Guerrilla Gardening Workshop

[Nachie]

On March 18th, Windsor [Canada] Guerilla Gardening Collective hosted a gardening workshop in downtown Windsor. Participants learned about trespass-gardening, no-till gardening techniques and companion planting. We built a raised bed on private property and will be using the bed to grow food this summer. This event coincided with the 5th anniversary of RAAN (http://www.redanarchist.org) (Red & Anarchist Action Network), and we hope the rest of the summer goes as well as this workshop did. We thank everyone who came, and we are looking forward to a summer of horticulture, sunshine, and resistance.

Here is a brief outline of the no-till technique presented at the workshop. For a much more thorough explanation, please read our No-Till Guide (http://wggc.resist.ca/node/4).


http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/march.jpg

We approach the site, using a shopping cart to haul our straw and compost. Shopping carts are the best vehicle for transporting stuff in the city. They are free and burn less gas than a car.

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/cardboard.jpg

The first layer of a sheetmulch bed is cardboard. This blocks light to the existing vegetation, which kills it but also turns it into a layer of biodegrading material, and therefore provides extra fertilization to the garden. The cardboard itself also biodegrades quickly. This cardboard already has holes in it, but normal cardboard must have holes punched in it to allow the roots of the garden veggies to penetrate the soil beneath.

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/compost1.jpg

The second layer is compost and/or manure. This provides a nutrient-rich growing medium for the garden plants.

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/leaves.jpg

Next comes leaves, which provides extra organic material and helps with micro-organism activity in the soil.

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/compost2.jpg

Now more compost/manure.

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/straw.jpg

Finally a layer of straw is applied. This works as a mulch. It allows the bed to hold extra moisture which means less watering, and it regulates soil temperature. The straw also works as fertilizer, and a new layer of straw should be applied every spring.

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/done.jpg

This is the finished bed, ready for planting. Compare this technique with the alternative: tilling. We would have had to dig up this whole area, requiring a few hours of back-breaking labour (or more realistically, a few litres of gasoline powering a roto-tiller)

http://wggc.resist.ca/sites/wggc.resist.ca/files/mascot.jpg

This is our mascot, Ooddlie. Dog urine is a great around the garden as it keeps away alot of animals.

Source: http://wggc.resist.ca/node/40

[Jude]

A group did this at a mall in Albany a few years ago, except it was a flower bed in the shape of a h&s.

[ExpansiveThought]

This is a great idea! Its important for leftists to challenge the societal concept of private property. Guerilla Gardening does this in perhapes the most constructive way possible. These techniques could also be effectively applied by cannabis legalisation activists, were they to casually wander the streets planting in public gardens to be watered (and ideally harvested in part) by the hapless city employees. Such a mass action would aim to make it blatant to officials that they cannot stem the production of cannabis.

[CodeAires]

That's really cool ;)