REVIEW | Work Session 20-10-13

 

 

Great work session in the garden last Sunday. 

We started out by giving the compost a good turn and adding some shredded cardboard to the mix to make the compost a wee bit healthier and happier.

We then filled the third raised planter with soil and planted some lovely organic garlic. 

Giovanna and Colin planted bulbs around the border of the garden which will hopefully bloom in spring and make the garden look wonderful and colourful.

As always, we picked up any litter that we found in the garden, and then retreated as the rain began to pour.
See you next Sunday!

REVIEW | work session #11 18.11.2012

spontaneous crafting - work session #10

No prove of picture for our 11th work session, it was just to cold to unpack the camera.

This Sunday was a quiet one. We had apple man John Hancox visiting. He gave some advice where ideally plant apple trees. He was suggesting to make use of the brick walls by planting the trees in an espalier style. This would keep them low and would prevent any complaints by the neighbouring residents due to reduced lighting conditions. The compost comes now with a lid and the wildlife shack has grown by two more palettes that need to be filled with material next time. 14 helping hands made it possible to move the heavy bag of soil on the garden site, footpaths are cleared now. ::

REVIEW | work session #10 11.11.2012

preparing the wildlife shack - wildlife session.

Another lively work session took place last Sunday: 

We were busy preparing the compost's lid, dragging along pallets in a caravan from KRK on Woodlands Road to the garden - they will make the framework for our new wildlife shed; reusing the grass clippings to fill the hollow spaces between the palettes and creating wee shelters from old planting pots we fortunately kept on the site. 

Our zoology students hold wildlife session for the kids, and blossoms made from egg boxes Karina was carrying with the magic box spontaneously turned into a colouring workshop.

We were also happy to welcome Ellie and Caitlin from the CACTUS team, a voluntary society at Strathclyde University, who gave us their helping hand. We will be looking forward to cooperate with CACTUS on future Willowbank projects. ::

REVIEW | work session #09

We were a small work group today, but we got some basic maintenance done:
Alistair finished the compost by fixing the building bag to the compost, a sign is now indicating what belongs in and what stay out from the compost. We managed to move one soil bag into the construction area. Next week's task will be i.a. to shift the soil of the full bag. Furthermore we cleared the concrete area from fallen leaves and tackled the really disgusting food waste dumping issue by disposing the layers of rotten food, cluttering this weak spot with drawers planted with flowers from the council and by putting up a friendly sign. We recieved again positive feedback on the project from two Willowbank Mums who brought down their children today. ::

REVIEW | open day #2

green gym.

finger food potluck - chatting - willowbank squirrel.

What a great success!

Even weather wasn't looking promising by 2pm, rain really took a break from 3 to 5pm and drew students, Willowbank residents and garden enthusiasts into the garden.

What a great pleasure to see you all gathering, enjoying food and hot tea, working out in the green gym, the children romping around and planting bulbs.

Please apologise that workshops for the kids were cancelled and no contact list was provided.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to make this community event happening!

Many thanks to all Willowbank residents coming down on Sunday afternoon,
you gave us a cheering feedback!

Willowbank, we can do it! ::

REVIEW | work session #08

compost crew - overview - bird feed.

Lucky Willowbankers, we were blessed again with sun during this Sunday's work session. Getting the compost ready for the open day - moving, sawing, hammering. Many thanks to the Willowbank compost crew for all the labour they put into the project! Compost is now hungry and cannot wait to be introduced to and fed by the wider Willowbank public on our Open Day. Chalkboards were turned into signs finally, birds will be fed for the next weeks. Chatting to a Willowbank mum who came down to the garden with her two children who are very excited about growing food. Nice day again. Thank you all for coming down. Good job Willowbankers!!! ::

REVIEW | work session #07

willowbank in autumn.

Thank you all for joining Seed Freedom on George Square and our 7th Sunday work session afterwards.

After some hibernating-alike weeks it was lovely to see both familiar and new faces down in the garden. Thank you Roisin, Chris and Bernard for pushing forward this overdue work session. I was pleased to see such a big group putting so much energy in the garden today: Several palette-foraging walks in Woodlands - we secured further supplies by now; white cupboard shelves have been turned into chalkboards signs, two further drawers complete the drawer assembly on the wall, a first loose palette-compost construction, and loads of ideas for our OPEN DAY!

painting & paletting.

::

REVIEW | abundance glasgow #01, west end

picking. input - output.

