A trip to see other community gardens: Moon Garden at Clydebank

Hello again
This is post number two about a trip to see other community gardens to glean inspiration and insight into how to create a successful community garden.

As has been said, the time of year was perhaps not ideal but yesterday some of us certainly got to see the bare essentials of a couple of community gardens in the Glasgow area. Many thanks to Argyll & Bute Council for funding the trip, which included a two-course lunch at a very pleasant Italian restaurant.

Here are some visual impressions -- photos taken on a less than wonderful day weather-wise.

In this post, some features from the Moon Garden, Nairn Street, Dalmuir, Clydebank:
A quote from the West Dunbartonshire constituency annual report, April 2008:
"The garden is the latest Creatively Enriching Lives project in Dalmuir. Artist Tom McKendrick, the creative development officer for Dalmuir Park Housing Association, explained the design, some of which is connected to the shipbuilding industry.
"The project was financed by Communities Scotland, Greenspace and the DPH with CD Environmental Design
and Averton Landscapes doing the landscaping architecture. The Dalmuir Plots Association is also involved."
There are five similar iron gates to this enclosed garden; they all play rather whimsically and beautifully on the theme of the moon and stars and clouds.
A couple of details that caught our attention:

Labels that tell everyone what the plants are.
A row of berry-bearing shrubs has recently been planted.
A sculpted "special" that finishes one of the walls made of brick.
A path runs crossways in this wee plot set aside for growing vegetables –
or whatever someone may fancy growing.

An eye-catching sculpture provides interest even when there is little planting to be admired.

Finally, if you click here, you will find a pdf published by the Dalmuir Park Housing Association (July/Aug 2006).

A trip to see other community gardens: Rosshead Community Garden in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire

Hello again

The time of year was perhaps not ideal but yesterday some of us certainly got to see the bare essentials of a couple of community gardens in the Glasgow area. Many thanks to Argyll & Bute Council for funding the trip, which included a two-course lunch at a very pleasant Italian restaurant.

Here are some visual impressions -- photos taken on a less than wonderful day weather-wise.

In this post, some sculptural features from the Rosshead Community Garden in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire.

The project goes back to 2003 but work actually commenced in January 2004. In November 2004, it was shortlisted in the Open Spaces section of the Dynamic Place Awards sponsored by Scottish Natural Heritage.
Anyone requiring more information about this project, please leave your contact details in a comment at the end of this post and we will get back to you. Your contact details will not be published.

A representative of the West Dunbartonshire Environment Trust met us and took us round the four gardens that make up the entire complex.
One passage from the Factsheet he handed out merits being quoted here:
"The first issue to be tackled was the provision of facilities for young teenagers who had 'nothing to do'. ... The teen activity area ... comprises a mini BMX area, basketball training zone, hangout shelter, footpaths and landscaping situated beside an existing 5-a-side football pitch. Children were also involved in tree planting and painting equipment. A positive aspect of the project was the children's sense of ownership for their new facilities, with next to no vandalism being experienced. Following this, a younger children's play [area] was constructed together with a toddler play area shortly after."
And this is what that area looks like mid-February 2009, over four years after it was created:
Some sculptural elements:

An old tree had to be felled. The trunk has been left in the garden and has become a very
popular object for people to look at and for kids to clamber all over.
Also, it provides good habitat for any number of wee creepy-crawlies and fungi.

One of two identical rock cages that guard an entrance to the Contemplation Garden.

Not all the gates look quite as forbidding:
A metal fence is concealed by shrubbery. The grid is supposed to keep dogs out, but has proven to be less than ideal as the wheels of babies' strollers get caught and smaller dogs are simply carried across...

A sculptural feature that doubles as a seat – a simple block of "locally sourced green oak".

A heap of large "glacial washed granite boulders" were piled into a heap and provide an eye catcher. More such boulders can be found all over this part of the garden. The blue "pagoda" in the background is a recycled bus shelter from Dunbarton Town Centre. There are actually two of them in the Contemplation Garden.One of the two gates with "tusks".

Some planting will provide interest even on the driechest of days:
Next post: the Moon Garden at Clydebank.

What a difference!

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What a difference -- see for yourselves the state of the new Garden on Wednesday, 21st January, 2009, after the good, hard-working people from the Employability Team had been and gone.
Your Blogger will post just a few photos -- before and after -- to keep this light, but she's got lots and lots more photos which she will be happy to share with you upon request. Just send a comment to this blog.
This is what the bottom end of the garden looked like last summer, when the Employability Team started to work on it.
This was the path being put in -- photo taken just a couple of days ago.
Here's the same patch of garden as in the first photo, but after the major work has been completed. Photo taken on January 21, 2009, at about 3pm. Rubbish has been cleared by the skiploads; the path is beautifully laid; only very few trees have had to be felled. There are some interesting looking rocks and boulders and a whole heap of slate that can hopefully be transformed into "hard" garden features.

Thank you, everyone!

Links to some Scottish Community Gardens

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It's time to think about what our Lynnside Garden should look like.

To see homepages of other projects and gardens, simply click on the text that is underlined and printed in blue:

Aldouran Wetland Garden, by Leswalt, 3 miles from the ferry port of Stranraer
The Beechgrove Garden, on 3 acres of Scottish hillside, 7 miles west of Aberdeen.
Linthouse Community Garden, Glasgow
Islay House Community Garden, Islay

The Achamore Gardens on Gigha are spectacular at any time of year.

Other sources of garden inspiration can be found here:
Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens
Scottish Natural Heritage - Garden for Life Project
BBC Gardening Today

Day Excursion to see other Community Gardens

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If you would like to see what a few other Community Gardens look like, join us on a day excursion by minibus:

Thursday, 12th February 2009

To sign up and for all other details, please contact

Maureen Evans - Tel 562 466
Argyll & Bute Council
Community Regeneration

Maureen [dot] Evans [at] argyll-bute.gov.uk [you will need to copy-paste this address manually into your outgoing e-mail and replace [dot] by . and [at] by @ -- this is a way of ensuring Maureen's inbox doesn't get swamped by spam.

The Path -- now with blacktop!

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Your Blogger is happy to report that today is seeing the path virtually finished, with blacktop going in. Have no fear, it will look lovely once it's completely finished as a sprinkling of brilliant white gravel is being scattered on top of the black tarmac.
See for your good selves - the people on the Employability Team have once again been hard at it, running with empty barrels to fetch more hot stuff before the cold ground prevents the material from bonding properly:
As your Blogger types these lines, the Ennstone Thistle lorry has just trundled past her house -- to fetch more bitumen?
The top end of the garden is cleared, but -- as yet -- not much more. It's a rather soggy affair just now:
Elsewhere, a heap of rocks has been piling up -- your Blogger is sure that good use will be made of them in the design of the garden.

New path almost finished

Hello again!
Enjoy the sequence of impressions -- photographs taken over the past few weeks. The Employability People have been working on and off whenever the weather let up a wee bit. The ground has been very wet -- it must be such hard work!
Last night, there was a snowburst at about 4am:And about twelve hours later, your Blogger managed to capture a sunburst:Thank you and come back soon.

By the way, if you wish to follow this blog without clicking in every day, why not use Google Reader? It's an excellent device for people wishing to be updated whenever any changes are made to the blogs they follow. One click gets you all the blogs. Easy to set up, takes about five minutes (a little longer if you don't yet have a Google account).