#guerilla garden

[roseredsnow]

Day 45!

19th June 2023 (posting 21st)

As mentioned in the last post about my Guerilla garden some people started hanging out in my spot and leaving rubbish and the remains of a fire behind.

So I went back to pick up the litter and was pleasantly surprised to see some, but not all picked up so I got the rest.

Since I took an entire bin bag down and didn't end up with as much as I thought I went to another spot I knew had a fire at and cleaned up round there and on the way found some mushrooms.

I Google inage searched and turns out they're artists fungi.

Years ago I think precovid a load of trees were chopped down just behind where I'm standing in this picture, were it not for the big log on the end I remember getting pictures on in a cosplay shoot with a friend I wouldn't of recognised the area because it's now full of plants growing tall again.

I want to find some native plants to put in my spot since my wildflowers failed but currently not having much luck in regular shops so may have to expand my search.

[robinlovexo]

might* fuck around and make some seed bombs

🌱🌸🪻🌷🌼🌿

*this is not a might, i absolutely will be doing this and inviting all my friends over

GUERILLA GARDENING💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼💪🏼‼️

[solarpunkani]

*poke poke*

*nudge*

You wanna guerrilla garden some swamp milkweed around a retention pond so bad.

[climatecalling]

“Guerrilla gardening is the practice of planting in public spaces in your neighbourhood” she says on a humid summer afternoon, walking between outlaw flower beds in Hackney, east London. “And that’s how I define it … because, for me, it’s all about community ownership and belonging, and I think we have a right to cultivate these spaces in the areas we call home – and a responsibility to, as well. “So-called public spaces have been really privatised, and communities actually don’t get a chance to interact with them often. So I think we do have a right to do that in the places we put down our roots, where we live.” ... “I do think there is an issue in society at the moment with the lack of agency and autonomy for people,” she says. “Guerrilla gardening, even if it is just sowing something in a tree bed, it might not change the world – you might help some bees, you might bring joy to someone walking down the street – but you’re also reminding people, or awakening something that is like ‘Maybe this is how it should be.’

[dandelionbitch]

Today I planted cardinal flower, swamp milkweed, and Canadian milk vetch at the bottom next to a creek. I hope they get enough sun, I had to plant them pretty close to the trees to protect them from the lawnmowers.

[treetreader]

Oh i totally forgot to post this! I was flipping through The Goblin Market at the library and this just exploded my brain! I know guerrilla gardening is a thing but guerrilla grafting? What! So cool and i totally never thought of it.

Where instead of sowing seeds in the traditional guerrilla gardening/seed bombing style, you instead graft edible branches to existing (and related species so the graft takes) root networks! That way the plant now bears food in a much shorter period of time than starting from seed. (Or buying saplings which can get expensive where i live)

Hell yeah

[troythecatfish]

[dipperdesperado]

guerrilla gardening is very cool

I’m really stoked to talk about praxis and solarpunk today. Hopefully, you all know what solarpunk is. I imagine fewer of you know what praxis is. Essentially, praxis is a term, used a lot by leftists, to talk about doing stuff. It’s a practice or activity, informed by theoretical and experiential knowledge. In our goal to create an ecological society informed by appropriate technology, we should think not only about the massive upheavals but the things that we can do right now. That’s where guerrilla gardening comes in.

Gardening in general is activism, but guerrilla gardening is like, super solarpunk. The rundown is essentially when you and/or a group of homies take some love-starved land and turn it into a garden (or just plant stuff there) without permission from the owner of said land. That lack of permission is what makes it guerrilla. This can lead to a better community, and supports abolition (of private property), autonomy, and collective resiliency. Ideally, you can get public support behind ya, and be able to work with the municipality to not get in trouble. The classic asking for forgiveness than permission, until you’re the one that can decide.

Where to Start: X Marks the Spot

When you (and your small-but mighty collective/affinity group) decide that you want to set up a guerrilla garden, the first thing you want to do is find a good spot. It can be that little line of grass that split up two sides of the road, a sidewalk bed, or an empty lot. You want to make sure there’s good sunlight and decent soil. If the soil ain’t good, but you wanna do stuff there, I’d recommend researching how to rehabilitate it. Obviously, that’s more work, though.

Once you have your target spot, you’ll need your tools and plants. Some basic things will be gloves, a trowel, a water source (like a can or hose), and plants/seeds. Some nice-to-haves could be mulch, compost, or soil amendments. It depends on what you’re planting and what your conditions are to know what you’ll need to bring. If you’re in a high visibility area, it could be nice to have some clothing that makes sure you don’t look suspect. That’s probably a good general rule of thumb. Act like you deserve to be in the space because you do! If you look suspect, people will think as much.

Prepping the Garden

Once you have everything you need, you’ll need to get the garden site ready. If you need to clear it out, whether there’s vegetation you’re not interested in, trash, debris, etc., do that. Ideally, you can also improve the soil quality with stuff like compost and organic stuff if you need to.

Time for Plants!

Here’s where the real fun begins. Get some plants going! You want the ones you pick to be a good fit for the target climate and soil. Even better if some of them are edible. When you’re planting, be sure to space the plants out and water them pretty well. If you're planting seeds, be patient! It can take a few weeks for the plants to sprout.

Garden Tending

Now that you have a garden going, it’s time to keep it up. You want to water them regularly and watch out for any invasives or weeds that could crowd out your plants. You might also have to add additional amendments to the soil, to keep the plants happy. Try to make sure to think about and account for issues in the garden. Whether that’s nonhuman neighbors or mean vandals, you want to try to think of ways to uphold the values of the project while protecting its continued existence.

