Guerilla Gardening

I just came across the term 'guerilla gardening' when checking some blogs on landscaping and urbanism and it immediately stuck in my mind.  The combination of both words generated the most intriguing thoughts and images in my head so I had to stop doing what I planned and find out more.

History:

The earliest record of the term "guerilla gardening" being used was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerilla Group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York.  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.

Two celebrated guerilla 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).

Guerilla gardening takes place in many parts of the world (over 30 countries are documented) and evidence can be found online in numerous guerilla gardening social networking groups and in the community pages of

GuerillaGardening.org

This web site holds the most amazing stories of people that take it upon themselves to embellish their urban environment by adding nature to the cement.  I have seen truly amazing pictures of transformations where men and women of all ages decide to e.g. plant some tulips in areas where the sidewalk missed some tiles, remodel the existing flowerbeds because the local parks department couldn't be bothered to take out the weeds,...

This web site is owned by the alpha guerilla gardener Richard Reynolds.  As a typical Brit, Richard loves gardening and when he moved from Devon to the concrete area of London in 2004, he got tired of seeing the raised flowerbed at his front door neglected and overgrown.
He missed gardening so much that one night he got up, dug up the flowerbed himself and planted cuttings his mum gave him.

Since 2004 he's collected more than 4000 members to his beautification movement.  Most of these sneak around under the cover of night, shirking the laws and regulations regarding cultivating public lands.  Some of them - including Richard and team - almost got arrested, yet usually let off with a warning.  After all, who wants to be the cop that ensures public safety and welfare by getting the gardeners of the street, one rogue gardener at a time.

The main and only downside is the law.  Cultivating public lands does not seem so bad but when you consider that these pet projects can grow out of control ... some guidance should be available.  Maybe one of the projects withers and dies, leaving a weed-infested mess or on a more ridiculous scale, how about a nice field of corn in the middle of your favorite park?

Final thoughts:

I wonder however what a 30 year old man is doing out all hours of the night gardening?  And although this has caught on in the states (see video), there might be some reasons to keep on doing it under cover of the night:

• Anyone referring to themselves as "guerilla" breaking the law under cover of the night would possibly find themselves tending to the gardens of Guantanamo Bay.
• Immigrants have the landscaping market cornered but if you are doing it for free in the cool night as opposed to the scorching heat of the sun, you might spend the rest of your days ever suspicious that there is a thirty year old pickup laden with rakes in your rear view mirror.