Guerrilla gardening for greener cities

For those unfamiliar with the term, guerrilla gardening is a form of nonviolent direct action aimed at greening otherwise neglected or derelict land, particularly in urban areas, purely for pleasure or for the purpose of growing food.

Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in relative secrecy, sowing and tending a new vegetable patch or flower garden. Others work more openly, actively seeking to engage with members of the local community.

Practical and political

The term guerrilla gardening is applied quite loosely to describe different forms of radical gardening. This includes gardening as an political gesture rather than one with horticultural ambition, as well as gardening for practical purposes such as planting fruit trees, herbs and vegetables.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. Margaret Mead

The earliest record of the term guerrilla gardening being used was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York, when they transformed a derelict private lot into a garden. The space is still cared for by volunteers but now enjoys the protection of the city’s parks department.

Celebrated guerrilla gardeners

Guerrilla gardening of this form – that is gardening on someone else’s land without permission – has been around for centuries. Two celebrated guerrilla gardeners, active prior to the coining of the term, were Gerrard Winstanley of the Diggers in Surrey, England (1649) and John “Appleseed” Chapman in Ohio, USA (1801).

A more recent example took place on May Day 2000, when Reclaim the Streets organised a mass guerrilla gardening action in Parliament Square, London, with thousands of guerrilla gardeners occupying the square – planting vegetables and flowers. Banners hung around the square reading “Resistance is Fertile”!

Throughout 2009, Green Pepper will be actively engaged in guerilla gardening – and urging you to get involved in your local area. We’ll bring you updates on our actions, and yours, to encourage others to join the movement.

More information

In the meantime, you can find out more about guerilla gardening on the Guerilla Gardening website and the Green Guerillas website. If you know of other guerilla gardening websites, please let us know by leaving a comment below.

Some of the information here was sourced from Wikipedia.

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Tagged as: activism, gardening, guerilla gardening, urban