With a succession of Council cut-backs, the standard of upkeep of the small triangular green in Joppa, characterised by it’s Policebox, had slipped to the extent that there were no longer any flowers in it’s borders and the grass was allowed to become a meadow.
Chris Cowie must have been looking for another challenge having tamed the narrow ‘finger’ of unclaimed land between Brunstane Road and Joppa Terrace, when he and the Community Gardening Group set about tidying up our village green at Joppa in 2018. First priority was to add plants to what had become a rather neglected triangle of grass and not much else. So there are bulbs for spring, some annuals and perennials and other interesting plants, many being donations from Timebankers, Grow Porty and nearby residents. So many donated plants were received that the planting space was fast disappearing. It now flourishes with colour throughout the year.
With the mix of warm weather and some quite intense rain in 2019 it has meant that a lot of the flowers have done well and others are continuing to bloom. One of our ‘senior’ helpers did a great job of cutting back the suckers on the roses resulting in some beautiful displays in June/July.
The grass has been a problem – growing too fast. Cutting is still the responsibility of the Council but sadly they only attempt it every 5 or 6 weeks which is not enough. The result is that we had a bit of a grass jungle which really overshadows the hard work in the borders. After an appeal for a petrol mower a resident donated a substantial rotary mower that is well up to the job and is now in use both here and at Joppa Tennis Courts. The whole project of regaining the Triangle was always meant to be a community effort so it’s great that more people are stepping forward to donate plants and to howk up a few weeds. Everyone should feel free to help or to make contributions of any kind.