Twiggy and the slimeballs

No slimeballs here

The latest band from Glasgow? A gang of local meanies? No, just hints at snippets of more moments of intrigue amongst the comings and goings in a typical Thomas Fortune gardener’s week.  Coming along for the first time was the lovely Ebbie who loves all things bright and beautiful.  Thankfully, Ebbie is an experienced and enthusiastic gardener so wasn’t perturbed by the depth of the mud or the other ‘to be improved’ soil on the site of our emerging sensory garden.  Going – to Edinburgh, in fact – was our new friend Nick who was sad to leave our group and the fresh, dewy air of Yoker, enjoyed on his Wednesday visits to help us out.  Nick will be missed and we all wish him well and hope to see him again before too long.

Say hello

Wave goodbye

The good companions

Adnan keeps James in the loop

The value of friendship is never underestimated by our gardeners as David C reveals in the short film we made last year.  We know this so well in our daily routines and at times of real joy or sadness too.  Mates matter.  We began the week mindful of the forthcoming funeral of our friend Gordon but Monday saw the formation of a new team, comprising Charles, Sally and Derek, David T and Peter, giving us a more positive focus.

With the ground thawed we set to work on our long-planned sensory garden, removing the wind-wrecked screening and clearing more of the debris to reveal our work area.  We marked out a more interesting border and it all began to take shape.  There was quite a lot of moss to cut out to create the borders and rather than lose this beautifully coloured and textured resource we re-used it to form a bank around the trees.  This shady area will be home to bluebells and crocuses this time next year.  That’s  something to look forward to.

Beginning the sensory garden

Simple steps to happiness

Stephen, the bus and David T.

The new, improved, more efficient and effective processes of life are often so impersonal that they lead us to question the authority, humanity, integrity and wisdom of those who decided to impose them upon us, but we’ve allowed it to become part of daily life now and we have little option but to sign up to it.  I say little option rather than no option because the news is as we, in our little group, explore the therapeutic benefits of gardening we’ve come to realise that all of our talk has encouraged each of our members to integrate more. Ideas are shared and may be challenged to find a practical solution in a pragmatic way. Next, we realise that we’ve learned a lot about listening and this all came by allowing the natural mix of our personalities to develop something beneficial to the group as a whole as well as being helpful to each individual.  That is, individuality itself.  It’s very old-fashioned but it’s very effective.  We talk, we listen, we react.  Each of our individuals makes a really valuable contribution to the group and, together, they’re really protective of the group, accepting no nonsense.  Together we’re stronger and more effective because of how we treat the individual.  We have a strong Respect for each individual, including ourselves.  This, in turn, helps to develop a sense of Responsibility for ourselves and towards those around us.  Individually and as a group we, most certainly, enjoy the Rewards.  We’re happy.  The 3 R’s work for us.

Share – believe

Of the many reasons given by our gardeners as to why they enjoy, so much, what we do, the sharing element is, by far, the most significant.  We share a lot too – from advice to biscuits – and, as we’ve seen recently, disappointment in the loss of our greenhouses to grief at the loss of a friend.  We’ve shared hope in the form of new plans and opportunities and in planting our seeds and bulbs – all of which we look forward to seeing develop.  We share our lives and we learn from new friends who volunteer their time to come and help us out.  We share our views, too and this can help others to evaluate the best way to share the valuable information they have.  Above all we share friendship and companionship and know that we will always have someone to turn to when there’s something we want to share, including some special and happy memories.

After the storms

The Gardeners

Thomas Fortune Gardening Group’s photostream on Flickr.

Flick through flickr…

2012

Happy new year!  Our return after the holiday was in mild but incredibly windy weather and there had been quite a lot of damage en-route.  Our green houses are no more – completely flattened, unlike the optimism of our gardeners who stated, correctly, that we’d carry on regardless and just get on with it anyhow.  Our thinking-caps have not blown away and are in constant use just now.

Proud

At Night

Home, home from the horizon far and clear,

Hither the soft wings sweep;

Flocks of the memories of the day draw near

The dovecote doors of sleep.

Oh, which are they that come through the sweetest light

Of all these homing birds?

Which with the straightest and the swiftest flight?

Your words to me, your words!

- Alice Meynell

from: The Language of Flowers.

"I'm really proud"

 

“Oh, I’m really proud of myself!”

Words we may hope to hear at any point in life.  I’ve been privileged to hear those words and see that look time after time, over the last two years.

Most recently we heard Aileen say this when she joined in a pre-holiday activity open to non-gardening group members. It was a demonstration and practical experience of making festive table decorations using foliage donated by our friends at Yoker and led, most generously, by the very kind Sheila.  The group loved the experience and had something to take home and be proud of.  Reports back were that family members were impressed too, so well done!

The Proof of the Pudding

Adam volunteers for a daunting task.

The first task of the week for our gardening project was mine to complete and instead of donning the usual overalls, Hi-vis jacket and safety boots, etc.  it was into the kitchen, fully cleansed and sanitised, wearing an apron and a paper hat straight from the set of South Pacific.  I was to complete my task with the help of a non-gardener, too (I didn’t realise such people existed).  Adam volunteered to work with me for my practical task which goes towards my REHIS Food and Health qualification and we set about preparing and cooking a healthy meal.  Now, given that the goal of every gardener is to enjoy the fruits of their labour by some means – be it floral or oral – we’re thinking ahead to the days when our fruit trees and bushes, rhubarb, salad and other small crops treat our taste buds and inspire new thinking and enthusiasm among our colleagues at TFWC, for fresh, nutritious and simply made foods.  We hope to share this maxim with some of the people we meet at the projects we work at, too.  It’s amazing how much better it tastes when you’ve grown it yourself!

Really Special.

Tidy

You just can’t beat nature but half the fun of gardening is that constant challenge of dealing with ever-changing parameters as many supposed clues to our next course of action turn out to be red herrings.  If you like puzzles and have a taste for the outdoors then gardening is for you.  If you’re less keen on the outdoors then there’s plenty to keep the indoor gardener busy too and our current challenge of protecting our greenhouses in readiness for such activities sums up beautifully, what we do and what we’re about.  The sudden changes to our routine will provide many an opportunity to re-group, re-assess and open the flood gates to a torrent of ideas from the group, too, which is one of my favourite experiences.

Stuart’s Finale

Facing Christmas makes everyone realise how quickly yet another year has passed by and our nine weeks with Charis and Stuart highlights this even more, as if to prove the old adage that time flies when you’re having fun.  Stuart has an update to his earlier post regarding some of his time with the gardeners…

Gardening Blog Update

Sadly I think this will be my last post.  9 weeks has certainly gone quickly!  The feedback from the committee meeting has been fed back to Richard and he has already responded to the issues and suggestions brought up at the meeting.

(Gardeners): Please check the notice board in the centre or at the Unit for the response.  It won’t be long ’til the next committee meeting so good luck with that.  I hope it continues to be a success.  I would like to thank all the gardening group for making my time in the project so enjoyable.  I only hope that I have been of some help!   I’ll make sure I keep up-to-date with the group by logging on to the website.

Thanks again

Stuart

Aww, we miss you already Stuart and the response from the team must offer some reassurance that your input has been both welcome and extremely valuable to our project with lasting effects.  Thank you from all the team. 

R.