Guerrilla Gardens: The Grassroots Fight Against Blight

1. uerrilla
ardens
COURTESY OF SCOTT BUNNELL
28 GREEN LIVING SPRING 2012

2. aA
The grassroots fight against blight
S A POSTAL CARRIER
IN THE CITY of Long
Beach, Calif., Scott
Bunnell sees some
of the city’s most
neglected plots of land: the vacant
By Matt Villano for USA TODAY
The land is there. Why not make it beautiful?
Scott Bunnell, postal carrier and guerrilla gardener, Long Beach, Calif.
lots, the dilapidated buildings, the
overgrown yards, the dusty traffic make communities around the like: patches of dirt planted with
medians. country a bit more green. flowers suited to the climate and
For more than 15 years, Bunnell Most of these activists say they area. The latter are a bit more
took mental notes on these do it to beautify run-down portions complicated and involve plants
eyesores, thinking about how he of their neighborhoods. Others say that don’t need to be watered to
could make them nicer. Finally, in they do it to grow free food. thrive, such as succulents.
the late 1990s, he decided to do Bunnell’s gardens, which can be
something about it. Sprouting up found on traffic medians, freeway
In the years that followed, Nobody knows exactly how or off ramps, and bike paths, fall into
Bunnell and others have met when guerrilla gardening began. the xeriscape category. He plants
under the cover of darkness and Some say it was in the 1960s, drought-tolerant succulents that
stealthily converted almost a when peaceniks in West Coast he grows in a greenhouse in his
dozen vacant spots into beautiful cities such as Los Angeles and San backyard.
gardens. The guerrilla gardeners Francisco took it upon themselves When he selects a site for a
became Robin Hoods of the Los to brighten up some of the most garden, he first tests the soil
Angeles area, a band of merry men dilapidated lots in their com- composition. Next, he draws
and women who worked to make munities. Others say it wasn’t a sketch of his vision for the
the gritty look good again. until 1973, when Liz Christy, an garden—typically big plants in the
“The land is there,” Bunnell says. activist, formed a group called back or center and smaller plants
“Why not make it beautiful?” Green Guerrillas and turned a in the front and on the edge. He
The gardeners’ work is private lot in New York’s Bowery then selects the plants. Most of
remarkable. Passersby marvel neighborhood into an elaborate his gardens feature agaves, aloes,
at the gardens without knowing garden. Still others insist that flowering cacti, oak trees, and
who created them. The catch? modern interpretation of the palm trees.
Bunnell is cultivating land without phrase started in London, where Finally Bunnell sets a time to
permission and, in some cases, Richard Reynolds has become plant the garden and announces
breaking the law. a mini-celebrity. Reynolds also the plan to other guerrilla
Welcome to the world of guer- launched guerrillagardening.org, gardeners through his website,
rilla gardening, where flora-lovers which many guerrilla gardeners socalguerrillagardening.org.
enter a legal gray areaI in the use to organize their campaigns. On planting day, Bunnell arrives
name of green. Though no official Today, the vast majority of at the site with a truck full of
statistics exist, anecdotal evidence projects involve two basic kinds supplies: plants, water, and shovels
suggests that hundreds if not thou- of gardens: flower gardens and for all. He oversees an exhaustive
sands of gardeners just like Bunnell xeriscape gardens. The former weeding job and then instructs
have flouted local ordinances to are exactly what they sound CO N T I N U E D
GREEN LIVING 29

