5 Acts of Guerrilla Gardening to Inspire Your Inner Urban Guerrilla Gardener
November 9, 2013 by Robin Plaskoff Horton
Punched in Manchester.
Guerrilla gardeners around the world are planting political statements or small urban street art exhibitions, and some are just in it to encourage guerrilla gardening everywhere:
1. Guerrilla Gardener Plants Human Rights Statements
Driven by a string of homophobic abuse he and others had experienced, artist Paul Harfleet started The Pansy Project, planting pansies around the world at locations where such incidents occurred, naming each garden after a particular unfortunate event.
2. Grow Your Own Seed Money!
Seed Money, designed by Lea Redmond, are hand-illustrated and letterpress printed ”coins” embedded with seeds and cut into, as the designer quips, tender for tending. Purchase them on Redmond’s website, Leafcutter Designs.
How to Become a Guerrilla Gardener Using Seed Money
• Secretly tuck them into medians, public parks, or your friend’s front yard.
• Leave a few with your tip at a restaurant.
• Leave them on sidewalks for people to stumble upon
• Grow an entire backyard flower/food garden with the full set of coins.
3. SeedTabs Get You Growing With Your Morning Coffee!
Grab your morning cup of joe, then toss some seeds on your way to work.
San Francisco company SeedTabs is collaborating with local java spots to sell little folded packets of organic seeds. They hope to inspire people to spread both the idea and the seeds in common public spaces rather than private ones.
4. Guerrillas in the Midst
Toronto street artist, provocateur, and guerrilla gardener, Posterchild, created this garden in an abandoned flyer box. Of his art, he says, “I am searching for a benevolent, sustainable way to involve myself in our shared public spaces without being arrested or unnoticeable…I create my art from unwanted things…I gather my materials from the flotsam of the urban environment, process it, and return it to the city.” Bravo.
5. Pothole Gardener Commits Illicit Acts of Gardening
His signature: the miniature props he employs to stage his tiny gardens. UK Pothole Gardener extraordinaire, Steve Wheen, plants ubiquitous small-scale gardens around the world, each garden making either a statement or comment or functioning as a mini public exhibition space.
Find more and share your guerrilla gardening finds on our Pinterest board!
Category: Creating, Guerilla Gardening!
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Fighting the Filth with Forks and Flowers. | One Click Closer Pingback said:
[…] Urban Garden: Guerilla Gardening […]
— November 11, 2013 @ 20:33
Great idea! Not really a fan of gardening but seeing your post makes me want to do it right away. Do they still grow fast if planted on urban areas?
— November 21, 2013 @ 08:38
I know, it looks like a lot of fun. How the plant grows would depend on the soil, the amount of rain, the climate, what type of plant it is, etc… but there is nothing specific about urban areas that would make a plant grow slower.
— November 23, 2013 @ 03:22
8 Trend-Setting European Urban Garden Designers MyGardenSchool Pingback said:
[…] By some kind of serendipity, I met Richard before he set up his blog and resources website, Guerrilla Gardening. Weirdly, he was working in advertising when I was working at eBay. Even then, we somehow struck up a conversation about gardening. He is a one off–totally engaging and passionate about changing the world through guerrilla gardening. […]
— December 19, 2013 @ 11:34
Guerrilla Gardening by Bicycle in Holland by Dutch Urban Gardeners Pingback said:
[…] The Dutch love gardening as much as they love cycling. So it makes sense that friends Mathieu Halkes and Olaf Lemmers combined their mutual passions for the two, blending urban gardening and cycling with another of their interests: guerrilla gardening. […]
— January 7, 2014 @ 23:09
Natural Anarchist – 5 Acts of Guerrilla Gardening to Inspire Your Inner Urban Guerrilla Gardener Pingback said:
[…] Guerrilla gardeners around the world are planting political statements or small urban street art exhibitions, and some are just in it to encourage guerrilla gardening everywhere READ MORE […]
— July 24, 2014 @ 15:24
Urban Gardens 2014 Holiday Gift Guide - Urban Gardens Pingback said:
[…] my friend, UK designer/maker, Geoffrey Fisher, the Trook Slingshot is perfect for illicit acts of guerrilla gardening like launching seed bombs. But nota bene–it is not a toy and should be used with care. The […]
— December 3, 2014 @ 22:39
Guerrilla Architecture: Hacktivist Temporary Urban Housing Pingback said:
[…] this concept? Check out what Guerrilla Gardeners like Vanessa Harden and others are doing. var addthis_pub="urbangardens";var […]
— September 4, 2015 @ 18:30
Guerrilla Gardening Idea Brewed For Starbucks - Urban Gardens Pingback said:
[…] Starbucks, designer Freddie Jordan envisioned the SeedPod, a conceptual guerrilla gardening kit that would promote the coffee chain’s sustainable policy. The idea was to give away […]
— October 12, 2015 @ 23:39
Harmony & Nature: Francis Benincà's Environmental Sculptures Pingback said:
[…] works are in parks, public spaces and private gardens, where they function as open shelters for events as well as intimate spaces […]
— December 22, 2015 @ 21:30
Weggl | Guerrilla gardening: 8 prohibited places to plant Pingback said:
[…] 7. Planter box flowers […]
— April 11, 2016 @ 19:35
How to Join the Seed Bomb Squad – enverde Pingback said:
[…] Guerrilla gardeners use them for “aerial reforestation,” or for spreading the seeds to grow plants in inaccessible or neglected areas like railways, empty lots, alleys, fenced off roadways, or abandoned private property. You can launch them over a fence, throw them out your car window, or even toss them out the window of a bus. Engage at your own risk… […]
— August 20, 2016 @ 03:48
I too have done various acts of gurilla gardening.
Planting heavenly blue morning glories at a fence in Chelsea that last for years
subsequent generations self seeding, not red, white or blue, but pink or purple the more wild cultivar.
Burrying wild daylillies in a city park spot that had no vegitation, later adding daffodils which return every year.
The native orange day lilly is very hardy and does ok with the rough treatment on a cityscape.
Now I am crazy for millkweed, and have started a milkweed and day lilly spot in a dead patch of dirt in an other city park.
Milkweed is the only plant that monarch butterflies can leave eggs on. The only plant that the monarch cattwrpillars can feed on. The monarch butterfly is totally dependant on milkweed.
— October 24, 2019 @ 17:11
Seed Bombing - Spiro, Spero Pingback said:
[…] https://www.urbangardensweb.com/2013/11/09/5-acts-of-urban-guerrilla-gardening/ […]
— January 6, 2022 @ 18:42
How to Join the Seed Bomb Squad Pingback said:
[…] Guerrilla gardeners use them for “aerial reforestation,” or for spreading the seeds to grow plants in inaccessible or neglected areas like railways, empty lots, alleys, fenced-off roadways, or abandoned private property. You can launch them over a fence, throw them out your car window, or even toss them out the window of a bus. Engage at your own risk… […]
— July 1, 2022 @ 09:03
UK Artisan-Crafted Slingshots Made From Locally-Sourced Wood. Pingback said:
[…] slingshot is perfect for illicit acts of guerrilla gardening. Add your favorite seed balls and aim for a sadly disused vacant lot or abandoned […]
— July 15, 2022 @ 15:31