Guerrilla Gardening

In Brooklyn (to be vague) I always walk by an ignored, weedy triangular plot of land; a monument to some bygone religious hero long overgrown. Low-hanging tree branches crowd out benches; trash is caught in the bars of the relatively spit-spot black, wrought iron fence. Within this cold perimeter, a world kept closed by one small rusty-lock, a forgotten path cowers beneath the branchy, weedy jungle. Passing by last week, I was struck by the vision of myself, under cover of night, pruning those unwieldy branches and clearing off the path--shocking the residents with a new green space in the morning. Shortly after that fit of narcissistic adulation, I stumbled upon an international group of surreptitious gardeners who stole my idea (or at least came up with it first).

These stealthy mavens of the earth that I wish to be like call themselves “guerrilla gardeners.” Guerrilla gardening is defined as: “the cultivation of someone else’s land without permission.” Often the role of "someone else" is played by the Department of Transportation, the local (or country) government, and apathetic landlords, who have left road medians, sidewalks, and flower beds empty of greenery. Guerrilla gardening in its 21st century incarnation is the seedling of Richard Reynolds, a 30 year old Londoner who in 2004 found himself using the hours between dusk and dawn to add some color around his apartment complex. By day he began blogging about his adventures, at which point the British media scooped him. Reynolds is officially leader of an international movement--New Zealand, Belgium, Libya, California, England, and Canada all have reported events--that he says first originated in the Big Apple in the 1970s. “Green Guerrillas began cultivating derelict lots around the Lower East Side, either by clipping barbed wire fences or chucking 'seed bombs' over them — Christmas ornaments or condoms filled with tomato seeds, water and fertilizer,” Reynolds explained to the New York Times. (Reynolds introduced a new era of seed bombing this past May 1, when all around the world, gardeners united to throw sunflower seed bombs [video] over fences and into barred off areas.)

As with anything good these days, the movement has already spawned a spin-off. Called “guerrilla grafting,” this movement is driven by city-dwelling landscape pioneers who use the dark of night to graft multi-specie trees. Grafting is a horticulture procedure in which the cut branch of one tree can be spliced to the trunk of another tree, causing them to grow as one. For example, apple and pear branches can be attached onto and grown from quince trees, providing fruit; one guerilla grafter reports a tree that he created now growing 9 kinds of pomes.

I’ll admit I’m compelled by the Robin Hood-esque intrigue, international flavor, and gardening spirit surrounding this underground movement. Maybe it's time to bring guerrilla gardening back to the big city. Keep an eye, or ear, out for my signal. I'm thinking it'll be something like, “The trowel digs at midnight."

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Photo Credit: Some after-midnight landscaping adds greenery to New Kent Road, England.  [http://guerrillagardening.org/community/index.php?topic=396.0]