Maryhill Park Community Garden
A communal growing space managed by Friends of Maryhill Park
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Green Flag Community Award Winners: 2020-2023
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Open all hours – please feel free to wander around and enjoy. New volunteers are always welcome – contact us for more information.
Where?
Maryhill Park, near the Spence Street entrance, adjacent to the old bowling greens and tennis courts – Google map
When?
Anytime. Volunteers are usually working here, or in the park nearby, most Sunday afternoons, 2-4pm
Facilities:
- Raised beds – grow your own flowers & veg (see “Adopt-a-Bed“)
- Secure “garden shed”, with tools & equipment – access by arrangement
- Custom-built shelter/gazebo with integral water tower for rainwater collection
- Wildflower bed
- Bug hotel
- Rockery
- Compost heap
The small print…
Rule number one – there are (almost) no rules. We aim to keep things relaxed and informal, but please bear the following in mind:
- Facilities are provided free of charge by volunteers – please respect that
- This space is unsupervised – it is yours to enjoy responsibly
- Children (and other pets) are very welcome, with appropriate adult supervision
- We don’t use pesticides or weedkillers on site
- We clear up our own mess (and frequently that of others)
- Watch out for broken glass – report this and other litter problems to the Environmental Task Force
- Potential hazards? – check out our risk assessment
- Minimising health risks in the garden (RHS advice)
- We conform to GCC Park Management Rules
- Report antisocial/inappropriate behaviour to Maryhill Police – call 101
- Enjoy…
History
Many local residents recall the time when there were well-maintained municipal bowling greens and tennis courts in Maryhill Park, complete with clubhouse and other facilities. But those days are long gone, and the site had become abandoned and derelict.
Early in 2016 a small group of volunteers from Friends of Maryhill Park, with support from the Glasgow City Council Stalled Spaces initiative, set about cleaning up and refurbishing the site as a community growing space. The first phase of the project was completed later that year, with an official opening at the annual summer fair on Sunday 19 June 2016. Watch the video…
https://www.facebook.com/GlasgowWestEndToday/videos/1022692961159378/?t=31
Wherever possible we have used locally-resourced/recycled materials to construct various features. Raised beds are made from used scaffold boards. Gazebos and growing frames are purpose built from scaffold poles and rebar mesh. Our “garden shed” is a secure, heavy-duty steel shipping container, and the water tower is made from used 45 gallon drums (originally used for importing orange juice). The recently-added rockery area uses old sandstone blocks from a local chimney that had to be demolished.
The heavy-duty steel utilities cabinet, part of the original structure, proved too difficult to shift and has been re-purposed as a multi-story bug hotel using leftover paving blocks and the enthusiastic dry-stone walling techniques of a friendly local stonemason.
We continue to develop the site, adding new beds and other features as we go along, learning from experience what works best.
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