Guerrillas in our Midst

Green Power!

They are the green thumbs that operate under the cover of darkness, they are the ones who are putting the plants back into the streets - the law will define them as people who garden on land not belonging to them, who have no legal right to cultivate on private property, but they prefer to be know as Guerrilla Gardeners.

Almost 2 months ago Melbourne's CBD got an early morning surprise from one of these so called "Guerrilla's". Locals strolling to work were subjected to 35,000 orange tulips lining the path of Hosier Lane. Had these bulbs been hiding there all along, biding their time, waiting for the perfect spring? Or had they always been there and Melbournians were just too busy to notice?

No, there is no fairytale here apart from the good nature of one Mr Joost Bakker, the man responsible for adding to this colourful gratified street. You see Joost is part of a family of flower growers from Monbulk in Victoria and his farm had trialled a new variety of orange tulip. Unfortunately this new tulip had characteristics that would render them unworthy for sale.

Not the streets of Holland, this is Hosier Lane in Melbourne.

Instead of sending them to landfill, Joost took the opportunity to brighten people's day, with thousands of people stopping to take a look, snap a photo and take a bunch of flowers home for their loved ones.

Guerrilla gardening has a longer history than what occurred in Melbourne October this year. It's modern day roots (pun intended) were put down approximately 45 years earlier in the Lower East Side of New York. where a group of local residents decided they'd had enough of the derelict block on the corner of  Bowery and Houston streets.

Encouraging local involvement, Green Guerrilla's founder Liz Christy rallied the community to reclaim vacant urban land and turn it into thriving and productive gardens that would attract others through recreational and educational opportunity.

The Bowery Garden - Before....

and After.

Today the garden is known as The Bowery Garden and is a testament to community spirit and what can be created when like minded people pool their resources. The Green Guerrilla's are a not for profit organisation who now support over 600 community gardens, encourage suburban kids to get involved with gardening and give the people of the city gardens to enjoy throughout the year - you can find out a lot more here.

There are many examples of groups just like the Green Guerrilla's all around the world and just like the street artists who attempt to bring some colour to grey amenities, the work of guerrilla gardeners can be found in many places - from the very public, large scale plantings to the smaller scale street verges.

In Australia we had a short lived TV series called Guerrilla Gardeners, running for 13 episodes in 2009, it didn't rate all that well and was met with some opposition from local councils but what it did was highlight the growth of the movement across the globe, especially from the UK and parts of Europe.

So what is Guerrilla Gardening? Put plainly it is the act of gardening or cultivation on property, where the person/s doing so do not have permission to do so, i.e. trespassing. To the Guerrilla's themselves, it is the act of beautifying areas of land they see as run down and unused, putting the 'jungle' back into the urban jungle.

The term Guerrilla gardening was coined to describe their actions, as most of their activities are coordinated 'off the grid' and undertaken during the night to avoid detection. Although most of their 'weapons' consist of spades, shovels, trowels and buckets they do sometimes consist of bombs! Seed bombs that is.

They're the bomb yo!

Seed bombs are relatively harmless, unless your standing in a deserted lot late at night and one is lobbed in your direction. They are a mixture of soil, seeds, slow release fertiliser, seaweed solution, all wrapped up in a ball of clay or paper mache. This flower power 'bomb' can then be lobbed into the nearest unused, abandoned or neglected land and as the elements break down it's epidermis, the seed and soil mix gets a chance to come to life. For more info on seed bombs, have a gander at this page.

Probably one of my favourite examples of Guerrilla Gardening has been the work of Steve Wheen, or as he's more commonly know as The Pothole Gardener. What started out as a project for his Masters in Design has grown to a worldwide movement of miniature garden art.

London Calling - some of The Pothole Gardener's handy work

Steve wanted to simply provide 'unexpected moments of happiness" to people who would otherwise just be caught up in the day-to-day dullness of the city surrounds. In September 2017, Wheen collaborated with juice manufacturer Keri Juice Blends, to create Pothole Gardens in the streets of Newtown, an inner-west suburb of Sydney, to market their range of new-to-Australia juices.

All these organisations are driven by people who want to bring back the beauty of nature to their neighbourhoods. With the current trends of urban density, who can blame them? As I mentioned previously there are many fine examples of Guerrilla Gardening around the world.

For example, The Pansy Project that aims to bring awareness to the injustice and discrimination towards the LGBT community. The International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day on May 1st each year to celebrate and encourage the movement started by Guerrilla Gardening, who do a lot of great work around London.

So do you have a nearby space going to waste? An abandoned or unused block covered in weeds that could do with some help? Some council's are pretty proactive in this regard, so check with yours, maybe they'll be happy for you to adopt a patch.

Or would you prefer to walk on the wild side? Are you fed up with the lack of care council is taking? I suggest you start small, look at the nature strip outside where you live - is it a bit drab?  It may be a little bit naughty but it's the little bit of the world you live in and if you care about it enough I am sure there are others who share the same passion and I am certain their are ways to meet with your fellow guerrilla's, wink wink.