Well I think this is a Brilliant idea.!! With them all the way..!!!!!!

Marley Farley · Apr 15, 2010

I think this is such a great idea I am tempted around here if I could find somebody to do it with..!!!!!! :lollol: A good idea none the less what do you all think..???????????????????????? :wink:

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"Guerrilla gardeners" sprucing up London by night

Yesterday, 05:39 pm
Rebekah Curtis
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They defy the power of the state with raids under cover of darkness using grenades, slingshots and surreptitious sprinkling in an all out war to beautify the British capital's neglected public spaces. Skip related content
London's "guerrilla gardeners," armed with spades and trowels, are behind a number of the floral displays on the city's roundabouts (traffic circles) and roadside spaces.
They often operate in the dark of night because they are gardening in public spaces without permission from governmental authorities who don't often take kindly to their interference.
"I will do it at night or when it's pouring with rain," said Richard Reynolds, founder of website www.guerrillagardening.org and author of "On Guerrilla Gardening."
"When it's a new location it's better out of hours. You're less likely to have confrontation with a contractor," said the 32-year-old, whose job is in advertising. "You don't know what's going to happen."
Some participants start operating in daylight as they gain confidence, he said, and add their own touches to the city when no one is looking.
For weeks, one city worker has been sprinkling thousands of wild flower seeds in the capital during his daily walk to work, because he wants to brighten up the city, he said.
The term "guerrilla gardening" arose in the 1970s, when New Yorker Liz Christy set up a group called Green Guerrillas to garden in neglected public space.
The area that the New York group first developed is now protected by the authorities and kept up by volunteers.
But even as far back as the 17th century, English political activist Gerrard Winstanley was sowing the seeds of guerrilla gardening when he planted crops in public spaces.
Local authorities can be dead set against guerrilla gardening or turn a blind eye, Reynolds said.
He aims to rally government support for public gardening with a "Pimp your Pavement" campaign.
"I'm seeing if I can change some policy in London to get local authorities not just to silently tolerating what we do, but to support it, as has happened in Berlin, Vancouver, and Amsterdam," he said.
MISCHIEVOUS
Today, in central London's Lambeth North area, any passers-by admiring a traffic island brimming with tulips, lavender, shrubs and cabbages are looking at a recent act of guerrilla gardening by Reynolds, he said.
"It shows what you can get away with," he said, adding the display lies on the border between Southwark and Lambeth councils. He said council views on guerrilla gardening differ.
Lambeth was encouraging, but wanted gardeners to "get in touch" before any projects. Southwark was less welcoming.
"By its very nature, the guerrilla gardening initiative seems to need to operate in a covert and surreptitious manner and acts on an assumption that there is no other means of achieving its aims," a Southwark Council Spokesman said. "This is something that the council would take issue with."
Reynolds has also gardened in public spaces in Libya, France, Germany and the Czech Republic and said successful guerrilla gardeners share similar character traits:
"Optimistic, imaginative and a bit mischievous."
Some guerrilla gardeners follow the example of New York's Christy and use "seed grenades" -- clods of earth and seeds that they throw onto land. The first seed grenades, in the 1970s, were made by stuffing seeds into condoms.
And professional gardeners, too, can be mischievous.
"One method would be to wrap seeds in water-soaked tissue paper and just hurl them somewhere," said Karen Meager, a professional gardener and landscaper in London.
"I have plans to do it from a canal boat and sling-shot seeds onto wasteland. I'm going to do it along the Regents Canal this summer," said Meager, 40.
Guerrilla gardeners plan meet-ups through blogs and social networking sites such as Facebook, and thanks to the internet they can now work together across borders, even organizing simultaneous gardening events in different countries.
May 1 will mark "International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day," when people across the globe are set to plant sunflowers in public spaces.
The event was inspired by Brussels Farmer in Belgium, a group of guerrilla gardeners that plants sunflowers across Brussels.
A page on Facebook that Reynolds dedicated to the event has registered nearly 700 potential participants so far.
"Guerrilla gardeners are livening up places that really could do with it," Meager said.
"Just seeing those green shoots lifts your soul entirely."
Click to expand...

Sussexgardener · Apr 15, 2010

They've been doing that for a while, but it's a great idea. Good to see some peope care about their environment.

There is also a 'chicken roundabout' in the Norfolk area, where silly people have dumped unwanted cockerels and cross breed chickens onto a huge roundabout. Over the years they have evolved into a semi-feral population.

Marley Farley · Apr 15, 2010

:lollol: OMG Aaron, hope they fenced them in first..!!! :dh: Strange what ideas us humans can come up with. Wonder what we will think of next... !! :lollol:

:thumb: The idea of planting up neglected roundabouts etc is great though if it makes us all feel a little better for seeing it.. !! :thumb:

Sussexgardener · Apr 15, 2010

http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1714813

Found this re the feral chicken population.

NatalieB · Apr 15, 2010

I love it! Can just see people walking along to work each day, scattering seed as they go! Will have to checkout the facebook user group!

Victoria Plum · Apr 15, 2010

Hee hee... Brilliant.. a kind of hippy uprising!

Axie-Ali · Apr 15, 2010

I will from now on scatter spare seed discretly from my pockets as I walk.....like gravel in 'the great escape'!!

Agatha_M · Apr 15, 2010

I'd reserve opinion until I see the plants some of the guerillas plant out into impossible spaces survive a day, a week, a month or even a whole season without nasty damages on them.

Surely, they won't dry out here in the UK, but there are other, less fortunate countries where poor pansies (or anything else for that matter) chucked into cracks of asphalt or planted along in the narrow stretch between the pavement and a busy road wouldn't survive the trial... They dry out, got trampled over or in extreme cases got nicked. And, realistically saying, none of these places are a plant's ideal habitat although they do help to cheer up passers-by, not to say their share in diminishing air pollution. :p (only joking, sorry...)

But fast germinating seed bombs are a wonderful idea and sight instead of weeds! Aren't these, otherwise neglected areas sheared regularly?

Boghopper · Apr 15, 2010

I know the roudabout well, just outside Bungay. It's great to see them and be reminded that they are birds and that they roost in the trees overnight. Here's a link the website. http://www.chickenroundabout.co.uk/

Chris

Marley Farley · Apr 15, 2010

:dh: Brilliant stuff Aaron & Chris... Reckon they must be "Chickens with Attitude" to survive..!!!:lollol:

There are a few examples of their gardening skills Agatha..

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

Agatha_M · Apr 16, 2010

Thanks very much for the pictures, Marley!

Does it suggest a very twisted mind if I think poor sunflowers down there would be winners in a photo competition where all the drawbacks of city life is displayed?

Marley Farley · Apr 16, 2010

:lollol: I did feel a little sorry for the sunflowers but a nice cheerful idea all the same.. You are right wouldn't that make a good photo entry.. Ah well have to keep looking..!! :D

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Well I think this is a Brilliant idea.!! With them all the way..!!!!!!

Marley Farley Affable Admin! Staff Member

Sussexgardener Gardener

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Sussexgardener Gardener

NatalieB Gardener

Victoria Plum Gardener

Axie-Ali Gardener

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Boghopper Gardener

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Some brilliant ideas

Isn't this just brilliant!!

Isn’t Technology Brilliant?

Got a brilliant new thing

Brilliant Voices For Their Age!

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