Guerrilla Gardening

I checked a book out of the library yesterday called Guerrilla Gardening. The idea is that individuals or small groups of people have been challenging land-use in America by planting things in public spaces like road medians, parking lot planters and abandoned lots.

There are two types: the functional garden and the aesthetic garden, not that they're mutually exclusive. The idea that a garden either produces edibles or beautifies usually constitutes two separate concepts. Anyway, I'm charmed by the way these people go about their work at all hours of the day. This blind man has been planting things in his neighborhood by touch alone

and there are a couple DIY's on how to make seed bombs (compacted and dried dirt, compost and seeds) that you can toss into vacant lots (either from a car or while you're walking). Christopher Humes & Noah Scalin make a seed gun, which is partly symbolic as well as just plain cool ("Seed Mixture of Annual & Perennial Species Native & Naturalized to the Region; Maltese Cross, Annual Baby's Breath, Dwarf Cornflower, Shasta Daisy, Siberian Wallflower, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, European Columbine, Foxglove, Purple Coneflower, Indian Blanket, Spurred Snapdragon, Dense Blazing Star, Scarlet Flax, Perennial Lupine, Shirley Poppy, Black-eyed Susan, Sweet William, Russell Lupine and Catchfly").

This LA based group has been Guerrilla Gardening in their area. I don't agree with the militant state of mind behind this concept. I love the idea of making our landscapes better through plants and the ecological benefits of the actions these groups have taken, but their "Me against the world" and war metaphors turn me off.

They do good things in our communities though, and I appreciate their efforts and feel more than a little inspired.

Before:

After:

This group has made some really impressive progress as well in California.

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Linksies:

Primal Seeds (primalseeds.org) Seems like the PETA of plants and biodiversity.

Plant the Piece (threemiles.com/plantthepiece) The Seed Gun

Guerrilla Gardening (http://www.guerrillagardening.org/) Home site of the book I read.
A Page of Guerrilla Gardening Links (http://www.guerrillagardening.org/gglinks.html)