Glasgow Guerrilla Gardening

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.

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.