A day at the 34th St garden

We're happy to report that the garden on 34th street is happy and healthy, and looking forward to spring. Here are a few scenes from a recent day at the garden.

Our useful and beautiful sign, paired with swiss chard.

Peas on the vine, clinging to the fence and the seeding Chinese cabbage.

Flowering broccoli enjoyed by bugs.

Tiny broccoli heads springing up towards a recently devoured crown.

Our newest addition to the garden, pepper transplants planted by our anonymous gardener! The mystery gardener has also spiffed up the garden with more rock and brick landscaping. Stopping by the garden these days is like heading for a pleasant surprise. Thanks to our newest gardener, and feel free to get in touch with us to take credit for your wonderful work.

I'll be posting an update on next week's project when I have more details.

"Greetings from Austin"

Due to winter-like conditions, the GP has been almost hibernating for the past two months. But tonight, we are starting our slow, bright-eyed emergence into springtime, and back to gardening.

Tonight at 7:30 we'll be meeting up in South Austin at the famous "Greetings from Austin" mural. It's on the side of Roadhouse Relics, at South First and Annie - 1720 S 1st Street.

We're not going to break ground on this one yet, so no need to bring tools - just flashlights (or as the Brits say, "torches"). We'll be scouting out the landscaping, plants, and other logistical concerns. We'll also be talking about plans for parties, gardens, seed bomb throwing, and other covert operations, possibly at a nearby coffeeshop. We hope you can make it.

Plus: Good news! An anonymous gardener has expanded our guerrilla garden at 34th & Guadelupe! I visited yesterday to find new transplants, more rock landscaping, and a brand new water jug in the garden. This is what's supposed to happen - and it's very exciting. It's proof to the theory that if a guerrilla garden sticks around for long enough, the community will adopt it. We established the 34th St garden in August 2008, making it seven months old. Let's see if we can keep repeating this success around Austin. Much appreciation goes out to our new gardener - we'll be posting photos of the garden improvements soon.

We're still looking for new sites, so keep emailing your potential gardens to gardenposse@gmail.com.

More seed bombs, more really free, more fun

Did you miss the Really Really Free Market last month? You probably did. Well, we're giving you a second chance. Because you deserve to know the happiness of seed bombs and free stuff.

Please come out to the Really Really Free Market this Sunday around 1pm for a seed bomb workshop. We did this last month and I can't stress enough how fun it was. Learn how to make seed bombs (it's really easy), and watch the joy spread across children's faces as you help them play in the mud. Read about it here.

The Really Really Free Market is at the corner of 16th and Chestnut. There is a pavilion there, and underneath it, stuff is free. Lots of reasons to come, please do.

see you there,
the posse

No Posse-time tonight

Hey everyone,

We had planned to pot succulents and strawberries in my garage tonight. However, not everything goes as planned, and we've called off tonight's meeting. Travis will be potting our succulents on his own because it brings him a piece of zen.

We're also working on our awesome new website, so stay tuned for web developments!

Love,
The Garden Posse

GP night out + Greater Austin Garbage Arts

Tonight the Garden Posse is taking it downtown. No gardening tonight - we're in our winter hibernation/planning period. But you are welcome to join us for some wholesome Garden Posse fun.

We'll be meeting up at Koriente at 8pm for dinner. We'll be talking about our new website, which local web designer Christian Bowers has generously volunteered to help us create. And we'll be planning our upcoming events, so you can know when we are actually guerrilla gardening, perhaps weeks in advance. Then we're going to check out a show at nearby Stubb's, with The Morning Benders and The Submarines.

And, this is not a Garden Posse event per se, but I highly suggest you visit the clothing swap at Greater Austin Garbage Arts (GAGA) next Saturday. Bring old clothes, and you can trade and repurpose them with help from resident artists. GAGA is committed to the idea of zero waste - the first step of which is finding new uses for old stuff. Plus, they offer FREE SEWING LESSONS. You won't find that anywhere else in Austin.

