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Townhead In Autumn

A Bit More Spending

Another quickie to let you know about the latest spending and donations. I'm currently awaiting delivery of the following

10 Hostas £9.50
6 Ivy Hedera £ 9.96
1 Geranium
1 Yucca
3 Black Dragon (combined total of £23.14)

I know there's still a long way to go but I'm hopeful that this next round of planting will make a real impact on the site and I hope reflect the benefits of us all pulling together and sharing our resources. I've still to order the 10 lavender plants mentioned below, some more hellebores and buy some bronze ornamental grasses. That should bring this months spending to a close. Any further cash donations will be held over until next month.

Spending and Donations

Thanks to two very generous and welcome donations I've been doing a bit more spending.

Townhead will soon be home to;

2 'Metallic Blue Lady' Hellebores £9.98
1 Mature Pink Lavender Plant £5.38
4 varieties of mint (chocolate, pineapple, orange and grapefruit) £7.48
2 Mature Toad Lillies £12.70 (see above picture)

All prices include postage and packing. I've chosen the above for their good spreading habits and ground cover, with the exception of the Hellebores which I couldn't resist because of their beautiful colour.

I've also had 2 Poached egg plants donated by my mother (1 for Wilson St, 1 for Townhead)
- there is more to follow from that rich source!

I have raided my own piggy bank for

12 violas for Wilson St 99p
2 Rosebushes for Townhead £5.98
1 Birdbox for Townhead £1.00
1 Passion Flower for Wilson St £2.99

I'll be raiding my own piggy bank for some ivy and green lawn edging to cover the breezeblocks, a saw to turn the donated wood into raised beds, some more lavender and anything else that looks good. I've also been stockpiling seeds in preparation for the spring and have been donating my Squidoo earnings each month

After paypal fees that leaves us with £7.56 in the kitty which I'll be adding to in order to purchase 10 mature lavender plants for Townhead.

Please keep the donations coming, whether it's cash, plants, time or suggestions. All help is appreciated.

Spending Update!

Just a quick note to announce what I've been spending the cash donations on.....

50 English Bluebell Bulbs £5.95 -these will be divided between the Townhead, Blackfriars St and Wilson St sites.

6 Lavender Plug Plants £5.94 - these will be planted at Townhead

2 mature Lavender plants £6.50 -these will also be planted at Townhead.

All this leaves us with 3p in the kitty so keep the donations coming either by donating via paypal or bring along a lavender plant to our next dig on 01/11/08 at the Townhead site.

Do You Have A Website or Blog To Promote?

We're looking for donors to help us beautify and feed Glasgow and are selling permanent links from this very blog for the bargain price of £10 for individuals and £20 for businesses. As the blog gets established it's likely that these prices will increase accordingly so get in quick and grab yourself a bit of bargain advertising. Contact us here for more info.

For other ways to help out see here and here.

Driver Wanted!

Since making an appeal for donations I've had some great offers but without wheels they remain out of reach. Needless to say this is very frustrating.

If you have access to a van and an hour or so to spare your help really would be appreciated.

To help and for more details, please email.

A Dead Fish!

My first garden is subject to periodic attacks of vandalism by drunken arseholes of a weekend. Last Saturday was one of the most upsetting as it has been the most serious to date. The scum responsible destroyed a fuchsia bush in full bloom, snapped all the sunflowers I'd grown from seed, ripped out the lavender and emptied the contents of a bin across the path.

Having just got everything cleared up I decided to to a bit more tidying up this morning only to find several wheelie bins dumped on top of the plants and somewhat unexpectedly an entire dead fish complete with eyes dumped on the path.

I can't help but thinking there is a message in this latest surreal act of vandalism but what?

Townhead.

A big thank-you to those hardy souls who braved the rain to help out at Townhead last Saturday. At long last all the bushes are cleared so we can get cracking on planting.

The plan is to put in seven raised beds for fruit, herbs and veg and a lavender field at the front of the site. That still leaves a fair bit of space if anyone has anything else they'd like to do.

All this costs money so anything anyone can donate is not only welcome but desperately needed.

Below is a list of stuff that would be useful.

1. Lavender plants
2. Any shade loving plant or shrub
3. Log Roll +supports.
4. Manure
5. Woodchip
6. Veg seeds
7. Cash (to be spent on the above)

All fruit and veg grown on the site will be distributed amongst gardeners free of charge.

Sunday Mail Article

Sunday Mail article on Guerrilla Gardening In Glasgow.

Wilson St -After

Above are the much tidier planters we left behind after all our hard work. Unfortunately there was no way to shift the big butterfly bush which I had hoped to remove and relocate to somewhere more appropriate. However it's roots weren't shifting so we settled instead, for a hard pruning and agreed to keep it in line over the coming months.

Most of what's been added is in seed form so it'll be next year before we see anything flower but in the meantime at least we've tamed the Wilson St jungle.

Wilson Street

Above is the 'before shot' of the planters in Wilson Street, however if you were passing today you'll know that they already look a lot better than the picture seen here. I spent the afternoon weeding and clearing out the rubbish. I was joined by a passer by who did most of the pruning and provided us with a much needed bag of daffodil bulbs.

I have put in twelve lavender plants, tulip bulbs, Field Poppy, Scabious and Nigella seeds. On Saturday I'll be adding more daffodil bulbs, some poached egg seeds and more lavender.

I have some Love-Lies-Bleeding seeds which won't be going in until next spring possibly joined by some Petunias and red Sunflowers.

Thanks to the chap who helped, the chap who came bearing gifts and everyone who stopped to offer words of encouragement. It's all very much appreciated and I hope you'll be equally appreciative of our efforts over the coming months.

I'll pop up an 'after' shot over the weekend to let you all see the finished result.

Calling All Guerrilla Gardeners!

There is still loads to do up at Townhead -in particular weeding, clearing of leaves and planting. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can get really creative with the space so the more the merrier.We'll be meeting at 11am on 04/10/08 so bring your gloves, tools, plants bulbs and seeds and lets get set for spring. For those that haven't visited the site before it is the lane the adjoins Stirling Street and Parson Street near St Mungos R.C Church in Townhead at the top of the High St opposite the Royal Infirmary.

Before And After -My First Garden

As you can see this little strip was being used as a rubbish dump until I staged my horticultural coup. Despite one or two setbacks local reaction has been great and the garden has been respected.

Welcome

We've set up this blog to document all the guerrilla gardening activity happening in Glasgow at the moment. In June this year I started my first guerrilla garden in the city centre having been inspired by Richard Reynolds 'On Guerrilla Gardening'. Little did I know that by August I would be tending my own tiny plot, a very large and overgrown plot in Townhead and planning an attack on the planters in Wilson Street.

Better still I'm not alone in all this and have been lucky enough to recruit some very committed and hard working troops. To find out more about us and what we do read this fine article from The Scotland on Sunday.

If you fancy joining us on a dig join the forum here or send me an email.

All our activity is funded by donations if you'd like to help out in this way you can donate via paypal or get in touch to offer any seeds, bulbs, cutting or tools you don't have a use for.