It’s a joy to see a building project reach completion and come alive; walking onto the SAGE growing site in Possilpark, the drawings that we have pored over for months have become a reality. There are black growing cubes of various sizes set out neatly on what was previously a derelict patch of ground wedged between St Matthews Church and Allied Vehicles. The surroundings haven’t changed significantly; there’s still concrete under foot and accumulation of rubbish around the perimeter, but during the day we took the next step towards transforming this Concrete Garden into a living, growing place. The day was about planting and bringing the idea of “SAGE (Sow and Grow Everywhere)” alive… ok this isn’t “Everywhere”, but it’s certainly somewhere.

Plug plants have been grown especially for the garden; I ought to surround the term “Plug Plants” with inverted commas because like me, some readers may not be horticulturalists, or even gardeners; excuse me the vulgarity of stealing a description from the interweb of knowledge… “a plug plant is any developing plant whose growth cycle is initiated well in advance of its actual planting”… basically they’re little veg waiting to become big veg.

The site has a cubic aesthetic, and so we planted vegetable plugs in straight lines, squares and rectangles. We do not dare plant in curves for fear of suffering the wrath of the site’s designer, Rolf “The Cube” Roscher. And yet the site’s design suits its urban surrounding well. It might look out of place in open country, but in the city it’s a marriage of urbanism and the natural form. And it will be much easier to work out which plant is which if there is some regularity in their planting.

Later on in the evening we were joined by a gaggle of children and teenagers from the nearby Depot Arts organisation; the younger ones ready to throw themselves into any activity that involved getting dirt on knees and between fingernails; some of the older ones bearing immaculate nails and threatening sickness if their fragile skin comes in contact with manure; we planted potatoes together and the stench was forgotten. I remembered I was fortunate to have had contact with gardening activity as a youngster; admittedly this involved much wonder about why my parents spent SO much time in their beloved back garden rather than riding the flumes at Chessington World of Adventures; but now I really appreciate the context and the love of productive countryside that it has instilled in me. With kids, plugs and cubes, the urban food growing adventure has taken its next step, at least in this small corner of North Glasgow.

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