This week’s “It’s Not ALL Bad” blog post is a bit of a take-off on last week’s entry regarding Permaculture. It seems the Brits are also on the forefront of the “Guerilla Gardening” movement. Here’s a great UK website devoted to the practice:
Guerilla Gardening is a term used to describe the taking over of neglected public spaces as new gardening areas for the community.
Guerilla Gardening Day was May 1 of this year (the day that Osama was killed) and I completely missed any US articles relating to this celebration/movement. But in this month’s issue of Ode Magazine, there’s an article entitled “A New Food Manifesto,” and in it, there’s a sidebar and photo about Guerilla Gardening in Los Angeles, California. Here’s what Ode says about LA’s GG movement:
“They’re as young as 10 and as old as 80. Instead of guns, they carry shovels. They descend on urban spaces and, within hours, leave beautiful green oases behind. They’re the Los Angeles Guerilla Gardeners, and though they plant without approval, most folks don’t seem to mind. In a struggling economy, these playful radicals improve the urban landscape in ways that city budgets too often cannot.”
In the printed magazine (page 48) there's a photo of a sidewalk median that has recently been planted with what looks like flowers and herbs. A silk-screened sign stuck in this garden reads “Guerilla Gardening—Please Water Me.”
I love the idea that perfectly usable, barren earth is being put to good use by ordinary citizens, and that the public is asked to participate in the on-going beautification process. If anyone has any other examples of Guerilla Gardening in their city, I’d love to know more—please e-mail me. Photos are great, too, if you have them.
(BTW--Ode Magazine is devoted to a shared sense of community and the desire to make the world a better place. Please check out their website in the link above if this interests you, and become a member of this community.)
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