Gardening on the Edge
A Beginners Guide to Guerilla Gardening
There are few who would argue that gardening is an art form and much like other forms of art there are generally two sides to it: a mainstream, more clean aesthetic gardening philosophy, as well as a more gritty and hardcore gardening philosophy. This article will focus on the latter form of gardening, also known as ‘Guerilla Gardening’.
In its purest sense, Guerilla Gardening is a form of gardening in which gardeners covertly (often at night) plant various perennials and other garden life on pieces of land that they want to ‘re-claim’. These pieces of land are often located on larger pieces of city owned or corporately owned properties (i.e. the space under fences, beneath sewer grates, inside abandoned buildings). This movement can also be considered alternative landscaping, as many of these Guerilla Gardeners are actually greatly improving the landscape of the areas in which they are planting.
The history of this gardening movement traces back to New York in the 1970’s, where a group of gardeners led by Liz Christy transformed a derelict private lot into a flourishing garden. This alternative landscaping method has now spread to many parts of the world, as gardeners everywhere are beginning to find this concept more appealing.
As the world becomes more concerned with sustaining the environment and fighting back against the industrialization of major cities, it is expected that this form of gardening is only going to become more common. We can expect to see more impromptu gardening examples such as the one in June of 1996, when 1000 gardeners transformed an empty piece of land in the middle of a city in Denmark into a garden.
These Guerilla Gardening projects can give even the non-activist gardener landscaping ideas, such as planting perennials along their own sidewalks, or within empty areas of their own property (i.e. spaces between fences and objects, or small spaces between houses). The important message of Guerilla Gardening is to spread the joy of gardening and the beauty of nature to as many people as possible. Regardless of political agenda, we can all enjoy this form of art as its true intention is simply to make our cities more beautiful.
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