Potting sheds and peeing on the compost heap.

Well if that title didn't intrigue you I don't know what will...Hi everyone!

We're getting very close to being ready for our veterans. We're now accepting referrals which can be done through our website under 'Veterans' or just emailing us at dundeetherapygarden@hotmail.com

The past few weeks have disappeared in a whirlwind of planting, mowing, recruiting and visiting various interesting people. We have several new arrivals to welcome into our team, all of whom fit in seamlessly with our existing bods. Welcome to Jimmy (whose work ethic is matched only by his tea drinking abilities), Meggan (who has beautifully colourful hair and an attitude to match), Fiona (soon to be our IT genius), her husband Andrew (who is being roped in without his knowledge or consent) and Keith (who is being roped in with his knowledge, but possibly not his consent - apologies for that Keith).

We’ve also started on building a relationship with Ally and Gregor up at the Horticulture Dept. of Dundee and Angus College. They are soon to be our best mates as they’ve agreed to help us erect a polytunnel on site and they’ve volunteered the unsuspecting students on the Level 4 Intro to Horticulture course to do the graft.

Our office and mess room are looking very grand now. We schnaffled a load of furniture from Erskine Garden Centre, which had been put aside for us by our old friend Peter McCarthey. He even helped us load it all into a shiny rental van (thank you Peter!) which we promptly dented when we returned to site. Oops. We’ve been given a load of furniture and cupboards by our volunteer Keith - thanks to him for sourcing, transporting and unloading, I knew Royal Marines must be useful for something.

We’re really grateful to Neil from the Lock Shop for coming round to open up our office, disabled loo and most importantly, our shutters. It’s nice to be able to see daylight. Thanks also to Ruth at the council for organising and paying for it.

Michael and I attended the Trellis Annual Conference in Perth last Thursday. We attended some really interesting workshops on composting, gardening with asylum seekers, recruiting volunteers and had a chance to ask all those burning questions we had, such as “is widdling in the compost heap really beneficial?” Turns out, it is if you’re male and it’s diluted. Who knew?! We also got a chance to catch up with some old friends - It was so good to see you Sallie and Drew!

If you’ve seen our Facebook page you’ll know we’ve been given a very snazzy potting shed. Admittedly, it might fall down if anyone sneezes too close to it, but we have a drill now so by the end of the week it’s going to be Fort Knox. Ish. Thank you to our friend Kate for telling us about it, Gary for letting us have it, Keith, Drew and his little brother (I'm told) Sean for transporting it and our volunteers for erecting it. Apologies to Sean for calling him Scott on the original FB post - my bad. If you’re near the site this week I’ll give you a cuppa and a biscuit as a peace offering.

And on that note, I’m off for a cup of tea. Again.

**UPDATE: See below

****UPDATE: Our potting shed survived all of three days. It blew over today and Michael has disappeared and might be having a little cry. On the plus side, ding dong the witch is dead.