East Austin dig!

Less than twenty-four hours after the conclusion of the Garden Posse Benefit Show, the Garden Posse is still feeling pumped! We are not on steroids, we swear. We are just on an adrenaline cruise from the success of the show. It was a spectacular day. Every single band put on a great performance, the music was fantastic, the crowd was wonderful, the venue had a good variety of food and drinks, and the Garden Posse raised $500! What could be better than yesterday?

Special thanks to Eva from Stem & Leaf for putting on this epic show, and Boonesboro who not only played a great set, but donated $50 of their own to us, plus a matching $50 donation from the Great Outdoors.

We'll be posting a full update when the photos come in. Also, we still have free posters if you want 'em.

Tomorrow, we will use our adrenaline to drive our shovels into the ground, at a new desolate piece of urban land in East Austin. 7:30 pm at the intersection of Tura Dr & Terry Lane.

Here's a map:

View Larger Map

As always, bring tools, flashlights, plants and seeds. This dig may be filmed. See you there!

Benefit show TOMORROW!

The Garden Posse is totally pumped. It is as if we have been listening to Eye of the Tiger for the past week straight, that is our energy level. We are so excited for our benefit show tomorrow. It's going to be the best thing on Earth. Seriously.

Relevant details are: SUNDAY, SEPT 27. 1 - 8 PM. UNITED STATES ART AUTHORITY (next to Spiderhouse.) TWO STAGES. 10 BANDS. $5 SUGGESTED DONATION.

WIN A CHICKEN TRACTOR FROM SKILLSHARE, A GARDEN OF YOUR OWN FROM THE POSSE, AND BUY TRANSPLANTS FOR CHEAP TO SUPPORT QUILOMBO GARDEN.

The real value is the quality and talent of the bands playing at the show. We're incredibly lucky to have gathered such an amazing group of people to support us, who have some seriously awesome tunes. To hear a selection, check out this playlist, played on KVRX's Upstream program on Thursday.

Also, you can listen to incredible music and some incredibly dirty jokes with some of the very talented musicians playing on Sunday here. The music starts at 41 minutes with Danny Malone, followed by Eva Mueller, Marshall Escamilla, and Harrison Speck, playing live. Thanks to KAOS & the Annie Street Collective for having us over, then giving us shots.

And now, for the first time ever, you can follow the Garden Posse on Twitter! We'll be providing updates on digs, gardens, and other guerrilla gardening bits of interest, told in 140 characters. (This blog post is much longer than that).

Hope to see you tomorrow!

Garden Posse for your ears

The Garden Posse is coming to a radio near you!

Over the next two days, we'll be on a media blitz - like Obama, but with two local radio stations instead of 6 major networks. Lindsay (who writes this blog) will talking to local radio stations about guerrilla gardening in Austin, and spreading the good word about our benefit show on Sunday. Here is where and when you can tune in:

Thursday, Sept 24, 7 - 8 pm

KVRX, 91.7 FM

Lindsay, founder of the Garden Posse, along with Megan of Quilombo Garden and Charity of Skillshare Austin will be featured on the hour-long program Upstream. We'll be talking about how the Garden Posse and Quilombo got started (a lovely and intertwined tale), how we've evolved, what we're about, and why community gardening is important. In other words, everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask. Plus, you'll hear music from the musicians playing for us on Sunday!

Friday, Sept 25, 7 -9 pm

KAOS Radio, 95.9 FM

It's only logical to promote guerrilla gardening on a pirate radio station. We'll be hanging out with the folks from Annie Street Radio, talking about the Garden Posse and playing music live in studio. Featuring Danny Malone, Harrison Speck and Eva Mueller from One Hundred Flowers and Lady Maybe & the Sometimes Friends, and Marshall Escamilla of Stephen's Island Wren. All talented, all dreamboats, all the time. Also, I've been told there will be drinking. It's a can't miss, tune in!

We'll also be in print this weekend. Look for the Garden Posse Benefit Show on the Sunday "Best Bets" page of the Austin-American Statesman (Lifestyles, page 2). You can bet on us. We will totally win you money. Okay, maybe not money. A garden? We will win you a garden.

Stem & Leaf Press Release: All your information about our benefit show!

On Sunday, September 27, Stem & Leaf Showcases is happy to be hosting The Garden Posse of Austin Benefit Show at The United States Art Authority from 1:00 - 8:00PM.

The Garden Posse of Austin is a guerrilla gardening group in Austin, TX whose mission is to transform neglected urban space into lush and productive gardens with the help of their young, like-minded volunteers who share a love of gardening, fun, local food networks, and sustainable land use.

Garden Posse founder Lindsay Patterson worked on community gardens in Austin’s East Side. While researching how to establish and run a community garden, she started running into information about guerrilla gardening. The idea of starting a series of small gardens all over the city appealed to her, both as a way to bring people together within their community, and to make urban spaces more beautiful. Their first dig was at the end of August, 2008 and since then the Posse has gone on to establish gardens all over Austin, host seed bomb and gardening workshops, and organize Austin’s International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day, amongst other community outreach.

The group hopes that through guerrilla gardening they will encourage others to be inspired to help a garden in their area grow as it transforms formerly neglected urban space into a place rich with healthy food and community togetherness. They are happy to have had their group grow with new members over the past year and welcome all who wish to become involved and share their gardening tips over social gatherings and potlucks.

Showing our appreciation for what they do, Stem & Leaf Showcases and all the musicians involved, hope to raise funds and spread the good that the Posse has done for our community.

