Glasgow Guerrilla Gardening

Hi,
A massive thank-you to everyone who turned out on Saturday and also to those who sent their apologies and best wishes. It’s all very much appreciated.
As those of you who braved the cold on Saturday or received the last email will know the BBC will be along on Wednesday to film our activities. This is
a really great opportunity for us to attract some much needed practical support so it would be great if we can all ensure it goes well.

From my limited showbiz experience, I’m guessing that they’ll be looking for a before and after shot for their report. Whilst this isn’t the most realistic
representation of the work both we and nature put in, in trying to establish the garden, it is a neat way of showing visually the positive impact groups
like ours can have on the local environment.

The easiest and cheapest way open to us of making a big impact on the site in a short time is for us all to be planting similar stuff. So for that reason
we’re again asking anyone who is able to bring along primroses/primula or polyanthus on Wednesday. Morrisons supermarket are currently selling these
at £1 each or 4 for £2.29 or 6 for £3.29. They are also available from garden centres and other retailers. This tactic of planting from the same plan served
us well for our big 10,000 bulb challenge as you’ll see from the multitude of green shoots popping up all over the site and in this case will let us make a big
impact quickly.

This is not only a good thing for the TV cameras. Primroses are a natural woodland plant and even cultivated varieties provide a valuable source of
nectar for bees who will be back with us in the next few weeks. Food is really scarce for bees in early spring and with so many species of bee under threat
it is vital that we try our best to provide them with a meal.  As people who have been helping out for a while will be aware this is a planned and designed site
a major factor in designing the site was the hope that we could use the land to create an urban oasis for wildlife. So if you can come along with a primrose
or two on Wednesday you’ll be doing us and the bees a massive favour.

Beyond Wednesday we’ll next be meeting up at 11:30am on Saturday 13th March at our Townhead site and as ever you’re all more than welcome to come along.
We’ll be planting more primula, hellebores and crocosima bulbs as well as picking up litter and relocating a few already established plants to make way for some
new introductions and bring the layout of the site into line with the agreed design. If you’re intending to bring along different plants to those mentioned, can I ask
that you email ahead for advice on suitability and to discuss where on the site it should be located.

Hope to see you all soon

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,

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.

A massive thank-you to everyone who came along last Saturday, your help is as ever very much appreciated. However there’s still tons to do we have daffodils, tulips, fritallaries, alliums anemones, grape hyacinths and hyacinths that urgently need planted before the New Year.

As things stand I’m pondering the very real possibility of having to spend the earlier part of Christmas Day planting to get everything in the ground before the end of the month. Much as I enjoy gardening I’d rather be in a position to take Christmas Day off!

We’ll be meeting up this Saturday 19th December to plant the above bulbs at the usual meeting place on the lane that connects Stirling Rd and Parson St outside St Mungos Primary in Townhead at 11:30am.

If we can get roughly twenty folk out for an hour this Saturday it’s very likely that we’ll get the planting finished ahead of deadline and it really would be a shame to have come this far and fall at the last hurdle.
So far four people have confirmed they’ll be attending, all we need is another sixteen folk and we’ll be done in no time. Provided everyone sticks to the planting plan and pitches in to help the site should be very impressive come next spring, not to mention highly attractive to both people and wildlife alike.

As you may be aware we are an unfunded group (though we hope this will change over the coming months). That means every bulb that has been bought and planted is down to the donations and hard work of everyone who has helped out this year. Everyone who has been involved can rightly feel proud of their amazing achievement so far, we just need one final big push to finish on schedule. If you haven’t been along so far it’s not too late to be part of this remarkable piece of community action.

We have plenty bulbs for you to plant so all you need bring are a pair of gardening gloves and a trowel, small fork or a bulb planter. If you haven’t been along before, lack of experience is not a problem as I’ll be on hand to explain the very simple planting plan and give a bit of guidance if you’re unsure of anything.

If you have any questions or would like to help out please do not hesitate to get in touch via email.

Morrisons are doing some very good deals on plants just now, including two of the plants we need for Townhead. We are desperately short of Primroses and Hellebores both of which are available at Morrisons at £3.29 for six Primroses and £1.79 for a single Hellebore. Please feel free to bring these along if you fancy planting something.

A big thanks to all who came along last Saturday to help get the bulbs planted. We’ve only a few weeks to go before the 31st December and are aiming to have all the bulbs planted by then. To do so we really, really need your help.

We are not looking for any further donations of bulbs! Whilst we haven’t managed to get 1000 bulbs of each of the ten varieties we asked for we have received over 10,000 bulbs all in and now urgently need to get these planted.

On average one person can plant plant roughly 300 bulbs in an hour. So even giving up just half an hour to an hour of your time would be a huge help to us. All you need to bring is a trowel or a bulb planter or a fork, a pair of gardening gloves and yourself. Bulbs will be provided for you to plant so there’s no need to worry about what varieties to bring.

We’ll be meeting up at Townhead on Saturday 12th December at 11:30am, Saturday 19th December at 11:30am and Saturday 26th December at 11:30am. If you’ve never been along before we meet in the lane that joins Parson St and Stirling Rd just outside St Mungo’s Primary School. You don’t need any previous gardening experience or knowledge at all and we’d be delighted to see you, even if it’s only for 10 minutes planting.

Our aim is to have about ten volunteers turn up each Saturday between now and the New Year so feel free to bring friends, family and next door neighbours.

Bulb shoots are already popping up all over the site, we’re already on the way to spring 2010 being a blaze of colour but there is still room for improvement, so if you can spare just 10 minutes please come along and help out.

Let’s start off with a massive thank-you to all who braved the hellish weather at the weekend to get some more bulbs planted. Despite the low turnout and my abduction by the press an impressive amount of work was done with hundreds more bulbs planted.

Next week we’ll be back to our usual time of 11:30am up at Townhead and as ever there’s loads to do. This week should see the winter aconites and the last of the grape hyacinths planted. In addition I’ve been given a bag of daffodils and post permitting should have 1000 snowdrops, 50 wood anemone and 100 English Bluebells to add to the display.

We’ve done well to raise the funds we have but sadly we’re still short of our 10,000 target by some way. The council were in touch recently and made positive noises about helping us out with some tulips and daffodils which should hopefully see us reach our individual targets on those flowers. However we still urgently require 900 English Bluebells, 950 Wood Anemone and 300 Snakeshead Fritallaries. If the council let us down then we’re also still short by 600 mixed daffodils and 900 tulips. A total shortfall of around 3650 bulbs.

If you would like to donate to our funds then please do so via paypal. If you’d prefer to bring some bulbs along then we’ll be accepting donations of bulbs at Townhead if you’d like to come along and drop them off. We’ve only got until 31st December to meet our target and have done well despite some recent setbacks. It would be a shame to come this far and fall short so if you have any spare cash or bulbs we really would be very grateful for your donations.

We’ll be up at Townhead on Saturday 21st Nov at 11:30am, Saturday 28th November at 11:30am, December 5th 11:30am, December 12th 11:30am, December 19th 11:30am and Wednesday 30th December at 12pm. If you’d like to come along to any of these events with some bulbs of the still needed varieties, some gloves and trowel or bulb planter you’ll be more than welcome.