Ah yes, Spring is in the air, and it may even be found in the step of keepfaking.it right now. We wrote up this short piece on Guerrilla Gardening for 1010uk.org on Friday, but wanted to re-publish the interview with Richard Reynolds here as he was such an inspirational gent. A man with 110% the right idea.
Guerrilla gardening has sprung up in cities around the world over the last decade, and has turned out to be one of the few things that anarchists and Sunday Telegraph readers can agree on. Sounds good to us.
To get started all you need is a patch disused land, some seeds or bulbs and a fertile imagination. But if you need a bit of advice or even some experienced guerrilla gardeners for your first dig, help is at hand. Guerrillagardening.org is a favourite resource and one of the original catalysts for the trend in the UK. On it you’ll find plenty of community advice on what to grow, where to grow it with and invitations to join existing digs that are planned for the coming months. They even have instructions on how to make your own seed bombs, a must-have in any guerrilla gardener’s arsenal. We interviewed founder Richard Reynolds on Twitter this afternoon, you can see the transcript below.
Pictures tell the story of Guerrilla Gardening better than we possibly could so here’s a selection from the Pimp Your Pavement Flickr group.
Here’s the transcript of our Twitter interview with Guerrillagardening.org founder Richard Reynolds.
@tentenuk: Welcome to the Friday lunchtime Twitter chat. It’s Planting Month right now and we have @Richard_001 of guerrillagardening.org
@tentenuk: We’ve got some questions lined up for @Richard_001 but please jump in with any comments. And be sure to use . @Richard_001 how are u?
@richard_001: I’m good. And all the better for seeing my city (and guerrilla gardens) just got a soaking after a few dry days!
@tentenuk: Great to hear! So let’s begin, in two tweets or less @Richard_001 what is guerrilla gardening?
@richard_001: Gardening someone else’s land, err without asking. Usually public land, usually neglected. We adopt this orphaned space
@richard_001: That was a definition in one tweet!
@tentenuk: Guerrilla gardening seems to be on the rise, why now @Richard_001 ?
@richard_001: More of us in cities, less of us with land and the realisation that digging public places means you meet people
@tentenuk: Cool, we want to start gardening, so how does a regular 10:10er get involved @Richard_001 ?
@richard_001: Spot a plot near where you live, a tree pit, a shabby planter and get sowing and planting.
http://tinyurl.com/6fy6se
@tentenuk: You make guerrilla gardening sounds super easy! How about veg, what are the biggest vegetables you’ve grown @Richard_001 ?
@richard_001: Clumps of swiss chard in SE1… but fruit trees (not veg) are taller. Apples, pears. If you can dig a decent hole this works
@tentenuk: We’re talking to @richard_001 about guerrilla gardening. join in with any questions and see here for more: http://bit.ly/cEouil
@tentenuk: You mention SE1, what are your other favourite places to guerrilla garden @Richard_001? Have you gone international?
@richard_001: Guerilla gardening is best local. But via the GG Community
http://tinyurl.com/y8n65qe you could dig with GGs all over Europe
@tentenuk: Ok, I’m sure like us everyone now wants to see the fruits of you labour. Any examples of photos, tweetphotos etc.@Richard_001
@richard_001: Here’s a YouTube ‘gallery’ of what I’ve been involved with guerrilla gardening around London
http://tinyurl.com/yg6cotr
@richard_001: And here’s an inspiring thriving chard photographed in Clapham
http://tinyurl.com/yhel38j Not sure how tasty though!
@tentenuk: Wow, that’s a great video. Tell us, what do do local authorities have to say? They must be pretty happy with new shrubs? @Richard_001
@richard_001: Most local authorities turn a blind eye and the police can almost always be explained away when they know you’re not robbing
@tentenuk: Tell us about http://pimpyourpavement.org @Richard_001, is guerrilla gardening going mainstream?
@richard_001: http://pimpyourpavement.org This is my new campaign, to focus on micro local public gardens and invite authorities to help
@richard_001: My aim is that guerrilla gardening is so popular that we don’t need to be guerrillas anymore and the land is ours to garden!
@richard_001: The reality is that it’s more effective to garden these scraps of land as guerrillas and get permission (if ever) later
@tentenuk: Just a couple more questions to go in our Twitter interview with @Richard_001. If you have any questions get them in quick
@Ian_Preston76: @tentenuk @Richard_001 do you know of a good website to buy seeds? Need to get my tomatoes & beans in soon
@richard_001: You’re after seeds. Ideally find a local seed swap. Search “seed swap” or “seedy Sunday” and get local seeds
@lowcarbondiary: @Ian_Preston76 I always buy seeds from
http://bit.ly/c78OlP very little packaging, good quality service & cheap!
@tentenuk: Can’t argue with that. Penultimate question from us: Seed Bombs, FTW!?! @Richard_001. Please explain
@richard_001: Seed bombs: a way of gardening ‘hard to reach’ or ‘hard to linger’ places. Definitive guide here:
http://tinyurl.com/lb3r2r
@Childrensfood: @Richard_001 – let’s get growing taught in every school!
@richard_001: Absolutely yes, more growing at school. I had teachers who encouraged my digging the edge of the playground!
@tentenuk: Finally @Richard_001, what are you doing in 2010 to reduce your emissions by 10%
@richard_001: 1. Signed up 2. More bike 3. Less meat 4. Enjoying seasonal food 5. Off to four German cities next week by train to talk GG!
@tentenuk: That’s it from our lunchtime chat. We’re off to plant some Camden pavements. A HUGE thanks to @Richard_001 for stopping by.
@richard_001: Thank you too. Good luck with pimping your pavement, guerrilla gardening I presume! http://www.guerrillagardening.org
@tentenuk: Thanks to all who took part in the gardening chat today. If you want some 10:10 stickers let us know.
