Standish Guerilla Gardeners

It’s a month or so since I started and things are looking good on the seed front - signs of growth!

The digging has changed somewhat though, not sure why but it has become much tougher than it was. From what I can tell it’s quite a lot to do with the bramble roots, this is making removing the top layer of sod very hard indeed.

Anyway I’ve developed a new technique to combat this, which is why I only turned over 1 panel L this week. What I’ve decided to do is clear bramble and rubbish ahead of my work, hopefully making the work a bit easier. Looking at the future stretch I reckon things will go much slower from here on in – target, 2 panels dug a week and two panels cleared of rubbish per week.

On the subject of rubbish, this week I have uncovered a stuffed reindeer (which I thought at first was a dead dog) and a black bra, which had a toad living under one of the cups.

I was quite surprised to uncover a toad amidst all this rubbish, plus amazed at the amount of ladybirds (lots and lots), I keep moving them to another area that won’t be touched. Considering the wildlife I think it makes clearing a week ahead a better option, may give the wildlife time to move on.

As I’m not digging as much but unearthing quite a lot of cinder I’ve also turned my attention to path restoration using some of the cinders. Filling in the really poor muddy areas further up actually makes a big difference to the way things look – only problem is, horses that use the path really turn over the work somewhat, but that’s the nature of the beast I suppose.

Also talking of beasts there’s someone who has started riding a quad bike up and down, the guy did it last year and considering the amount of horses, dogs and people that use The Line, I think he could be a real hazard, he seems to commute up and down, where he goes and where he comes from, who knows???

Anyway more next week.

Really rubbish graffiti is what I saw today when I went to the project area. Someone/body who hasn’t had a good training in street art decided that the wall should be embellished with the words SMW K9, hardly a anarchic statement.

I suppose they just felt that they should make themselves knows, mark there ground so to speak, much like dogs wee on lampposts. The SMW K9 crew must feel the same as dogs, but as human sense of smell isn’t as great as a dog, humans resort to spray painting on ‘there’ patch.
Sadly even the colours that they used weren’t up to much a strange shade of red and purple spots, no highlights, no 3D effects, in fact nothing artistic about it at all, although I did like the purple/blue spots – now they had potential!
I suggest they check out http://www.bluedistortion.com/atlanta-graffiti/

These guys know a thing or two about graffiti, not exactly all my cup of tea but I certainly appreciate there art

I wouldn’t have minded so much if the graffiti kids had a statement to make, like we have nothing to do, or I hate Spar for not selling us White Lightening, I couldn’t even find an entry on the web relating to this political movement SMW K9 – unless they are into wrestling where I found a bit about a wrestler called Johnny K9 who had a break in SMW ??? Who knows perhaps that’s it they are wrestling fans and need a place to wrestle, or play act as the case might be.

Anyway as it wasn’t a very good piece of graffiti, and as the State Department of Wisconsin advised – I painted it out! Cream pain but hey it’s better than it was in fact it would look cool if all the wall was painted cream. Apparantly research suggests that if graffiti is removed with 24-48 hours it results in nearly zero rate of re-occurrence. But I bet this won’t be the case here!!!

We’ll see!

Anyway, I planted a Convolvulus, which I bought myself from the garden center, I know it’s not a wild flower but the foliage looks great and it has great bell shapped white flowers with yellow centers.

I also did a bit of wild flower sowing, again seeds I bought myself (£4.00) but 5p goes to the RSPB! Thanks Suttons ever so generous!

I’ve decided to start them indoors in a seed tray so at least they should get a flying start. I put in Wild Poppy, Ox-Eye Daisy, Corn Marigold, Scabious and Wild Pansy. So all things being equal in a couple of months they can be planted in the plot, should be a nice sight in summer.

Anyway see ya soon

Hard going today, possibly due to the rain and snow over the last few days, however I made some headway and kept to my 3 panels a session target.

I have to say the amount of rubbish buried in an innocuous over grown bed of weeds and brambles is unbelievable

1. Crisp packets of varieties I haven’t seen for years!
2. Plastic bottles
3. Glass Bottles
4. Tin Can
5. Oven Chip Bags?
6. Pieces of metal
7. Wood
8. Sweet wrappers
9. Oh yeh and a dogs toy (a Kong!!)

What amazed me today was the way the old cinder path comes back in to existence with a bit of digging and raking which goes to show having a relatively puddle free path is possible – given time.

Anyway take a look at the progress pictures.

So it’s coming along slowly but surely - check back next week, we may have some signs of growth, and I could have some seeds!

Wow what a difference a couple of sessions makes. Take a look at the pictures.  Some comments from passers by - really positive. So all is good coming along nicely. Could do with those wild flower seeds in bulk, anyone any contacts.  We’re going to start marking in roads into getting some free plants and stuff, we’ll see!

Much better than the last set of pics, I’ll try and show stuff growing next time or at least run through some of the plants we found.