Wildlife Garden pictures

Here are some pictures from our last wildlife garden project...

Claire & Rhiannon enjoying a beaker of tea.

Here we have Squiggles diligently weeding the path.

Jordon digging away.

Rhiannon taking some weeds to the compost heap.

If you go down to the wildlife garden today...

You'll find some really cool mushrooms...


Some tasty blackberries...

And a burnt compost heap :(

min-project this Sunday

We'll be in the wildlife garden this Sunday, 2-4pm for a min-project. Meet outside the QMU at 2pm. Come dressed for the weather. Hope to see you there!

Dates for your diary!

For more information on upcoming projects and socials please join our mailing list.

Autumn 2007
Provisional dates - check back for updates

September
19th (weds) - BBQ afternoon in the wildlife garden
30th (sun) - Day project at Pollock County Park

October
12th-14th (fri - sun) - Residential weekend at Gowanbank

November
5th (weds) - Bonfire night social
11th (sun) - Project
25th (sun) - Joint project with the Edinburgh Dirts at Cathkin Marsh

December
9th (sun) - Day Project


Spring 2008
More projects will be added soon - watch this space!

Links

Dirty Weekenders is affiliated to:

• The SRC
• QMU
• BTCV

Green stuff at Glasgow Uni:

• GU Wildlife Garden
• GU Biodiversity Committee

Other green groups:

• Friends of the River Kelvin
• John Muir Trust
• John Muir Award
• Edinburgh Dirty Weekenders

More green stuff you should know about:

• Glasgow freecycle
• Glasgow furniture recyling charity
• Culdees
• Self Sufficient-ish
• Soapnuts

Wildlife Garden Project - August 2006

Last night a few of us met in the wildlife garden to give it a general tidy up. We dug in the edges of the pond, did a litter pick, cut back some of the undergrowth around the compost bin and cleaned some graffiti off the noticeboard. Unfortunately we couldn't fill up the pond but we plan to go back one lunchtime next week to do this. The garden looks great at the moment, really green and wild.

Here's a photo of some of our keen gardening team (l-r - Lisa, Alex & Craig). Judy and Jon were along as well but ran away as soon as I got my camera out.

We have lots of tasks to do in the autumn when semester starts, including working on the woodland area and some of the raised beds. Watch this space for more info.

Bird box clearing and bat box making

Over the past year we’ve been doing lots of work in the University Wildlife Garden, our very own little bit of wild-ness in amongst the concrete and tenements of the university. The garden is a haven for native plants and wildlife. This year we’ve been doing some work to make birds and bats feel more at home in the garden.

On January 23rd four of us braved the cold weather to clear out the bird boxes in preparation for spring. At that time we had four bird boxes in the garden. Only one of them had a nest in it, but we realised this was because one had only recently been put up, and the two others weren’t well secured to the tree so were swinging around all over the place – I wouldn’t want to live in something so insecure, and I doubt a bird would! At a later project we secured the swinging boxes to the tree, so hopefully this time next year we’ll find a few more nests in the boxes.

Following this, on the 15th of February we had a mass bird and bat box making session in one of the seminar rooms of the Boyd Orr building. The university joiners had kindly supplied and cut untreated wood (thank you!), which made things a lot easier. In total we made 6 bat boxes and 4 bird boxes. The bird boxes have now been put up in the wildlife garden, and a representative from the Clyde bat group will soon be coming to the garden to put up the bat boxes. Bat boxes need to be specially positioned, and as bats are a protected species in the UK, only specially trained bat experts can touch them.

(pictures: top left - bird box in the wildlife garden. top right - Scotty the monkey putting up a bird box. middle - completed bird boxes. bottom middle - the Dirts making bird & bat boxes. bottom - how not to hammer in a nail)

Committee 2007 - 2008

President - Rhiannon Breed
Secretary - Claire Leman
Treasurer - open
Social secretary - Andrew Kellard
Publicity secretary - Laura Brennan
Tools & equipment coordinator - open

Wildlife garden committee chair - Claire Leman

To contact any of the committee, or to get more involved, drop us an email..

Elections for the committee are held at our annual AGM at the end of the spring semester. We're always looking for new people to get involved in the committee so it you'd like more info about what's involved please get in contact.

Welcome...

Welcome to the new Weegie Dirty Weekenders blog. Look out for information on our projects, socials and weekends away and for John Muir related discussions.

For now, please visit our website at http://www.weegiedirtyweekenders.org.uk/ and take a look at some photos of our recent activities at http://www.flickr.com/photos/weegiedirtyweekenders/

Hope to see you soon.

Who are the Weegie Dirty Weekenders?

The Weegie Dirty Weekenders are not a Glaswegian introduction agency but in fact the Glasgow University Conservation Group. Whether you want to gain valuable conservation skills, see more of Scotland or help preserve our beautiful wild areas, then Dirty Weekenders is for you - as long as you don’t mind getting your hands dirty you’re always welcome!

We spend our weekends doing practical conservation in and around Glasgow, ranging from path maintenance to dry stone dyking, rhododendron clearing to mural painting. Past activities have included rhodey bashing at Clyde Muirshel, a weekend project with Gowanbank community and a weekend away at Brodick Castle on Arran.

We’re also involved in the University’s very own wildlife garden; we’ve been working on some of the raised beds and have put in a new pond. There are also opportunities to get involved with the management of the garden by joining the Wildlife Garden Committee.


How to get involved...

Alongside our conservation projects and residential weekends, we also have regular socials, usually on a Wednesday evening. You can join at any project or a social - have a look at the projects page or you can join our mailing list for full details.


What does it cost…

Membership is £3, but its value is priceless! Your membership fee will contribute to insurance and general running costs.


John Muir Award…

The John Muir award recognises and celebrates conservation work throughout the UK. You can sign up to take part in the John Muir Award through Dirty Weekenders. See a member of the committee for more details.