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[[Image:Guerrilla gardening.jpg|thumb|right|Guerrilla gardeners planting vegetables in downtown [[Calgary]].]]
'''Guerrilla gardening''' is political [[gardening]], a form of [[nonviolent direct action]], primarily practiced by [[environmentalism|environmentalists]]. Activists take over an abandoned piece of land which they don't own to grow crops or plants. The practices are [[non-violence|non- violent]], unlike [[guerrilla warfare]] that can cause bloodshed. Guerrilla gardeners believe in reclaiming land from perceived neglect or misuse and assigning a new purpose for it.
Guerrilla gardeners will sometimes carry out their actions late at night geared up with gardening gloves, watering cans, compost, seeds and plants. They plant and sow a new vegetable patch or flowering garden. Others will work more openly, actively seeking to engage with members of the local community, as illustrated in the examples that follow.
=="Pure Genius!!"==
One high profile example of Guerrilla Gardening took place in May 1996, when around 500 [[The Land is Ours]] activists, including the [[journalist]] [[George Monbiot]], occupied 13 acres of derelict land belonging to the [[Guinness]] company on the banks of the [[River Thames]] in [[Wandsworth]], south [[London]], in order to highlight what they described as "the appalling misuse of urban land, the lack of provision of affordable housing and the deterioration of the urban environment".
A [[intentional community|community]] grew up on the site called "''[[Pure Genius!!]]''" (named ironically after a well known Guinness advertising slogan) that existed for some five and a half months before finally being [[evict]]ed.
==Mayday 2000==
On [[May Day|May day]] [[2000]], [[Reclaim the Streets]] organised a mass Guerrilla Gardening action in [[Parliament Square]], [[London]]. After a [[carnival|carnivalesque]] procession with [[samba]] band, and [[Critical Mass]] bike ride from [[Hyde Park]], thousands of Guerrilla Gardeners occupied the square and planted [[vegetables]] and [[flowers]]. A [[maypole]] was erected around which many of the gardeners [[danced]]. [[Banners]] hung in the square read; '[[Resistance movement|Resistance]] is [[Fertile]]', 'Let London [[Sprout]]', '[[Capitalism]] is Pants', and 'The [[Earth]] is a Common [[Treasury]] for All,' the latter being a quote from the seventeenth century [[Diggers (True Levellers)|Digger]] [[Gerrard Winstanley]]. An [[Indymedia]] public access terminal was set up in the new [[Allotment (gardening)|allotment]], and the [[statue]] of [[Winston Churchill]] was given a green turf [[Mohawk hairstyle|mohican]].
==Leaf Street Community Garden==
[[Leaf Street]] is an acre of land in [[Hulme]], [[Manchester]] that was once an urban street until turfed over by Manchester City Council. Local people, facilitated by Manchester [[Permaculture]] Group, took direct action in turning the site into a thriving [[community garden]] [http://www.redbricks.org.uk/organisations/leafst/].
==A Long History==
Guerrilla gardening has a long history. A book titled "Guerrilla Gardening" was published in 1983 by John F. Adams and aimed at encouraging amateur gardeners to grow heirloom varieties that are not the result of corporate hybridization. The term appears on [[Bruce Sterling]]'s Veridian mailing list [http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9812/msg00030.html] in December 1998.
In Northern Utah apple trees commonly grow along the banks of canals. Asparagus grows along the smaller ditch banks. Many of these plants were seeded 150 years ago by the workers who dug the canals, by burying lunch's apple core in the freshly dug soil, or by surreptitiously spreading seeds along a new ditchbank. Guerrilla gardening continues today as individuals secretly plant fruit trees, edible perennials, and flowers in parks, along bike trails, etc. Some guerrilla gardeners do so for the purpose of providing food in case of emergency.
==Further reading==
* Lamborn, P., and Weinberg, B. (Eds.), (1999), ''Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in The City and The World''. Autonomedia. ISBN 1-57027-092-9
==See also==
* [[Activism]]
* [[Allotment gardens]]
* [[Diggers (True Levellers)]]
* [[Food security]]
* [[Reclaim the Streets]]
* [[Seed Bomb]]
* [[Seed ball]]
* [[Toronto Public Space Committee]]
* [[Travel blending]]
* [[Flash mob]], [[Smart mob]]
* [[Anarchism]]
* [[Situationism]]
* [[Hakim Bey]], political writer, poet, and self-described "anarchist ontologist": [[Temporary Autonomous Zone]] and [[Pirate Utopia]]
==External links==
* [http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8075862560861551314 An inspirational short film about a Guerilla Gardener]
* [http://www.guerrillagardening.org Guerrilla Gardening in London]
* [http://www.primalseeds.org/guerrilla.htm Primal Seeds on Guerilla Gardening] (based in London)
* [http://WNGD.org World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD)]
* [http://www.gb0063551.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/guerrilla/ Reflections on Guerilla Gardening and Allotmenteering]
*[http://www.tlio.org.uk/campaigns/wandsworth/whaapp.html#contents 'Pure Genius' land squat, Wandsworth, London, 1996]
* [http://publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm Toronto Guerilla Gardening] - Organized by the Toronto Public Space Committee
* [http://www.urban75.org/mayday/index1.html London Mayday 2000 pages on Urban 75]
* [http://wggc.resist.ca Windsor Ontario Guerilla Gardening Collective]
[[Category:Community building]]
[[Category:DIY Culture]]
[[Category:Environmental organizations]]
[[Category:Environmentalism]]
[[Category:Permaculture]]
[[Category:gardening]]
[[Category:Urban agriculture]]
'''Guerrilla gardening''' is political [[gardening]], a form of [[nonviolent direct action]], primarily practiced by [[environmentalism|environmentalists]]. Activists take over an abandoned piece of land which they don't own to grow crops or plants. The practices are [[non-violence|non- violent]], unlike [[guerrilla warfare]] that can cause bloodshed. Guerrilla gardeners believe in reclaiming land from perceived neglect or misuse and assigning a new purpose for it.
