feature

Do you walk past a neglected patch of earth each day? Have you ever wondered what that patch would be like with flowers on it as opposed to old cigarette ends and fast food wrappers?

If so, you are not alone. There are hundreds of people up and down the country, secretly planting trees and bulbs under the cover of darkness, in a bid to make our world a brighter place.

The concept of planting-as-protest began with a New York group called the Green Guerrillas in the 1970s. These urban horticulturists filled abandoned, debris-filled lots with seeds and plants and eventually these grew into flower and vegetable-filled community gardens, using the slogan ‘Resistance Is Fertile’.

Recently, Guerrilla Gardening has been brought to public attention by Richard Reynolds in London. He was sick of seeing a large planter devoid of plants at the Elephant and Castle and decided one night to plant a few flowers there instead. This was back in 2004… Since then the idea of Guerrilla Gardening has grown from strength to strength all around the world, tons of people toting peat, bulbs and shovels slipping out at night to transform an area. Richard’s website has accounts of areas now blossoming, filed by guerrilla gardeners all around the world.

So why does it have to be under the cover of darkness? How legal is it anyway? The answer is not very, but surely the council would be prepared to look the other way if someone is being nice to the area? I mean, it’s hardly vandalism is it? Or is it? Oxford council’s Crime and Nuisance Action Team soon put a stop to a local gardener who, in his own time, was tending to plants, clearing weeds, maintaining hanging baskets and painting fences.
Read full story here

Maybe painting fences was going above and beyond the call of duty, but it’s still, at the end of the day, improving an area. Tending to plants or picking up litter from largely ignored public spaces is hardly ruining it for other people. Looking through Richard’s website, it seems most local people are happy that their immediate area has been nominated for a bit of a prune.

So what do you do if you fancy joining in with a secret dig? Enrol on Richard’s website would be the first point of call, as you can get tips and advice from other Guerrilla Gardeners out there. Then eye up your local area – got somewhere scrubby near you that is in desperate need of a bit of TLC? Nominate it on the website and then think of ways to improve it with like minded people, you never know – a group of Guerrilla Gardeners could be operating in your area already…

Read more
www.guerrillagardening.org
www.greenguerillas.org
www.ecohub.co.uk/pages/organic.html