3. participants on how and where to Mark Winne, an author based Another one, in Youngstown,
place the plants. He encourages in Santa Fe, N.M., spotlighted this produced 190 pounds at peak
them to pick up trash and asks phenomenon in his 2010 book, bloom.
everyone to take a bag of trash Food Rebels, Guerrilla Garden- “If you’re ready to plant
with them to throw away. ers and Smart-Cookin’ Mamas: something beautiful, you have
“It’s not just about the garden. Fighting Back in an Age of Industrial to ask yourself, ‘Can people eat
It’s about changing the whole Agriculture. Winne says that after this?’ ” Small says. “When people
landscape,” he says. “If we can years of reporting, he concluded are hungry, when they can’t afford
clean up an entire block through that guerrilla gardening is a way to buy their own food, tomatoes,
this process, we’ve done the for people to feel like they’re collard greens, onions, and lettuce
community a great service.” taking control of their lives and can be things of true beauty.”
their communities. The way Small sees it, there are
Planting for produce “It’s simple, but it’s true: Guer- two secrets to his success. First,
In recent years, a new kind of rilla gardening is just making the he grows all of his own plants and
guerrilla garden has sprouted in most of the resources and tools brings them to the gardens as
the national scene: the fruit and at hand to give your community seedlings. Second, he makes a big
vegetable garden. what it needs,” he says. deal of compost. He and his adult
In these instances, gardeners Without question, the star son work with local restaurants
plant, cultivate, and manage of Winne’s book is 47-year-old and community members to
gardens in underprivileged urban Maurice Small. Since the mid- collect materials for composting.
areas for the explicit purpose of 1980s, Small has helped create They add these materials to
growing food. Throughout each more than 500 gardens in and biodegradable waste and use the
season, as gardeners harvest around Cuyahoga County, Ohio, finished product as a supplement
oranges, kale, lettuce, peppers, and near his Cleveland home. One for soil and fertilizer.
other produce, they donate the of the gardens, at an abandoned Small insists this compost
fruits and vegetables to local food school in Elyria, produced 285 boosts everything in his gardens.
pantries. pounds of produce per week. CO N T I N U E D
Setting off seedbombs
Much like guerrilla fighters, guerrilla combinations of seeds.
gardeners have an arsenal of weapons at Since 2010, Greenaid has blitzed the
their disposal. Traditionalists generally stick market with seedbombs, selling them online
to the basics: seedlings, compost, and water and in vending machines located in super-
by the gallon. Others have taken advantage markets and home improvement stores
of a new tool: a gumball-sized grenade of across the country.
greenness called a What’s more, Greenaid provides
seedbomb. customers with interactive maps that detail
Technically speak- locations in various cities and regions where
ing, seedbombs are people have used seedbombs. The maps
compressed bundles of also allow users to suggest locations for
soil and paper pulp that reforestation—introducing plants to a plot of future bombs.
contain live vegetation. land from the air. “We’re really trying to build a community,”
The bombs provide The tactic has been around since the says Daniel Phillips, co-director of the
a quick and easy 1930s, when planes used the method company. “That way, people help each
way for guer- to plant new flora on remote hillsides other.”
rilla gardeners that had been ravaged by fire. It became Numbers indicate the plan is working.
to engage in popular in the 1960s, when peace-loving In less than two years, the company has
COURTESY OF SEEDBOMBS
something activists used aerial reforestation to make distributed more than 100 vending machines
botanists green, not war in areas of urban blight. around the world and sold about 100,000
refer These days, seedbombing has become so seedbombs. That equates to more than
to as sophisticated that gardeners can purchase 50 million individual seeds being spread
aerial pre-made bombs containing different worldwide.
30 GREEN LIVING SPRING 2012

4. To solve this conundrum, many
guerrilla gardeners strive to
establish personal connections in The
the communities they serve. The
hope is to inspire residents to care nature of
for the gardens once they take
root by assuming watering duties
a guerrilla
and protecting the gardens from garden is
vandalism and theft.
Guerrilla gardeners also risk
transient.
run-ins with local police and They are
other forms of law enforcement.
Reynolds, the London-based meant
gardener, has a colorful history to call
of interacting with police. Here
in the U.S., gardeners report attention
fewer incidents, though most say
they’ve been accosted at least
to an
once or twice. Bunnell’s group issue and
has had a handful of run-ins with
workers from CalTrans, the state confront
agency in charge of the freeway aesthetic
off-ramps on which gardens have
been planted. Thankfully, he tyranny.
notes, none of his gardeners has Emily Eisele,
been arrested yet. activist, Detroit
What’s next
Most guerrilla gardeners say
their efforts make tangible differ-
ences in their communities. They
vow to continue their work in the
His secret ingredients: “Love and lot in the city of Hamtramck, name of the greater good. Other
tenderness,” he says. Mich.. In the spring of 2010, the gardeners, however, say that as
garden was removed to make way materials and land become more
Inherent challenges for a new housing project. expensive, under-the-radar efforts
With all of the benefits of guer- “The nature of a guerrilla garden likely will be taken over by formal
rilla gardening, it’s hard to imagine is transient. They are meant to call community garden groups.
a downside. But it’s there. attention to an issue and confront In New York, for instance, the
No. 1 on the list is the problem aesthetic tyranny,” she says. “If Green Guerrillas organization,
of impermanence. Because local change occurs—if a real park is formed in 1973, no longer focuses
governments rarely sanction built when the community defends on guerrilla work. Instead, the
guerrilla gardens on public land, the space, much needed housing group’s members support
the gardens lack protection is erected, or the owner begins established efforts in community
from destruction or removal. taking care of their abandoned gardens across Manhattan and
Guerrilla gardens on private land lot—then something has been other boroughs.
face a similar challenge. Any accomplished.” Steve Frillman, who heads the
time property owners decide to Watering is another constant organization, says the transition
COURTESY OF JENNIFER SANTILLANA
wipe out a garden, they can, no headache. Many flowering plants was inevitable. With more than
questions asked. need water to live, and it can 600 community gardens now in
Emily Eisele, an activist from be difficult to come up with New York City, citizens have ample
Detroit, planted a garden of irises, reliable watering strategies in opportunities to beautify their
daylilies, yarrow, autumn joy, and illicit gardens where no irrigation neighborhoods without fear of
other perennials in a trash-strewn systems exist. breaking the law. '
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