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Guerrilla Gardening in the New York Times

Tomato

I don’t know how I missed this awesome article in the Times Magazine last week about a guerrilla gardening movement. Did anyone read it?

The article starts:

“Just after sunset on one of the first mild nights of spring, Richard Reynolds parked his hatchback near a traffic circle in the London neighborhood of Hoxton. Tied to his roof were a potted honeysuckle and a dozen box hedge plants, spilling out of garbage bags. Trays of bright white Paris daisies filled the trunk, and cartons of variegated ivy were wedged in the passenger seat. Hipsters drank indifferently outside a nearby pub.

The car was swiftly unstuffed. Soon Reynolds and five accomplices were over a short black fence and onto a small, squalid crescent of land at a bend in the sidewalk. They were ankle-deep in food wrappers and beer bottles and the spindly overgrowth of a bullying bush that Reynolds — bent over, wearing work gloves and high black rubber boots — started clipping fervidly.”

How awesome is the idea of guerrilla gardening? Too cool. Think it would be a good idea for DC?

Category: gardening

By: | 11 June 2008 1:00 PM | No Comments

  • Parkwood Person

    I don’t think it could hurt!

    Somewhere I saw some guerrilla gardening group promoting some sort of garden grenades- they were small bags (of some sort of biodegradable fiber) stuffed with compost and wild flower seeds. The idea was that you could just throw them at your targeted areas as you drove by. The impact would make the seeds spread or something.

  • Parkwood Person

    clearly I didn’t read the article before commenting- there’s a how-to-video on how to make “seed bombs.”

  • Jamie

    I just planted tomatoes in my front yard last night! I’m not sure how my Columbia Heights townhouse yard compares to the setting described here, but I am very curious to see if they will come to fruition before someone messes with them or steals the tomatoes.

  • Schweeney

    Just heard a piece on NPR this am regarding reclaiming vacant (many due to foreclosure) lots for vegetable gardens in Detroit. The city is providing the water for free. The neighbors are responding very favorably.

  • DCer

    is there poison in the dirt that could transfer to the food?

  • Anonymous

    This is such a brilliant idea. I’d love to see DC activists get more involved in this!

  • bogfrog

    so, I will add that our soil is quite rich in nutrients given the number of squatters who used said soil as a toilet



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