Big gardening plans, small budget

Most guerrilla gardeners have a miniscule budget. Thankfully, that helpful bunch of people known as the general public regularly assist us by leaving all manner of litter which we can use in our battle.

Larger containers are a positive gift to the guerrilla gardener as they easily be turned into a birdbath or planter.

A plastic bottle can be used as a raincatcher, underground reservoir, cloche, watering can, bird feeders or a humane mole deterrents (placed a little way in soil with lid removed - wind makes a sound moles don't like).

The ubiquitous inside-out umbrella can be stripped of its fabric and the metal frame used as a support for climbers.

It's important to clear any litter from a site that could potential harm wildlife and that especially applies to carrier bags. Don't discard them though...even torn bags can be washed and fused together (by ironing them between two pieces of cardboard). The melted polythene then becomes a tough, sewable fabric useful for windbreaks, weedmats or polytunnels.

The biggest stumbling block we currently face on the Portobello site is funding - or rather, lack of it.

We have utilised whatever happened to be on site (strawberry anyone?) and hope to use the strange metal cage thingy as a cloche.

Lucy managed to get some free pallets from B&Q where she bought nails, posts, hinges etc, to make them into compost bins. (However, the prospect of secure storage looks a long way off unless the gardening fairy drops off a shed.)

If you are looking for ideas, take a look at Instructables or get inspiration from Earthship Fife who run Creative Waste Workshops.

If you can donate your time, expertise or equipment (or just want to say hello), we would love to hear from you.


The 'Sprout a Couch' photo is courtesy of ReadyMade

Sun 28th June - A hard day's work well done!!

We had another fantastic if exhausting day's work yesterday at Porty Town Hall and more new faces than you could shake a large tree stump at!! (Though we did try) 5 new faces! We carried on from all the hard graft from previous weekends of digging up more tree stumps.

Please welcome new faces Caroline, Michelle (Mickey) and Ansley (Ans). Caroline hails from Leith and whilst by her own admission, a total novice, certainly isn't afraid of hard work! Michelle and Ans hail from Port Seton and have quite a bit of gardening experience. Most folk will recognise Tom in the background (couldn't miss a photo opportunity eh Tom?) who is a regular guerrilla gardener.

The 3 of them took on a pretty mammoth task of digging up one of the biggest stumps on the plot. They were certainly pleased when the beast was tamed! They were helped out by another new member who arrived, Cathy who lives at Mountcastle nr Porty High School.

Me, Tom and another new face, Dawn, took on a slightly smaller beast to tame, but were just as pleased when we finally got the thing uprooted! Dawn also hails from Leith and is another novice but really got stuck in - I think she was joking about using semtex in future!

I think the photos show just how much clearing we managed to do in a few hours yesterday and it was fantastic to have so many new folk turn up to help out.

Our next work days are as follows:

Sat 4th July, 2-5pm

Wed 8th July, 12.30 - 3.30pm (along with volunteers from the Rock Trust)

Sat 11th July, 2-5pm

Sun 12th July, 2-5pm

Sun 19th July, 2-5pm

Sun 26th July, 2-5pm

Tom is currently busy looking into different funding sources and it looks very hopeful that we will be able to secure some money for this project. I'm busy drafting up a design for the garden which I'll e-mail round to everyone soon as I want as much creative input from folk into this as possible! Work is progressing well, so a big thank you to everyone who has been helping out.

Portobello: Summer Solstice Spectactular!

We had a really exhilarating day at the Portobello Town Hall site. If you weren't there, here's what you missed:

After weeks of clearing vegetation, today we started uprooting some of the weeds from what will be the growing space.

We were delighted to be joined by Emma who had heard about us on the Guerrilla Gardening website and came along to join in the fun.

As the sun shone, we all stopped for a well-deserved break and a cup of Thea's elderflower cordial (recipe here); humous and breadsticks, wunderbar seedy biscuits, scrummy chocolate cake and of course our beloved Nakd bars. We chatted about 'greenwashing', apron strings, ladybirds and greenhouses. It was a very pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

It was just as well we had an energy boost as it took all of us to remove the remains of an old root system which did not want to be dug up. (Think of The Enormous Turnip story and you have an idea of what we were battling.)

Davy, from Pedal, the local climate change group, also stopped by and loaned us a saw. (If you haven't joined Pedal yet, you can download the 'Ordinary'/Portobello residents form here; or Associate membership form here. Membership is only £1 and is necessary to work at the Porty site.