Guerrilla gardeners will sometimes carry out their actions late at night geared up with gardening gloves, watering cans, compost, seeds and plants. They plant and sow a new vegetable patch or flowering garden. Others will work more openly, actively seeking to engage with members of the local community, as illustrated in the examples that follow.
=="Pure Genius!!"==
One high profile example of Guerrilla Gardening took place in May 1996, when around 500 [[The Land is Ours]] activists, including the [[journalist]] [[George Monbiot]], occupied 13 acres of derelict land belonging to the [[Guinness]] company on the banks of the [[River Thames]] in [[Wandsworth]], south [[London]], in order to highlight what they described as "the appalling misuse of urban land, the lack of provision of affordable housing and the deterioration of the urban environment".
A [[intentional community|community]] grew up on the site called "''[[Pure Genius!!]]''" (named ironically after a well known Guinness advertising slogan) that existed for some five and a half months before finally being [[evict]]ed.
==Mayday 2000==
On [[May Day|May day]] [[2000]], [[Reclaim the Streets]] organised a mass Guerrilla Gardening action in [[Parliament Square]], [[London]]. After a [[carnival|carnivalesque]] procession with [[samba]] band, and [[Critical Mass]] bike ride from [[Hyde Park]], thousands of Guerrilla Gardeners occupied the square and planted [[vegetables]] and [[flowers]]. A [[maypole]] was erected around which many of the gardeners [[danced]]. [[Banners]] hung in the square read; '[[Resistance movement|Resistance]] is [[Fertile]]', 'Let London [[Sprout]]', '[[Capitalism]] is Pants', and 'The [[Earth]] is a Common [[Treasury]] for All,' the latter being a quote from the seventeenth century [[Diggers (True Levellers)|Digger]] [[Gerrard Winstanley]]. An [[Indymedia]] public access terminal was set up in the new [[Allotment (gardening)|allotment]], and the [[statue]] of [[Winston Churchill]] was given a green turf [[Mohawk hairstyle|mohican]].
==Leaf Street Community Garden==
[[Leaf Street]] is an acre of land in [[Hulme]], [[Manchester]] that was once an urban street until turfed over by Manchester City Council. Local people, facilitated by Manchester [[Permaculture]] Group, took direct action in turning the site into a thriving [[community garden]] [http://www.redbricks.org.uk/organisations/leafst/].
==A Long History==
Guerrilla gardening has a long history. A book titled "Guerrilla Gardening" was published in 1983 by John F. Adams and aimed at encouraging amateur gardeners to grow heirloom varieties that are not the result of corporate hybridization. The term appears on [[Bruce Sterling]]'s Veridian mailing list [http://www.nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-9812/msg00030.html] in December 1998.
In Northern Utah apple trees commonly grow along the banks of canals. Asparagus grows along the smaller ditch banks. Many of these plants were seeded 150 years ago by the workers who dug the canals, by burying lunch's apple core in the freshly dug soil, or by surreptitiously spreading seeds along a new ditchbank. Guerrilla gardening continues today as individuals secretly plant fruit trees, edible perennials, and flowers in parks, along bike trails, etc. Some guerrilla gardeners do so for the purpose of providing food in case of emergency.
==Further reading==
* Lamborn, P., and Weinberg, B. (Eds.), (1999), ''Avant Gardening: Ecological Struggle in The City and The World''. Autonomedia. ISBN 1-57027-092-9
==See also==
* [[Activism]]
* [[Allotment gardens]]
* [[Diggers (True Levellers)]]
* [[Food security]]
* [[Reclaim the Streets]]
* [[Seed Bomb]]
* [[Seed ball]]
* [[Toronto Public Space Committee]]
* [[Travel blending]]
* [[Flash mob]], [[Smart mob]]
* [[Anarchism]]
* [[Situationism]]
* [[Hakim Bey]], political writer, poet, and self-described "anarchist ontologist": [[Temporary Autonomous Zone]] and [[Pirate Utopia]]
==External links==
* [http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=8075862560861551314 An inspirational short film about a Guerilla Gardener]
* [http://www.guerrillagardening.org Guerrilla Gardening in London]
* [http://www.primalseeds.org/guerrilla.htm Primal Seeds on Guerilla Gardening] (based in London)
* [http://WNGD.org World Naked Gardening Day (WNGD)]
* [http://www.gb0063551.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/guerrilla/ Reflections on Guerilla Gardening and Allotmenteering]
*[http://www.tlio.org.uk/campaigns/wandsworth/whaapp.html#contents 'Pure Genius' land squat, Wandsworth, London, 1996]
* [http://publicspace.ca/gardeners.htm Toronto Guerilla Gardening] - Organized by the Toronto Public Space Committee
* [http://www.urban75.org/mayday/index1.html London Mayday 2000 pages on Urban 75]
* [http://wggc.resist.ca Windsor Ontario Guerilla Gardening Collective]
[[Category:Community building]]
[[Category:DIY Culture]]
[[Category:Environmental organizations]]
[[Category:Environmentalism]]
[[Category:Permaculture]]
[[Category:gardening]]
[[Category:Urban agriculture]]
