Webberville Church Garden: We dug it.

Webberville Baptist Church is deep on the East Side of Austin. It's a simple building, and there are only a handful of congregants - all of them over the age of 60. A few members of the Garden Posse sometimes attempt to bring down the median age when they attend services at the church. In the process, they've gotten friendly with the pastor and members of the church. When they mentioned the idea of building a garden on the church's nearly 2 acres of green lawn, the congregation got excited. 

Robb, Carly and Gregg spent Monday night doing some preliminary digging so we would be able to get the garden put in on Tuesday. They dug three beds around this patch of concrete, close to T.C.'s Lounge. T.C.'s is one of those classic ramshackle night spots, with music, pool, free blues and comfort food on Mondays, and a few people whose souls could use saving. They could be saved in the middle of a garden, maybe?

Carly, Robb, and Juan dig out one of the beds. The soil was very sandy, so we put a few bags of compost in. 

Nice, rich soil in what will eventually become the herb garden.

This garden was planted with flowers, and two transplants. 

The third, and largest bed, was divided into two for peppers, tomato, and basil plants. 

We're very excited about the garden, because it's for a community that will care for it and hopefully add to it. We would like to plan a potluck in cooperation with the congregation, and talk with them about what they'd like to see in the garden. You have another chance to get involved next week! We'll be back at the church, putting a border around the garden and fixing it up a bit more. 

The planting season in Texas takes a hot hiatus June through August, so next week, and our event with Skillshare, will be your last chances to get your hands in the dirt for a few months. Come out and hang out! We'll be arranging seed bomb workshops, potlucks, and possibly a Garden Posse tubing trip over the summer, so keep an eye out for updates. Just because we can't garden doesn't mean we won't have fun. 

Webberville Baptist Church (tonight) + Skillshare Weekend (May 30 - 31)!

Tonight we're starting on a project the Posse has been very excited about - a community garden at the Webberville Baptist Church on Webberville Road! A few of our members have attended this very small church on the East Side, next to TC's Lounge. They have lots and lots of land, and are very excited about the prospect of having a garden. And even though it's not "guerrilla", per se, we are pleased to build a useful and productive a garden for people who want it.

Word is that Carly and Robb have already been out to break ground on this project. So we'll be doing some digging and planting tonight. Meet at the church at 7:30 pm tonight with tools and flashlights! Here's a link to a google map of the location at 1405 Webberville Road.

You''ll see the church is a little set back from the road. Hope to see you there tonight!

And mark your calendars: May 30 - 31 is Skillshare Weekend at Space 12! The Garden Posse will be teaching a 1 1/2 hr workshop on how to build a guerrilla garden. The weekend will be filled with tons of interesting and useful skills to learn from Skillshare Austin & friends. And it's FREE. RSVP to the event on Facebook, or just remember to show up.

More seed bombs and sunflowers

I must say that International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening day was a great success. Tossing seed bombs and sunflower seeds all over the place was so much fun that we are going to carry it over to this week. We'll be meeting at our usual day and time, Tuesday at 7:30pm, over on the East Side for more seed bombs. The meeting place is Webberville Baptist Church, at 1405 Webberville Rd. We will also be taking this opportunity to scout of possible garden locations and to share future garden ideas. We've been gathering some great ideas lately, and we can't wait to share them. But please bring all of your own gardening hopes and dreams along with your familiar flashlights, seeds, and trusty guerrilla gardening tools.

As usual, there is a good chance that everyone will head over to Clementine Coffee Bar on Manor afterwards. It's hard to beat $1 Lone Star drafts after a night of gardening.

See everyone there!

More photos from International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day!

We started out on the Lamar Street Pedestrian Bridge, spanning downtown Austin. We got a crowd of about 15 to split up by bike and feet to sow seeds. 

Rachel, a brand new guerrilla gardener, and I biked to the East Side, where we knew there would be plentiful neglected field space. 

There were only 2 of us, but we could have easily had 50 people planting the whole field. We had to settle on covering a corner. 

On our way back to meet up with the rest of the Posse, I sighted a perfect spot for sunflowers. We jumped off our bikes to stick a few seeds underneath I-35. 

We got together at Barton Creek Saloon - a bar in a former gas station - to tell of our exploits. 

Success! I know more people have pictures - send them to gardenposse@gmail.com, or better yet, post them yourself!

Photos from International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day

The Garden Posse's International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day was a rousing planting success! We met up at the Lamar Street Pedestrian Bridge, and broke into groups to spread sunflower seeds around the city. We handed out our stockpile of seed bombs, as well.

We're pretty sure the next few months will be prettier because of us. Thanks to everyone who showed up - particularly our new guerrilla gardeners! We have a few sets of pictures from the different groups. Please email yours to gardenposse@gmail.com (or post them yourself).

Here are Greg's photos, from downtown Austin.

International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day!

May 1st is International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day! It's an event originated by guerrillagardening.org, encouraging people to spread a few sunflower seeds in their neighborhood, or on their route to work. Well, the Garden Posse is going beyond that. We're hosting an event to mobilize Austinites to cover the Central Austin area with sunflowers, seed bombs, and tomato transplants. Because why have a little guerrilla gardening when you can have a lot?  

 We'll meet up at the Lamar Street Pedestrian bridge at 9pm on May 1st, on our bikes or other planting-friendly transportation (scooters, good; walking shoes, good; cars, bad). 

Bring trowels, flashlights, water, and a couple packets of sunflower seeds. The Garden Posse also has wildflower seed bombs and tomato plants for planting. We'll converge and then disperse to plant our seeds around Central Austin, taking pictures to send into guerrillagardening.org, which is coordinating efforts around the globe. 

We'll meet up later at a downtown bar to regale ourselves with stories of our adventures. If you haven't experienced the cheap, green thrills of guerrilla gardening yet, tonight is the night to do it! The feeling of earthy satisfaction is far better than drinking your early evening away. 

RSVP to "International Guerrilla Gardening Day in Austin" on Facebook. 

Details of the night are still being finalized. Feel free to throw any suggestions the Garden Posse's way at gardenposse@gmail.com. 

And in the meantime, keep your eyes peeled for areas that could use sunflowers! Suggestions include:

1. Undeveloped lots
2. Empty flower boxes
3. Areas that might be within the range of sprinkler systems and could use some brightness. 

The sunflowers we plant in May will bloom in August.

For more information, visit guerrillagardening.org and join the Garden Posse facebook group. 

Chestnut Garden for Spring!

Hello posse,

This Tuesday, we'll be meeting at 7:30 pm at the corner of 16th & Chestnut (on the East Side). We're going to be sprucing up the Chestnut neighborhood garden for spring! The garden has been thriving in the community, with neighbors volunteering to water the garden and placing new plants in the ground. It's in an empty lot, so there is lots of room to expand it.

Greg has plants, and he'll be heading up the mission. If you have any questions, email him at greggardenposse@gmail.com. Feel free to bring any seeds or plants you would like to donate, as well as tools and flashlights (always helpful).

Also, over the weekend we received a veritable bonanza of tomato plants from Gardens. There are three flats of different varieties sitting outside my apartment now. Do you have any ideas of what to do with a bonanza of tomatoes? Let us know.