We've been working hard during the good weather to make some good progress at the Westhorn allotment. Unfortunately the weeds are steadily growing back after months of clearing the site, but we're continuing to plough away at it and have now erected some raised beds and barrel beds. If you have good tips for keeping weeds at bay, leave us some comments, or better still, get involved.
These are some images of the site from four days of hard graft.
Faith Wilding speaking at CCA
On Saturday CCA hosted the symposium How We Go On Now which accompanies the exhibition, The Long Loch, by Kate Davis and Faith Wilding.
Faith Wilding and Kate Davis introduce the day's speakers
It was a full day with individual speakers, screenings, a lively panel discussion and a series of performances by Ruth Buchanan in the gallery.
Ruth Buchanan in Gallery 2
As part of The Long Loch, Kate Davis and Faith Wilding created banners to be hung from the windows of CCA onto the street.
The banners had barely been hung before they prompted a 'reply' from flats on the other side of the street. One of the original questions from Kate and Faith was 'people of all countries who washes your socks?'. The reply - 'your mother washes my socks'.
All that Japanese Hogweed? Gone. The hundreds of cider bottles? Gone. Now we have a beautiful, cleared space at Westthorn Allotments, thanks to BTCV volunteers. Over several days the volunteers, under the supervision of Jo Ridley, cleared everything, revealing the full potential of the land there - all 1000 sq metres of it.
The next task is to lay down a protective membrane to keep the hogweed under control. We have raised beds on order, with some tools and plants. Once the membrane is down we can get the beds underway and start planning our workshops...
On Weds 10 March artist Alex Wilde led our fourth community garden workshop. Alex is well known artist in Drumchapel as has worked extensively with local children on gardening projects.
Alex led a ready steady cook-along workshop with the seasonal produce that can be grown at this time of year, showing what to do with the produce once it's grown. By the end of the session we had made curried parsnip soup, a variety of salads and stewed rubbarb and apple for desert.
The workshop demonstrated the link between gardening and health and well-being. We hope that the community garden in Drumchapel will eventually provide a provocative way into a better diet and better health for the local community.
Last Weds 24th February, Drumchapel community gardeners braved the snowy weather to pay a visit to community gardens in Toryglen.
Abi Mordan from Urban Roots led a tour around three of their community gardens. Urban Roots is a community led organisation based in Toryglen. It works with local people on projects that improve health and nutrition and the environment. Their volunteer teams take on lots of different projects such as transforming derelict or unused green spaces into thriving, blossoming community gardens where they grow herbs, vegetables, fruit and flowers. Some of the produce is then redistributed back into the community through their weekly Fruit Barra.
The gardens make the area look more attractive, and help to create more used, social and safe places in the community. It was impressive to see what the residents of Toryglen had achieved and the visit gave us lots of enthusiasm for the things which could be realised by the community garden project in Drumchapel.
The Drumchapel community garden workshops have been moving along successfully and have been well received by local residents who are keen to get involved in a project which intends to improve out door living space for the community.
On 11 February we visited the Coach House Trust’s community run garden centre on Aldermann Road. The Coach House Trust provides support, training and work opportunities for adults recovering from problems such as an addiction or mental health problems. Their garden centre provides a valuable resource for the local community, creating employment and also incorporates a market garden growing vegetables and fruit.
Expert gardeners Kate and Paula, who work for the trust, led workshops on basic gardening skills such as seed sowing and composting. We sowed a variety of seeds such as tomatoes, dwarf beans, basil, chives, marigolds and calendula, which are now happily growing away in the CCA office awaiting warmer weather when they will be planted outside on the community garden site at Drumchapel. We eventually hope that Drumchapel community garden will provide training and work for local people akin to Aldermann Road. This visit was therefore very insightful.
Yesterday, we held the first of five workshops in Drumchapel which are designed to create a support structure for local inhabitants to set up a community garden. The workshops have been funded by the RSA and we have worked in collaboration with LIFE, the Drumchapel centre for Healthy Living, to set up this series of events. Each workshop is led by someone with expert experience in community gardening, vegetable growing and general gardening skills but the focus is on local ownership of the project.
Yesterday, the workshop was led by Councillor Danny Alderslowe (a well know permaculture campaigner) and there was a visit to the site set aside for a community garden several years ago. The site has a clear drainage problem at one end but Danny thought more minimal work could establish a first plot on the level ground pictured above while there were a series of horticultural solutions to the drainage question. All of this remains at a proposal stage. The workshops will also be accompanied by a continual and growing effort to inform as many of the surrounding residents as possible of the opportunity to take on this project and become involved, as this is key to the success of any project eventually undertaken.
On Tuesday 19th January, Plantation Kids Club from Plantation Productions in Govan packed out the CCA cinema with a preview of their most recent production 'Charlie'. The film was written, shot and edited by the members of the club over three months and was an interesting take on the dangers that drugs can incurr. DC and Angela from Plantation led discussions about the film and there was a question and answer session with the young filmmakers. CCA look forward to Plantations next visit in March.
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