Permablitzing

I also want to touch on some more specific types of guerrilla gardening. Firstly, let’s talk about permablitzing.

Permablitizing is a portmanteau between permaculture and blitzing. Permaculture is a type of gardening and farming that aspires to copy natural ecosystems to create harmonious gardens that are self-sustaining. It generally will include a mix of native, edible, and wildlife-attracting plants. Permablitzing is taking that permaculture idea and rallying the community to create a permaculture garden in a single day.

It looks a little something like this: volunteers collectively design and install the garden. They put in garden beds, plant trees, and shrubs, and install irrigation. There might also be compost systems, raised beds, or accessible walkways through the garden. Permablitzing is great because it’s relatively quick, it’s tangible and immediately garners buy-in. It’s more about finding the space to do this and finding people who are willing to participate.

Seedbombing

If you’re not able to work with a group, or you just want to be able to very quickly deposit new plants in places, you can seedbomb!

Seedbombs are small packages of seeds wrapped in soil that can be thrown or dropped onto the ground. This kinda stuff is great for rewinding and restoring neglected or degraded areas. Just make sure you do research! You don’t wanna introduce invasive or incompatible plants.

The basic seedbomb recipe is:

Soil

Clay or compost

Seeds

You mix them together, roll them into small balls, then let them dry. You can just toss them into your target areas. Seedbombing is great because it’s fun and creative while being a great way to un-neglect neglected areas. You can also do it alone or with the homies. It’s a very flexible guerrilla option.

Final thoughts

One of the most important things to think about when trying to enact social change is aligning your ends (the liberatory future you envision) with your means (the things you do to get to that vision). Guerrilla gardening is great to this end as a form of praxis because it allows for this to be realized in the here and now. It helps us realize that we don’t have to wait until people let us do what we think is right. If you see an issue, you can respond to it. Also, gardening is fun, gets you outside, and allows you to be more connected with the earth, which is just so so so good for you. Be smart, keep each other safe, and good luck with your gardening!

[goodthingstoknoww]

https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZT8JE22dj/

[roseredsnow]

Day 35 (I think)

June 8th 2023

Garlic and cherry tree!

At least four (three shown) of the garlic I planted has sprouted, the one I haven't shown is a quite small but it's there.

Really happy because this is the first thing I've actually seen grown that I planted none of the wildflowers seem to of done anything and everything else may just take longer

However

The cherry tree at home sprouted some off shoots and while my godmother claimed one I planted the other just outside the patch I've been working in.

This one was literally growing from a root that wasn't fully in the ground at home so hopefully it will do even better actually in the soil.

Unfortunately a group seem to of taken a liking to my area and have left a load of rubbish and the remains of a campfire so need to clean up the rubbish soon and hope they don't cause any damage with the fire.

[solarpunkswy]

Make sure you utilize this rainwater! Rain barrels, watering cans, and gardens that use rainwater are all amazing ideas! Rain barrels are a fairly easy DIY and pretty inexpensive. Enjoy this weather before it gets hot!

[thelindenpapers]

Corporations and the ultra rich have been either hoarding, or ruining (via pollution) land and resources all around the world for centuries now.

This creates a Cage for people, similar to what happened to the Common Lands in Europe -- because if you don't have access to and the ability to organize together with your community for food, water, and shelter, then you don't have access to life.

You are then coerced and forced to obey those who stole that land from you, in order to survive.

To play whatever game they set up, and to be compelled to believe whatever lies the ultra rich feel would justify their exploitative behaviors in the first place.

Hijacking, manipulating, and controlling all the ways that people subsist for the sake of power and profit is the core tenet of Capitalism.

The owning class has seen people start to wake up and gain class consciousness. So, they want to be sure to try to close the Cage as fast as possible, before even their sycophant conservative followers can understand what's going on.

The persecution of people and groups who try to protect land from corporations, trying to create community gardens, or try to feed the homeless, are a part of that process of Earth's enclosure.

The acceleration of genocides and the enclosure of the lands in which those genocides take place, are a part of that.

Dispossession of small farming operators and growers will be part of it.

Which is why understanding permaculture, foraging, and food forestry, and organizing together to protect the land and sow native and zone appropriate seeds can be so helpful in the fight against capitalism.

[robinlovexo]

working on the paths in my garden today! beets, carrots, cilantro and onions in this bed :3

[lovelycloudsart]

saying some dreams out loud

[bluecatwriter]

Like four years ago, my spouse and I guerilla-gardened some Jerusalem artichokes (actually a native Midwestern sunflower) along a trail that we frequent. We see the plants every year, but usually they get mowed to the ground before they bloom. This year, for whatever reason, the mowers have stayed away, so yesterday I was delighted to see them in full bloom, with bonus Monarch butterfly!

It's nice to see something we planted so many years ago still going strong, despite the mowing.

[dandelionbitch]

My mom and I have, on several occasions, developed the same/similar interests at around the same time without either of us directly influencing the other. So naturally, the same year I start taking guerilla gardening and habitat restoration seriously, she gets deep into herbalism and wildcrafting. Meaning we both take walks around the neighborhood and try to identify plants, albeit for slightly different reasons. Now that I’ve unlocked the ability to travel much farther than I could before, and with a lot of seeds I ordered from a local nursery about to come in the mail, I’m delighted at the prospect of her finding new plants this summer and not knowing it was me that put them there (I don’t want her to worry about me getting in trouble so I’ve kept my new hobby to myself). I wonder if this is how she felt wrapping presents from Santa.