Guerrilla Gardening

Guerrilla Gardening is the act of cultivating plants & seeds on a piece of land that you have not been given Authorization to garden on. People choose to do this for many reasons. Usually they do it because the land is abandoned, neglected, or forever unused, and they seek to either 1) Make it look more appealing to the eye or 2) Grow food for their family or community. However, someone might also do it to make a political statement, challenge toxic corporate land claims, beef up a fenceline or property boundary, create shade for public walkways, throw a media stunt, or even for just good-natured jolly pranksterism.

While on paper this is illegal, it is something where punishment is rarely enforced, unless you are just doing brazenly aggressive & cop-attracting things like digging holes in the center of your neighbor's lawn, or dragging a plough down the highway median. In some cases, local authorities and the community may even encourage you, and participate themselves. Stranger things have happened.

Since all it takes to garden illegally, is dirt and something that can grow in that dirt, there are many ways to guerrilla garden, and there are many types of guerrilla gardens. These are but a few:

Professional sidewalk gardens tend to withstand long-term scrutiny.

In many places, undeveloped strips of ground may separate a sidewalk from the side of the road where people park. These parking strips are prime real estate for gardens, provided that they are approached with tact and are not half-assed.

If there are no trees on the sidewalk, plant some trees. A tall bamboo stake, a $3 bag of mulch, and maybe even a 1-2 foot tall wire fence to keep the mulch in place, is oftentimes all it takes to guarantee the long-term survival of a tree planted next to a sidewalk. Most people will just assume someone from the city came by and planted it there, and leave it alone. A successful tree planting will provide shade to pedestrians and parked cars, which is something everyone in your neighborhood will enjoy for years to come. If there are already trees, plant some smaller plants around the trees. If there are overhead power lines, make sure to keep the tree pruned from time to time, or someone else will prune it in a way you might not like.

For some sidewalk gardens, you may have to resort to raised bed technology to not only keep things looking clean and professional, but also to keep people and dogs from walking through your plants. A corrugated steel water trough (like the kind that farms use for livestock) makes for a great raised bed container, but you can also make your own raised beds with deck screws and pressure treated 2×12 boards, or even the slats from discarded wooden pallets. Raised beds are also a great way to expand the overall area you have to work with, as you can place them over concrete and pavement.

You can fasten your beds to the ground with stakes or concrete anchors, preventing them from “drifting” over time into the road or across the sidewalk. Make sure to leave plenty of access points between the curb and the sidewalk so people can still get to their cars. If you do not, people will start walking through your beds, and the city may even bring the hammer down and have the beds removed.

Fencelines and property boundaries are oftentimes prime spots for guerrilla gardens. In many places you can plant things up against a fence and nobody will ever disturb it - especially if that thing is an eye-appealing tree or shrub that isn't getting in anyone's way. If there is an empty house on your block that nobody has moved into yet, 9 out of 10 times you can get away with installing new permanent greenery along the fence, as the future owners will usually be lazy enough to just leave it there untouched. Same deal goes for fencelines bordering public easements, and sometimes even active commercial properties.

Neglected boundaries are a great place to grow tall green privacy walls in municipalities that have height limits for man-made fences. They are also great for putting fruit-bearing trees that provide food for those who reside on both sides of the fence.

Seed bombs are extremely easy to make and deploy. (Click to enlarge instructions)

Seed bombs (or seed balls) are an ancient agricultural technique, reintroduced to the modern world by natural farming guru Masanobu Fukuoka. These balls, usually made of a mixture of clay, seeds & organic nutrients, provide a protective environment for the seeds, keeping them safe from predators and the environment. Once the balls are formed and dried, they can be stored away for several years.

When time comes to sow the seeds, the balls can be broken up and planted, sown whole directly into the soil, and sometimes even left to germinate on the surface of the ground. They have since been adopted by guerrilla gardeners worldwide due to their ease of use, and their ability to throw into into inaccessible areas (over fences, up hills, down into ravines, etc) - hence the name seed bomb.

There are many guides on the internet for making your own seed bombs.

For reappropriating larger plots of neglected land, you will most likely need to organize a community garden. This is when you get many people together at once, to collectively garden the land, usually for organic food and medicine production. In some places, the community garden may be divided into many defined plots allocated to individual gardeners. In other places, the community garden may have everything in commune, or “in common.”

Community gardens are done for the same reason that fish swim together in schools: There is defensive strength in numbers. Whereas an individual might be arrested by digging up the empty plot behind his town's Walgreens, police might turn a blind eye if everyone in the neighborhood is there with shovels and saplings. And if someone does try to get the garden shut down anyways, the community (now already organized) can work together to make a big stink of it in the media, drawing in more allies.

A community garden might gradually fill in and expand over time. Or, it can literally happen overnight. A group of militant anarchist gardeners might scope out everything in advance, draw up plans on the land, line up supporters, and wait until everything is prepared to throw a press release party. Then they'd announce the address of the new community garden as they begin their surprise march to the location. In these cases, designated people are usually assigned the job of negotiating with the media, law enforcement, owners, etc (now that they have Squatter's Rights), while the rest of the community continues to build the garden uninterrupted.

Since guerrilla gardeners oftentimes lack the conveniences & amenities offered to mainstream farmers (consistent plot access, regular watering, privacy, protective edging, etc) not all plants are suited for this type of gardening. However, not all suitable plants will grow well in every climate zone. Here are some ideas to get started with:

The nice thing about invasive plants is that they are usually very hardy and take care of themselves. In most cases you will not want invasive plants, due to their invasiveness, but there are exceptions.

The first main exception, is for backup food supplies. If you cannot be around the lot to maintain the garden, it may be worth planting Armenian blackberry or Egyptian walking onion. There is great peace of mind in knowing that, if the global food supply chain fails, you at least have quality blackberry & onion plants stashed away somewhere: Specifically, blackberry & onion cultivars that will survive irregular watering and environmental catastrophes while vigorously out-competing local weeds.

The other main exception, is for War. We have heard cases of militants planting creeping bamboo in cities, specifically because it destroys building foundations. Sometimes, agents of foreign militaries will secretly plant kudzu for the explicit purpose of smothering more of the target nation's natural resources. One Anon regaled us with the story of how she specifically planted perennials her neighbor was allergic to, and which also produced a lot of pollen. There are all sorts of ways that invasive plants can be used for War.

Note: The Anonymous Military Institute does not endorse the intentional spread of invasive species in any locality where it is illegal or prohibited.

• Call before you dig to get someone to come out and mark where underground utility lines are. This is especially important if you are setting things along sidewalks or other urban/suburban areas. Last thing you want is to get yourself killed by striking underground gas or power lines, or be on the receiving end of a municipal lawsuit because you caused tens of thousands of dollars in damages to an aging sewer system. In the US, calling 811 doesn't involve crossing paths with law enforcement, and the service is usually free.

• GuerrillaGardening.org
• r/GuerrillaGardening
• Historical examples of Guerrilla Gardening
• The Ultimate Guide to Guerrilla Gardening
• Legal Considerations at CommunityLaw.org