The first picking activity of the new-born Abundance Glasgow Group took place last Sunday, 23 September 2012. After a quick introduction to apple trees and a wee apple tasting in the Children's Garden, we headed off to some spot in the West end to harvest apples. At the end of the picking session we were rewarded with freshly pressed cloudy apple juice. Many thanks to John providing all the equipment. ::

juicing. input - output.

REVIEW | work session #06 23.09.2012

finally a sign. the temporary solution.

A sunny autumn afternoon in the garden. Our local hardware supply shop on Park Rd. was closed on Sunday, so that we had to reschedule the painting to one of our next work sessions. But still a spontaneous creation out of transparent files, tape, crayons and permanent maker does its best for the moment. The idea is to apply chalkboard paint to the cabinet boards, use chalk for quick announcements and updates, protected from the rain by a hard plastic cover.

REVIEW | work session #05 & blasda

transplanting tatsoy, salad, beans and nasturtium from trays to beds. 

Thank you guys for joining us at the Glasgow Blasda, it was a nice networking event to meet like-minded people, exchange experiences and ideas through interesting workshops, a good opportunity to get involved in the wider Glasgow local food movement which is a piecemeal of projects so far.

We had our first meeting for the 'garden freshers' on site last Sunday, followed by tea & cookies at our friends in Woodlands Community Garden (thank you Vickie & Pavez!) while collecting abundant plastic bottles (see picture above), and finally transplanting tatsoy, salad, beans and nasturtium in the raised beds. Thank you all for coming down to the garden, it was a pleasure to see, meet and chat to you! ::

REVIEW | woodlands cg's harvest festival 2012

A great and successfull saturday afternoon on West Princess Street!!! ::

REVIEW | wednesday herb planting

5 Sept 2012

fennel - cowberries - wild thyme - lovage.

… are now growing in the planter on the right hand side. ::

REVIEW | sunday work session #04

Shovel - unload - fill up - plant.

Another great Sunday afternoon down in the garden. We got some kids from the surrounding tenements involved, they helped us moving the soil to the newly arrived wooden planter squares from Glasgow Wood Recycling, one big bag is empty now and ready to be reused as a planting medium. We planted Loch Lomond-native rhubarb in the Whiskey barrel, transplanted Yusuf's succulent plants to the 4 drawers we recently found on West Princess Street, we created spontaneously some seedling boxes by cutting off the tops of juice/milk cartons and plastic bottles, as the boys were very curious to experience the whole process of planting happen. They are now nursing cabbage, salad and spring onion seedlings back in their flats. And as every sunday we did a quick clean up of the site and it has shown once more again the immediate need of rubbish bins on the site. We hope to install some temporary solution until we get a City Council bin delivered.

clean up done - new colours - new arrangement.

RECYCLING APPEAL |

Reduce your personal volumes of gabbage and keep collection the following items. They are a valuable resource for the garden and for a wide range of projects!

- yoghurt pots

- milk bottles

- juice cartons

- plastic bottles

- egg boxes

- card board

- bottle caps

Please make sure that you rinse all containers with a bit of washing liquid and let them dry. For health reasons we cannot take anything that has gone mouldy.

You can bring them along to our temporary recyling station at Zofia's office on Oakfield Avenue, near the Rankine Building.

If you spot any drawers or any random container with planting potential put on the skip, feel welcome to take them down to the garden.

REVIEW | 2nd work session 12.08.2012

lemongrass - dill & salad lettuce - sage

Outcome of our second work session: We transplanted sage, strawberry, goji berries and mint plants in the sheltered area behind the brick walls Eppie dug up last week. We sowed salad lettuce, tatsoy and dill in quick diy seed trays made out of egg and juice boxes, and Willowbank resident Da from Thailand taught us growing lemongrass - soak them in water for a couple of days and then just stick them into some soil. We grew also curious as how to grow other typical Thai cuisine herbs and spices - ginger, galangal, Thai basil… We are planning to get hold of a cycle lock to store tools, seeds etc. permantly in the garden.

REVIEW | 1st work session 04.08.2012

A warm and sunny day in the garden...

with a site clean up and the need for bins,
sowing tatsoy, spring onions, russian kale, beetroots and many more,
first contacts with residents,
learning, that the space is not a deserted, but used as a retreat and playground for kids, climbing the walls,
exchanging and developing lots of thoughts and ideas,
realising the urgence of regularly face-to-face meetings.

REVIEW | greyfriars garden opening day 28.08.2012