Cuthill Park Community Garden, Prestonpans, East Lothian

before

While other folk were having a lie-in or heading off for the start of a long weekend, on Saturday morning, the Friends of Cuthill Park were taking delivery of a 20 yard skip (if you didn't already know, these things are huge).

after

We had set aside two days to blitz the overgrown area where the Community Garden (a.k.a. Cuthill Vittles) will be sited.  It became clear quite quickly that this was a bigger job than any of us envisaged.  Fortunately lots (over a dozen households) of people came along to muck in .

After hacking down the shoulder-height nettles, we discovered all sorts of weird and wonderful objects including a fire extinguisher, a games piece from Connect 4 and Pure Garage Rewind Back to the Old Skool CD.

Any initial fears about ordering too large a skip proved unfounded as we soon began to fill it with weeds and debris.

We also discovered this little fella....a shrew who must have been a bit bewildered at seeing several children all peering at him.

There were shrieks of "Can I hold him?" and "Look at the funny-looking mouse!" (n.b. shrews aren't rodents) from the kids.

As shrews have a high metabolism and need to eat every few hours (some of these little mammals will perish if they go without food for as little as two hours), we retreated from the vicinity to let him find a hidey hole.

After four hours of tilth and filth it was apparent that we needed a second day so we returned on Sunday to begin the painstaking job of removing the nettle roots and levelling out the mounds of earth.

The area in front of the burnt trees is a horrendous mess of masonry, metal, Tyvek-like material and broken glass - all of which seem to be fused together after the many arson attacks.  Clearing this section is going to be a long term project.

We've still a lot of work to do but we are almost at the stage where we can put in some raised beds and get sowing some vegetable seeds!

Next step is for East Lothian Council to remove the fire-damaged trees; and for the Friends of Cuthill Park to thin out the foliage along the wire fence ready for planting the edible hedgerow in November.  We also need to buy a water butt, build a compost bin and about a zillion other things.  Why not join us?  We're on the 26 bus route, we're a friendly bunch and you could be part of a fantastic community project.

A HUGE thank you everyone who came along over the two days.

http://cuthillpark.blogspot.com/ 

Pimms and Permaculture in Prestonpans

Take 3 guerrilla gardeners, some compost and mix together with Pimms until slightly squiffy, and you've got yourself a recipe for, well a bit of a laugh really.

Jan, Lucy Ann & Thea got together to create some seedbombs for future bombing missions.

How to make a seedbomb: 
Mix 1 part seeds (we used native non-invasive wildflower mix and added some sunflower seeds), 3 parts compost, 5 parts dry red clay (befriend a potter), 2 parts water.  Form into marble-sized pieces.  Dry in the sun for 24 hours (don't leave out overnight to get rained on like Jan did).  Lob!

How to make a Pimms Summer cup: 
Mix 3 parts lemonade, 1 part Pimms Number 1, add slices of cucumber, apple, orange, lemon and mint.  Pour.  Drink!

A Gaggle of Guerrillas

Shown left is how this Prestonpans High Street site looked at 6.30 this morning.

Shortly after this photograph was taken, fellow guerrilla gardener Rosie turned up, armed with violas, laurels and pansies.

As we began turning over the soil (and discovering several fragments of pottery which Prestonpans is famous for), Anne arrived with a golden conifer, violas and water.

Lucy-Ann and Andrea came along with trays of pretty chrysanthemums and we set to work.

It took less than an hour to fill the plot with daffodil and tulip bulbs, bedding plants, cordyline, heathers, artemisia and a boulder from the beach as a centre piece.

By this time it was light and people were starting to mill about so we went our separate ways, to catch some ZZZZzzz.

As we left the site a flock of pink footed geese flew overhead. Or is it a gaggle? or skein? What is the collective noun for geese? Come to think of it, what is the collective noun for guerrillas. A mask of guerrillas? A balaclava? I ♥ East Lothian. I ♥ guerrilla gardening.

A huge thank you to the fabulous people who gave up their time, plants and water to make this happen.

The location can be viewed here (switch to Bird's Eye View). Feel free to water and weed as necessary!

Get your kicks on route 26!

On Saturday 26th September, two exciting but different projects are taking place in Prestonpans.

For those of you who don't know The 'Pans, it is just along the coast from Musselburgh on the 26 bus route (or 129 but I couldn't think of a song for that).

The first event is a stealth guerrilla gardening operation. The site is small but perfectly formed patch of earth in a rather prominent pace. It will kick off at 6.30 a.m. (obscenely early I know) for maximum wow factor. If you want to be involved then get in touch.

The second event that day is a community bulb planting from 2.30 p.m. in Cuthill Park, Prestongrange Road, Prestonpans.

It is a large public space which has enjoyed some regeneration recently but would benefit from a horticultural hug.

These events are being organised by East Lothian Book Club for Fabulous Women as part of The Big Bulb Plant. It would be FABULOUS if you could join us.

Please check www.meetup.com/fabbook for any change of plans - events won't go ahead in adverse weather conditions.

Sunflowers - One month later...

It is one month since we planted Russian Giant seeds around Prestonpans. I'm pleased to report that the seeds are now flourishing seedlings.

We paid the Preston Road site a visit today and did battle with the weeds, got stung by nettles and extracted lots of crisp packets from the tree cages.

A woman walking her boxer dog remarked on their progress and some passengers on the X5 looked on encouragingly - children are a great decoy when guerrilla gardening!

On the way home we spotted an 'accidental sunflower' growing at the edge of the road. The householder gave us some funny looks when we stopped to take photographs of it!


p.s. Any Panners reading this - help watering and weeding Prestonpans sunflower sites would be most welcome!

International Guerrilla Sunflower Day - Prestonpans Posse

As all good guerrillas know, May 1st is International Guerrilla Sunflower Day. You can read about other people's activities on this Guerrilla Gardening forum thread. We couldn't join the rest of the troop in Edinburgh so carried out a series of missions in our home town of Prestonpans.
This morning, I took my two youngest children to a tiny patch of land off Wilson Avenue to plant sunflower seeds. It is my favourite type of guerrilla gardening site - lots of pedestrian traffic, largely unnoticed... and with the potential to be stunning. Ironically, it backs on to the formal and very well maintained Tower Gardens, notable for its beautiful laburnham archway.
We removed some weeds and broken glass then planted gladioli and the front and sunflower seeds all along the back wall. For a bit of instant colour we transplanted some grape hyacinth taken from our back garden.

After a good water (we took a milk bottle and take an extra, punctured lid to act as sprinkler) we paid a visit to our second site in the Conservation Village - the 'Caged Sunflowers' on Preston Road, (they were planted in a tree cage). We removed some of the choking weeds and were pleased to see the seedlings are coming on fine. A police patrol car gave no more than a passing glance at our 'Little Princess' and 'Barbie' gardening trugs.
Back home we grabbed the seedbombs we had made a couple of days ago (wildflower seeds, sunflower seeds, compost and fuller's earth) and flung them over the parking lot in Preston Court.

You can see all the Prestonpans sunflower sites plotted on this map (switch to 'Bird's Eye View' for a glimpse of the beautiful gardens).