The earliest record of the term guerrilla gardening being used was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York. They transformed a derelict private lot into a garden. Since then, it has grown and grown and there are now several thousand guerilla gardeners all around the world.
Greensoul is delighted to have interviewed Richard Reynolds, the unofficial patron of guerilla gardening in the UK for a quick insight into his guerilla world whose activities also include planting sunflowers in various urban corners of the world…as well as seed bombs...
I hope you enjoy the interview and that it makes you get those hands dirty ! ;-)
• What inspired you to become a guerilla gardener ?
Not having a garden and seeing the opportunity to create one in the neglected flower beds near where I lived. I'm a keen gardener and missed having a garden. I was unaware of guerrilla gardening as a concept, it just seemed like the obvious thing to do and call it.
• How difficult or easy is it to become a guerilla gardener ?
It's very easy. "The illicit cultivation of someone else's land" is how most of us define it. So sowing seeds outside your garden is guerrilla gardening.
• What does the future hold for guerilla gardening ?
More people doing it (population pressure, urbanisation, degradation of land will make the issue of having space to grow things greater and resolving the issue via some assertive guerrilla action is more likely). Also, as the idea spreads and is generally well received more people feel it's something they can do.
• What advice would you give greensoulers out there who want to lead a more green, sustainable life ?
Do it, don't just talk about it. The biggest barrier is a fear of the change. What I discovered by just doing the garden rather than wishing I had one or wishing someone else would sort out the mess, what a lot of other unexpected benefits - I got to know my neighbours better for a start.
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/
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