Finally, we filled a dumped loo with soil and planted it up with some of the wild strawberries which grow in abundance on the site.

A tiring but fun day, fab food and new friends. Please join us for the next work-in on Sunday 28th June from 2.00 p.m. You will be most welcome!

Porty: Four Days of Hard Labour

On the last Saturday in May, while sensible people had gone to the beach, our chain gang were starting the first of four clearing weekends at the Porty site.

As previously reported, the site at the rear of Portobello Town Hall is as large as it is overgrown - i.e. very.



We set to work clearing the site to see exactly what we are working with. We removed a lot of ivy but left the patches of honesty and feverfew in situ for the time being. The buddleia provides some welcome shade and is enjoyed by birds and butterflies so survived the cull (although will need to be cut back at some point).

It was really nice to have some new faces join us, some as a result of signing up with Landshare. (Lots of people were very keen to have a wee 'allotment' - but are a bit overwhelmed at the amount of work required before that is possible!)

As the Town Hall is a working building, we soon made friends with Council workers, caterers, wedding guests and of course residents in the neighbour houses.

Highlights of the week included:

• Discovering a wasps nest (you should have seen us run)
• Getting support from the locals
• Being given drinks by wedding guests
• Recruiting new volunteers ('Join us and get Nakd in the long grass' is a very effective slogan).

It has been hard work but seeing the results of our efforts has been great. It's been pleasant too with a real social vibe about the place as volunteers were rewarded with yummy Nakd bars to keep their strength up. The odd apple pie bar certainly helped smooth relations with the security staff to the point that we can now fill our watering can in the building. A fight broke out between Sarah and Jason over the last coco loco but they calmed down on being threatened with the naughty nettle step. Thank you to Natural Balance Foods for their continued support.

As work progressed, we could begin to see the possibilities. We toiled away with thoughts of wildflower meadows, treehouses, raised herb beds, picnic tables, al fresco film screenings, outdoor art exhibitions, orchards, community cooking, clay bread ovens, wedding receptions, sensory gardens, Nakd gardening...

With such a good-sized site, once cleared, there is scope for a multitude of uses - we would love to hear your ideas....but we would especially like your HELP!!!!!!

We want to have a really big push at this site on Sunday 21st June - Summer Solstice/Father's Day/Nakd Appreciation Day. Please join us.
Bring food to share,
bring tools (if you have them),
bring a friend (if you don't have one, we can supply these).
JOIN US IN CREATING PORTOBELLO COMMUNITY GROWING SPACE.

Porty: the challenge, in pictures

Nature gone wild, wasps nests, dumped material.

Tree-mendous potential....

But where to begin?

WE NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!

Porty Town Hall Site - HELP!

As there are a couple of large trees in the centre of the garden we agreed that this part of the site should be kept grassed/planted with flowers as a social space, with growing plots either side.

We've decided to get cracking in terms of starting to clear the site. To that end we hope that as many volunteers as possible can make themselves free for a couple of hours over the next 2 weekends:

Sat 30th May, 2 - 4pm
Sun 31st May, 2 - 4pm

Sat 6th June, 2 - 4pm
Sun 7th June, 2 - 4pm

You will need gloves and please bring loppers/secateurs if you have them. Entrance to the site is via the Sir Harry Lauder memorial garden at Portobello Town Hall.

Sir Harry Lauder Memorial Garden, Portobello

Andrea, Jan & Lucy met up at Portobello Town Hall today to tidy up the Sir Harry Lauder Memorial Garden. Although sited at the Town Hall, the garden was actually funded by the local community and Portobello Community Council asked us if we would like to look after it.

It is a nicely laid out garden - low maintenance but high interest. Lucy pointed out a beautiful Corkscrew Hazel (Corylus avellana) which was specially chosen as a nod to Sir Harry's own crooked walking stick.

One of the security men came out and gave us some primula that were left over from the window box planting. We planted these in the memorial garden, picked up some litter and did some weeding. There isn't too much to do at the moment but we will need to consider watering in a long hot summer (we can dream!).

Behind the Town Hall is a very overgrown patch of land which could be just the project we are looking for. It's long rectangular stepped area running East/West, overlooked by housing. At the moment the buddleia has run wild and there's a fair bit of rubbish but it certainly has the potential to be a very special community space. And, right in the heart of Porty!

After a couple of hours, we decided to go for a coffee at nearby Kitcheners where we drew up a plan of action - okay, we just blethered really, why not join us next time?