Guerilla Gardening

Guerrilla gardening is political gardening. It is a form of environmental, nonviolent direct action. I suppose it might fall under land rights, land reform, or permaculture.

People who practice guerrilla gardening take over an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. To these activists, reclaiming land from perceived neglect or misuse and giving it a new purpose is not illegal at all. Still, some of their work is carried out in secrecy. Other projects engage the local community proactively.

The term guerrilla gardening being used was by the Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in New York. They transformed a derelict private lot into a garden. It sounds like “community gardening” but it is gardening on someone else’s land without permission. Proponents claim the idea has been around for centuries, and that there are even Biblical references to it.

International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day 2009 on May 1 is the third annual event for guerrilla gardeners around the world. Get out there and sow sunflower seeds in your neighborhood! The first event was launched by the Brussels’ Farmers as a way to make a positive contribution to their local environment and have some fun at the same time. Sunflowers not only beautify a space but also are a favorite of wildlife.

You can post ideas on their Facebook page or on the GuerrillaGardening.org community pages for your area and get some tips about planting those sunflowers.

GuerrillaGardening.org was created in 2004 by Richard Reynolds as a blog about his solo guerrilla gardening in London. He was a frustrated gardener trying to beautify the neighborhood. It turned out that he wasn’t alone. There were already other guerrilla gardeners in London.

Since then, he has helped guerrilla gardeners in Libya, Berlin and Montreal. His book, On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries describes activities in 30 different countries. You can check out some of the community in their online forum. They also have their own YouTube channel.

If guerrilla gardening doesn’t sound radical enough to you, you might enjoy activities like seed bombing. It’s a technique to attack those hard to reach public spaces and bomb them with seeds. Get some information and watch a how-to video with Richard Reynolds on how to make them and use them.

Books about guerrilla gardening