Guerilla gardening

[Revolucija]

Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of nonviolent direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists take over ("squat") an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it.

Some guerrilla gardeners carry out their actions at night, in relative secrecy, to sow and tend a new vegetable patch or flower garden. Others work more openly, seeking to engage with members of the local community, as illustrated in the examples that follow. It has grown into a form of proactive activism or pro-activism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_gardening
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

GG missions: Toronto (http://publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm), London (http://www.primalseeds.org/guerrilla.htm), Berlin (http://www.gruenewelle.org/), Brussels (http://brussels-farmer.blogspot.com/), New York (http://www.greenguerillas.org/).

[Everyday Anarchy]

I love the idea of guerrilla gardening!
It can be a means for many things other than environmentalism (since, honestly, I hardly see it as a form of environmentalism).

Guerrilla gardening is much like actions like Reclaim the Streets. People begin to think of their surroundings in different ways. They begin to question private property.

You can make a community beautiful and more sustainable by "re appropriating" private property so that it can be more contributing and in a way it becomes public commons.

[crimsonzephyr]

seems like a good idea

[Jude]

Don't know if this idea is already out there, if not, i would love to see it implemented, but here's what i would do...

This is kinda like a blockade, but more involved. What you would do is if there is a road that you would like to block (logging roads, military supply lines) you could go there with a large group of GG'ers and break up the road a bit, and plant a lil flower garden (or if its a logging road, you could also plant trees in the middle of the road, but that would be more expensive) rite in the middle of the road, preferably where it will get publicity of the loggers driving rite over them...

[Revolucija]

I guess that would be more like a GG propaghanda:) Cause a local government would probably cut out all the trees/plants ...

[MarxSchmarx]

I think some guys in Los Angeles tried this a few years back.

Then a warehouse was built over the site, they fought it but the garden got crushed. :(

[Ander]

Community gardens are a really good idea.

Has anyone tried doing this?

[followthemoney]

As part of a worker-owned seed bank, this topic is of a special interest to me.

Anyone considering a community garden project should know that you can get free seeds.

Most seed companies do not sell all of their stock each year, and the left over supply has a larger than comercially acceptable percentage of seeds that will not grow. The lower "germination rate" really only matters if you are planting many acres of the same crop and can't possibly monitor all of it. A community garden, with lots of hands and eyes tending to it, can watch out for plots that get seeds that don't start and simply plant more seeds.

So if you want to start (or continue!) a community garden, write to seed companies that offer non-GMO, non-hybrid, open-pollinated, heirloom, organic seed, tell them about your project (the kind of people who choose work for those companies also support community gardens) and ask for donations.

A representitive from a community in Brazil once wrote to me about the problems his people were having with the soybean monocrop and more recently the sugarcane monocrop, and how the biodiversity of his home was being demolished. I was very happy to be in a position to reintroduce hundreds of vegetable varieties to the land and help feed hungery people, and I expect that folks at other seed companies would also find personal satisfaction from being able to help a commie garden.

[Not entirely illiterate]

This idea is wonderful! I warmly encourage all attempts to sever the umbilical cord of the individual to society; making yourself independent of the shit the corporations are pushing you is, in my opinion, more revolutionary than attending protests. It is subtle, peaceful, efficient, and it is an excellent way of conducting conviviality with fellow revolutionaries. It is a work of art.

I opened a thread yesterday about my plans of squatting in an abandoned factory complex. I can certainly imagine this being put to good use there as well; hell, most of said factory's warehouses and assembly halls are already overgrown with weeds, breaking through the concrete.

[Rosa Provokateur]

I love guerilla gardening, I myself am trying to get some kudzu so grow along the walls of a gated neighborhood I know of.

[black magick hustla]

does growing shrooms count like guerrilla gardening

[bezdomni]

community weed gardens!!!

[My Heart is a Molotov]

I tried Guerilla Gardening once. I went out with my girlfriend at about midnight and dug up a bed a bit and planted some seedlings and plants. It was heaps of fun. However, I think we chose a really shit place to plant stuff cos they just died within a week or two even though they were getting watered.