IF you live in Kelvinhaugh or Kelvindale, you may have spotted them: cheerful splashes of colour, dotted around doorsteps and front gardens, olive green, mustard yellow, rich red.

They are bags of tatties – but a lot more besides. They are the bright building blocks of An Empty Gunny Bag Cannot Stand, a food-growing project which has managed to survive in a shut-down city, inspiring people to work together as they continue to cope in isolation.  

Developed by Angus Farquhar and Rudy Kanhye of Aproxima Arts, the project was originally intended to take place beside the SWG3 arts complex. 

“We had planned to transform an old, abandoned goods yard into a public garden,” explains Angus.

“A garden is a place of respite, it can be an artistic location and a space which inspires – but it also can and must be a productive landscape, a place to grow food. It is such an important part of our lives these days.”

Angus says Kelvinhaugh is “a little forgotten corner” of Glasgow, sandwiched between a busy expressway and two railway lines, with a diverse population.

“The idea of building a community locus and focus there felt good,” he adds. “But you cannot just change a derelict site into a perfect, green oasis overnight. It takes time and it’s about how you get there and who you get there with.”

The group held information days and local residents turned up to share ideas, with around 70 keen to get involved.

“Rudy and I came up with the idea of dotting brightly coloured hessian bags, or gunny bags, around the site, in which people could grow their own potatoes,” says Angus.

 “Then, we’d harvest them, and get together to cook and eat.”

He adds, smiling: “I’m talking about chips. Not artisan potato salad with capers or anything fancy – good, honest chips, made from potatoes grown by local people, in a fantastic community garden, full of colour and vibrancy.”

Angus pauses. “And then lockdown happened, and everything stopped.”

Keen to make the project happen, Angus and Rudy came up with an idea.

“We thought, if we can’t bring people to the project, why don’t we take the project to them?” he says.

Glasgow Times: Agnes Smith, the project’s oldest grower at 84 Agnes Smith, the project’s oldest grower at 84

Under the direction of costume maker Fe Houston, 150 gorgeous hessian bags were cut and sewn and lined. Two tonnes of soil was delivered to Angus’s house in Kelvindale, and he and wife Ann Cardie and daughters Ava and Calla, set to work.

“We knocked on every door and asked each resident if they would be prepared to take a bag and grow some potatoes on their front step,” says Angus. “Almost everyone agreed. Fe and her fellow sewers Eloise and Sue did a fantastic job and the bags looked incredible. We delivered to people in Kelvinhaugh, five families in Possil took some, and some of the people living in nearby flats took smaller individual bags.”

Angus adds: “My neighbours Martin and Ada Stewart got involved - their children Mark and Gemma have been going up and down the street topping up the bags – we are calling them the Soil Fairies...”

The plan, says Angus, is to get together for a harvest party, complete with mobile chip shop, once lockdown is over.

“It feels special,” he adds. “And as is happening all over the place at the moment, people are talking to each other more, and supporting each other. 

“Food growing is a happiness generator.”

Bringing people together across Glasgow is what our Streets Ahead campaign is all about. The initiative has been supporting projects for nine years, backed by our generous partners Glasgow City Council, City Building, CGI and the City Charitable Trust.
City life is very different for all of us in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. In a typically Glaswegian way, however, communities are rallying together, finding new ways to support each other.

Tell us what you are doing to help your community, and let us know how we can help spread the word or rally support for you. Email ann.fotheringham@glasgowtimes.co.uk