Guerilla Gardening

May 2010 Why am I guerilla gardening? What is my aim? I really can’t bear to see bits of land in an urban setting growing nothing but weeds. I want to see something attractive/useful growing in those settings. Urban areas need more plant life, to mitigate rain, pollution, provide wildlife habitat, and encourage the spirit. I also love the idea of having food available to all who want to harvest it. I first thought about this years ago, when being aggravated about all the double-flowering plums/cherries planted in town for their flowers. If they were the single-flowering varieties, they would be producing massive amounts of FOOD. Why can’t public spaces be planted to food-bearing plants, and volunteer gleaning groups founded to harvest the fruit for the food bank? Why can’t churches grow fruit trees, berry bushes, strawberries for ground-cover, fruiting vines on trellises, and have the congregation help harvest it? The food could go first to anyone in the congregation who wants it, and then to the food bank. And if anybody else wants to harvest some for their own use-offer it freely. Why is there not an article in guidelines to urban forestry, that encourages nut and fruit bearing trees, fruit-bearing shrubs, food-bearing groundcovers? I want to establish plant guilds that provide food, and that produce seed for annuals, that can be then dropped into the next hole over. By the next telephone pole. In the next abandoned street planter. At the base of the next chain-link security fence. There are many plants that will establish themselves, be harvestable, and produce seed at the appropriate time for replanting, if given the chance. I have noticed flowers in several places in town, that are second-year salsify plants going to seed. Knowing that it is established in several locations, a person could look for the first year plants in the same locations, and harvest them to cook.