Has anyone ever planted anything on public land?

[ecofriendlywendy]

:56ecofriendlywendy

I am only on about either just grass verges with no biodiversity or little brown edges. I don't want to introduce bluebells to a woodland or anything like that.

I have seen a few things on YouTube where people have made systemic changes by 'gurilla gardening'.
In Pheonix a man illegally cut the curb of the road and planted deep bowls of native plants, watered by the water drained from the road. Now new estates need to have these road water fed gardens incorporated by law. Because he did it on his own first. If he had asked he wouldn't have had permission.

Another one is the UK Town of Todmorden. Where a group of residents decided to start planting food in public land. It became so popular that GP surgeries and other places started to contact the group and asked them to plant their wasted green space neat their surgeries and shops and fire departments. People can pick as they please. The lady said she was asked how she would feel if someone took every cabbage. She said if they took them they needed them. It doesn't matter if one individual is greedy because the whole town has come together and grown and grown and grown. It has been a complete mindshift for the whole community and the children who are now 7 or 8 years old today have only known a world where you pick tomatoes from next to the shop and cucumbers from outside of the doctors.
Also now people outside of the original group have started their own groups including groups on cooking and preserving.

how amazing is that?

It has inspired me. I started on my own windowsill. then balcony and now I have invested in an allotment.
BUT I want to spread the word. I want my children growing up picking not just apples and blackberries but runner beans and cucumbers and everything and anything else.

I have noticed a few people have planted flowers outside of their garden, on the other side of their fence and its always a beautiful edition to the road. nobody can complain about pretty anuals on their street can they? So I am going to sow some and grow some and plants some flowers and tomatoes and bits and bobs here there and every where. I have actually been thinking about it for years but haven't done it. This year I have a bit of experience and all the pots and seeds and I am going for it!
Anyone else had some success gurilla gardening? or have any stories to share? I genuinely believe we can plant our way out of this climate crisis. From grass roots.

Reposting from climate change for traffic and more ideas.

kabloom.co.uk/

I got some of these as a present. The pots and actually growing stuff method you propose sounds good but outside my gardening level. Throwing these about was fun and worked. I will probably get more

I planted a small horse chestnut grown from a conker in a wood when I was a teenager.

My 85yo mum got some Bee Bombs for Christmas & is planning on some guerrilla gardening around her village

Only plant food crops on land that is rated to grow food. Parks and verges may have been sprayed with persistant herbicides or pesticides in the past, and the food you grow on them may not be fit for consumption.
If you arent sure then you can pay to have the soil tested for contaminants.

Lead us another problem on road verges, as is salt which tends to kill the plants (unless you go for coastal species)

Somebody locally planted daffodils on a roundabout in such a way that when they grew in the spring they spelled out “I love Claire”.

@Ozgirl75

My mum is a secret seed scatterer. She has a beautiful garden full of poppies, hollyhocks etc and so when they finish she saves the seeds and then just always has a load of seeds in her pocket and scatters them around the local area on bits of waste ground like verges or areas by a bin, or car parks, just any area that looks like it needs brightening up. She’s thrilled when they come up! When we go and visit, if we’re driving into the local village she’ll sometimes say “I started that Cosmos patch five years ago” and there’s a load of flowers there.

Please tell your mum I think this is brilliant

Our local council are arseholes about stuff like this though. Our village association asked for permission to plant daffodils on the verges, by the village signs on the way into the village, and they were told they had to pay the council hundreds of pounds for a license (or something) to do so. Nuts.

Well you do need to think carefully before you land someone with a tree that's going to grow massive and live for hundreds of years. What you want is a spot which has no trees but wants some - maybe see whether your local council or Wildlife Trust has any planting events but they may be bothered about provenance (ie which species and which genetic variety) so if the acorns didnt come from a locally native tree you may find no one wants them.

Oak also like to grow in fresh air and sunshine, so dont plant them in a woodland. Actually dont plant any tree in a woodland, there they can plant themselves.

There is a lot of this going on where I live. It's inner city and a bit of a crime ridden area that many people look down on. However, we now have at least 4 community gardens that I can think of! In each case, someone just took over a bit of wasteland, then told the council what they were doing. The council was massively on board and now promotes them on their website etc. One was a children's playpark that was massively run down. They raised funs to rennovate it and added in the flower and veg gardens.

I'm going to do some of the seed scattering mentioned by a PP, no idea why I've never thought of that!

You've posted this before havent you?

Please don't sow non native garden seeds in the wild

A lane near me has a fantastic display of daffodils on the in the spring. I assume that they were originally planted there years ago and started spreading of their own accord.

It would be great if communities could start taking responsibility for grass verges and turn them into something different, rather than the monoculture we have at the moment.

I live in quite a deprived area of a big city. Some locals got together, approached the council and asked if they could set up a community garden on a bit of 'waste land' . Its been a huge success. People use the area to get together, kids play together, there's a bbq there now .
Its really good for mental wellbeing too.
Good luck

We have a group of community gardeners in our none assuming bland suburb. They get plant and seed donations from local businesses and fill planters and verges with lovely displays. Great idea

I appreciate that councils can be hard to get a positive response from but please at least get in touch with your local Wildlife Trust for some tips. This is also a brilliant, resource to read: www.plantlife.org.uk/uk/our-work/publications/keeping-wild-wildflower

Unfortunately quite often we see people planting trees/bulbs/garden flowers/seed bombs/veg in areas of "waste land" or "boring grass" with the best of intentions but in reality this can be actively detrimental for both biodiversity and the climate. Habitats such as wetlands, grasslands and peatlands support rare species and also lock up huge amounts of carbon - planting trees on them can actually release this carbon into the atmosphere!. Even native species shouldn't be spread in inappropriate areas, you should always survey your site first as there may already be a wonderful wild seed bank there. Seed bombs are actually intended for garden use only (it says this on the boxes) and as they mostly contain cornflower annuals they wont take on undisturbed land anyway. Blousy garden flowers often contain significantly less pollen and should never be randomly planted in the countryside or what you assume is "waste ground".

Nature knows what it's doing and often the most effective way to reintroduce beautiful wild spaces is just to do less! Let nature get on with it!

Please contact your Wildlife Trust. They are working with communities all over the UK to create wildlife friendly spaces in towns, villages, verges, recration spaces and churches. They will be encouraging and help you to make the right choices for both wildlife and your community.

This is a lovely idea. I have thought for years that there should be law that everyone should at least have a pot of lavender or something for the bees..maybe a voucher . All the plain concrete front gardens upset me.

Seed scattering is so lovely - I love seeing the wild flowers coming up on boring patches like verges and car parks. Don’t let the naysayers put you off! These aren’t places that are going to regenerate by themselves, they’re clearly little bits of waste land. Obviously for food plants or bigger plants then check out the council but wild flowers are literally wild