Included with the $5.00 suggested donation, attendees will receive a raffle ticket. The winner of the raffle will receive their very own garden; project management, planning, labor and supplies provided by The Garden Posse of Austin.

Also involved will be Skillshare Austin, raffling off their handmade Chicken Tractor and Quilombo, a community garden on the East Side, will be selling vegetable transplants for cheap!

Please see the stage schedule below to see the full line up of bands playing on both stages. We hope you will make it out for this tremendous community event and help show your support for a group of people that have Austins best interest in mind.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 27, 2009

UNITED STATES ART AUTHORITY

GARDEN POSSE
of Austin
BENEFIT SHOW


brought to you by
Stem & Leaf Showcases


STAGE 1 (Inside) :
The Lovely Sparrows, 7:15 - 8:00
One Hundred Flowers, 5:45 - 6:30
Cartographers, 4:30 - 5:15
The Great Nostalgic, 3:15 - 4:00
Marcus Rubio & The Gospel Choir of Pillows, 2:00 - 2:45


STAGE 2 (Outside):
Danny Malone, 6:45 - 7:15
RAFFLE WINNER DRAWING, 6:30 - 6:45
Dana Falconberry, 5:15 - 5:45
Lady Maybe & The Sometimes Friends, 4:00 - 4:30
Stephen's Island Wren, 2:45 - 3:15
Boone Graham, 1:30 - 2:00

1:00 - 8:00 PM
All Ages!!!
$5.00 Suggested Donation

Donation includes Raffle Tickets
Raffle to be held at 6:00 PM!!

For more information on how to become involved with The Garden Posse of Austin, please e-mail them at gardenposse@gmail.com.

For more information about Stem & Leaf Showcases and how to have your event or show hosted by, please e-mail Eva Mueller at eva.stemandleaf@gmail.com

Sprout!

Good news! Our North Lamar garden has its first sprout. It's a baby bean!


Thanks to David for sending this photo and babying his guerrilla garden. Here's to hoping the rain brings many more sprouts!

The Posse savors success, dirt, and cookies

Last Tuesday night found the Garden Posse digging industriously away at the triangle of North Lamar. After a summer of insufferable heat and drought, members of the Posse were heard to remark that the seasons were finally changing. It was a good time to come back to gardening. 

The triangle we chose for gardening is pretty large, and the posse member who picked out the spot would eventually like to turn it into a community garden. But big ideas start small and guerrilla-style, and we decided to dig two 4' x 6' beds on the side of the triangle closest to Lamar. The Posse got to it with pick-axes and shovels, then raked out the grass. Shoal Creek Nursery donated a bunch of broken bags of soil and compost, which we used to amend the soil. Vegetable transplants were not yet in the nurseries, so we're starting these beds from seed. The prospect of growing a garden straight from seed, with visions of little green sprouts springing up, excited the Posse. We planted a great variety of fall vegetables, including broccoli, cabbage, bak choi, kale, and more. Hands got dirty. 

We did it all in an hour and a half. This is the amazing thing about guerrilla gardening - it's very fulfilling and it doesn't even take very long. We had plenty of time to celebrate Posse'er Carly's first anniversary of being in Austin, complete with freshly baked cookies and champagne. Yes, that's right. Membership in the Posse gets you cookies and champagne on special occasions.* 

Long time Posse friend, cookie baker, and new member David will be taking care of the North Lamar triangle garden, and alert us to any sprouting action. In the meantime, we're getting excited for our benefit concert on Sunday, September 27! (10 days away!) We'll be sharing more enticing details soon. But in the meantime, look for our posters posted around town, featuring our beautiful new Garden Posse logo! Check it out! (Exclamation points convey our excitement!)

All credit for the logo goes to Carly. 

* no guarantees on the cookies and champagne.

First dig of the season!

We are meeting on Tuesday, September 15, at 7:30 pm for our first dig of the season!

We've located a large triangle of open public land right off North Lamar, which is prime for a few veggie beds. It's at the corner of North Lamar and West Crestland Drive. Here's a map.

View Larger Map

You'll see that there are two triangles on W Crestland - make sure you're at the one closest to North Lamar. 

Please bring all the helpful gardening tools you might have: Shovels, trowels, picks, rakes, garden gloves, whatever ya got. Donations of fall seeds and plants are very welcome. And don't forget your flashlight! (Guerrilla gardening is about doing things under the cover of night. Or at least the cover of deepening evening light.) We hope to see new faces this season!

Want an even easier way to stay updated with Garden Posse events and guerrilla gardening around the world? Become a fan of the Garden Posse on Facebook! Being a fan is also an easy way to ask us to come garden in your neighborhood. We'd love to, thanks. Tell your friends!

 

Garden Posse benefit show lineup!

On September 27, from 1 - 8 pm, we are going to have a rocking party!

10 bands! 7 hours! Win a garden in your yard from the Garden Posse!

United States Art Authority (attached to Spiderhouse)
2908 Fruth St. Austin, TX
(Guadelupe & 29th)

Check out the lineup:

OUTSIDE STAGE

1:30 - 2:00 Boone Graham

2:45 - 3:15 Stephen's Island Wren

4:00 - 4:30 Lady Maybe & The Sometimes Friends

5:15 - 5:45 Dana Falconberry

6:30 - 6:45 Raffle Winner Drawing

6:45 - 7:15 Danny Malone


INSIDE STAGE

2:00 - 2:45 Marcus Rubio & Gospel Choir of Pillows

3:15 - 4:00 The Great Nostalgic

4:30 - 5:15 Cartographers

5:45 - 6:30 One Hundred Flowers

7:15 - 8:00 The Lovely Sparrows