its as easy as that! What’s more, many of them should flower
year after year.
Can’t make that time?
Feel free to plant bulbs at other times if you have them. The more the merrier!
What’s the latest with the Land?
Not really that much! The Council still want to sell it, but haven’t
found a buyer. The local community increasingly see it as a place that
shouldn’t be built on. As the land is used more as a green space by
the local community the case strengthens to keep it as such.
Hope to see you then”.
For more information, please visit http://northkelvinmeadow.com/
City Centre Guerrilla Gardening – Friday 12th
On Friday the 12th at 6pm. We will be doing some Guerrilla Gardening at the bottom of Renfrew Street under the pedestrian bridge:
North Kelvin Meadow – Needs your help!
Some of you may have heard of The North Kelvin Meadow, some of you may even have helped out over at the site. Within the last week, North Kelvin Meadow have been informed that the land they are using may be about to be sold.
For more information, please visit: northkelvinmeadow.com. If you can help them, please lend your support.
Thank you,
Michael
Drumchapel Gardening – 3rd June
As part of the CCA‘s out reach programme a number of one-night guerrilla gardening styled activities will be taking place across Drumchapel over the next few months.
The second is taking place on Wednesday, 3rd June 2009 at 7pm. Either meet at Drumchapel Community Centre (Kinfauns drive) at 7 or go direct:
30th May 2009 – Townhead Dig
4th April 2009-Nasturtium Day!
4th April 2009-Nasturtium Day!
Inspired by the wonderful international Sunflower Day we have decided to launch Nasturtium Day in tribute to this easy to grow, edible and attractive little wonder.
The time and place for this meet are 11:30 at the Townhead site, start stockpiling nasturtium seeds in preparation.
[Photo from Light Spectral on Flickr - http://www.flickr.com/photos/lightspectrals/327594508/]