GAGA is located at 2214 South 1st Street (just north of Oltorf, across from End of an Ear and next to a plaza with Cream Vintage and a coffee shop).

Garden Posse seed bomb workshop

Still feeling fresh from our kid-friendly seed bomb demo at the Really Really Free Market, the Garden Posse hosted a seed bomb workshop for grown-up types. Warm cookies and homemade cider were served.

Boone and Dieter came all the way from San Marcos (the night of Austin's "Arctic" cold front) for the workshop. We recognized Jessica from our very first dig at 34th Street, and we were glad she came back. It helps us believe people really do read our emails.

Seed bomb making with grownups is less frenzied than doing it with kids, but everything is essentially the same. And it's so simple. We got our "recipe" from Heavy Petal (which I recently discovered is a great garden blog). It's this:

5 parts dry red clay (from potter's supply store, in Austin)
3 parts dry organic compost
1 part seed
1 - 2 parts water

Measure the parts evenly with any measuring implement (we used a red plastic cup), and mix together. Then roll into balls. Your hands will look a little bit like the swamp thing.



We made two batches of seed bombs. Eventually people started getting fancy and trying out different shapes. Someone suggested heart-shaped seed balls would make a great Valentine's gift. Seriously, they would. It made all the girls go "awww."

We plan to throw them into overgrown lots, and tuck them into the margins of curbs and grass. They'd also be great to throw into your own lawn or garden. The possibilities are endless.



We made these with Texas native grass seeds, and flower seeds collected by Natalie's uncle. We encourage using native seeds, especially when you are not controlling how they spread.

So, another successful seed bomb workshop! This is such a great activity, we can't wait to share it with more and more people (especially teacher people). Our next planned workshop is February 22nd, and we'll keep you updated on other GP goings-on.

In the meantime, Quilombo is looking for volunteers on Saturday afternoons. Come over to the Eastside and help out in our sister garden! You'll be glad you did.

Seed bombs are a kid magnet

Here is the tray of seed bombs we made at the Really Really Free Market on Sunday - muddy little blobs of clay, compost, and seeds. Our first foray into seed bombs could not have been more successful, or more fun. It was all thanks to a horde of kids, and this magic formula:

KIDS + MUD = AWESOME FUN TIMES

With the help of a few new friends from Treasure City Thrift (organizers of the Really Really Free Market, a play on Milton Friedman's "free market"), the Garden Posse set up shop on a bench in Chestnut Park. No sooner had we begun to mix clay with compost than the boy pictured above wandered over to ask what we were doing. We told him he could help us mix up our batch of seed bombs. "I don't want to get my hands dirty," he said. But after we told him he could wash them later, he was all about seed bombs. Then three more kids showed up....

And then every kid in the park was huddled around our bucket, grabbing a handful of muddy clay, and rolling it to spherical perfection in their hands. It was awesome. Even after all the seeds had been cleared out of the bucket, the kids hung around admiring their handiwork, pointing out which seed bombs were theirs, and asking when they could throw them. They all wanted to make seed bombs again, one girl wondering if she could do it at home with her mom. A particularly adorable brother-sister pair picked out seed bombs to take home and plant. "I wonder what it will grow into," said the girl. "Maybe tomato seeds!"

I think it's the combination of playing with mud and the excitement of an experiment that makes seed bombs such a great kid project. The demo having been an unintentional kid project, it felt pretty magical. We'll have to see on Tuesday if adults can match the joy and excitement shared by the kids on Sunday.

We were convinced by the folks at Treasure City to repeat this at the next Really Really Free Market, on February 22. They also took a lot of unbearably cute pictures of the kids with the seed bombs (while my hands were covered in mud). Hopefully I'll be able to post those on the blog.

The next demo will be tomorrow, at 7:30pm, Carly & Greg's house. Contact Greg if you need directions at GregGardenPosse@gmail.com. Bring native seeds and snacks if you have them. The possibility of going to Clementine's for music and $2 beer will be on the table as well.

See you then!