There's guerrillas in the garden...

by Lucy Doyle

At first glance, the phrase ‘guerrilla gardeners’ might seem a contradiction in terms.

The word guerrilla conjures up dark connotations of underground groups, intent on overthrowing a government.

However, across Europe and the US, there is a growing community of people bringing a more uplifting meaning to the expression.

Armed with shovels and colourful, yet practical plants (which do, of course, have to be hardy enough to live without constant upkeep), these ‘guerrilla gardeners’ target derelict spaces, with the aim of transforming them into gardens and vegetable patches, as a part of a mission to "fight the war against neglect."

Many act alone, while others arrange large-scale planting events, organised on website forums and groups.

Giant sunflowers

One such person is Naomi Gay, a 27-year-old freelance consultant for the charity sector.

After moving to Hackney and seeing an article on guerrilla gardening, she decided to give it a go herself, by placing an ad for volunteers to join in a mass bulb planting on the Guerrilla Gardening Forum.

To her “amazement“, she says, “people turned up and kept turning up.”

Speaking to Extra about the positive reactions she receives, she said: “Lots of my neighbours have thanked me.

"When we grew giant sunflowers, you would see toddlers stop and look up in amazement, as they had never seen anything like it before.

“You’d be surprised at people’s reactions – the teenage ‘hoodies’ even gave up some of their Friday nights weeding, and people come out with tea and cake for us.”

Similarly, William White, a 50-year-old library caretaker from Stoke-on-Trent, speaks of the unity that guerrilla gardening encourages.

He got into it inadvertently 25 years ago, when he threw some wild geranium seeds near a newly built supermarket.

He says: “Twenty-three years pass: walking past one summer day, I realised that the mass of pink in the area was the very seeds I had sown all that time before.“

For the last few years, he has been mass-producing plants in his garden, ready to plant them in newly exposed areas.

He said: “I like the idea that what I am doing now will be quite magical forever more.

"I think GG [guerrilla gardening] has exposed a need in society – and peoples lives – where a whole range of types and ages of people can come together with ideas for improving their communities, without formal organisation and the swamp of official permission.

"It is the spirit of anarchism.

"It can connect people to the earth they walk on.”

Inspiring it may be, but the activity does not come without its perils: being a form of illegal trespassing, many therefore work covertly, late at night.

One anonymous web forum member recalls their group being asked to stop by the police: “No sooner had we edged the turf and cleared the weeds, than a police car startled us.

"Then a police van circled and about 10 or so officers stepped out…

"We tried to explain.

"But their response was, ‘this is criminal damage. Put down your tools.’”

Differing approaches

Richard Reynolds, author of On Guerrilla Gardening, and whose blog guerrillagardening.org has become a worldwide hit for like-minded enthusiasts, started “illicitly cultivating London land” in October 2004, by restoring some brick planters near his tower block home in Elephant & Castle.

He told Time Out magazine about the differing approaches to guerrilla gardening ‘across the pond’, saying: “I have been inspired by the success of guerrilla gardens in New York becoming protected community gardens."

While many guerrilla gardeners act out of political altruism, there are others who intend on delivering more of a pointed message.

Last year, Don’t Panic magazine posted a video on its website of a reporter from the magazine entering Tory MP Alan Duncan’s garden, and ‘treating’ him to a free garden feature, by digging out some earth in the shape of a pound sign, and filling it with flowers.

What is the relation to gardening?

Duncan had been recently exposed in the MP’s expenses scandal, for claiming almost £4,000 in gardening fees.

As Reynolds points out, this example is at the “more extreme end” of the spectrum, but it is worth noting that some politicians do offer their support to the movement.

Christopher Wellbelove, the Mayor of Lambeth, has spoken about having sowed sunflower seeds in neglected spaces.

Meanwhile, Reynolds recalls planting sunflower seeds opposite the Houses of Parliament, and thrusting a pack into the hands of a passing John Prescott, who seemed, “confused, bemused and then supportive.”

Reynolds told Time Out: “Whether it was down to Prescotts’s interest or not, by the middle of the summer, those seeds have become towering, triumphant symbols of the opportunity in the land around us.“

Reynolds summed up the feeling of guerrilla gardeners, telling Extra: “Whether you’re trying to create a little green paradise on land neglected, or you want to use plants as a provocative protest: that’s guerrilla gardening. You’ll see the landscape in a whole new way and you’ll begin to feel like the place really is yours to look after, and make your mark on– and that’s a liberating feeling."