Does anyone do any Guerrilla Gardening?

[Methe]

I've just been for a walk and littered my neighbourhood with aquilegia seeds from the plants in my garden - not people's gardens but the verges and any other unadorned or neglected space. I'm also planning to 'adopt' a verge in my street to plant some flowers as I've run out of space in the garden.

has anyone else done anything like this? I wonder how long it'd take to notice a difference if I just threw all my collected seeds about the place.

great idea will join you as goy loads of collected seed

GOT not goy

not yet. I'm tempted to do some verges though.

You need to know what you are doing. A lot of rough looking verges are actually vital wildlife resources, for example where insects breed that baby birds need for protein, and so on.

A lot of garden plants are invasive and destructive.

I prefer to see verges left wild, personally. Aesthetics are a personal preference, not everyone enjoys garish, plasticy looking garden flowers over scrub.

Yes. Ive been doing it slowly in my region for a decade. It started with poppies on the verges, and it took them about 6 years to get established.

I only do it on dead land these days. I also include edibles in all my mixes. A broad bean in a piece of scrubland next to a tramstop - got to make someone smile one day right?

unadorned or neglected space ?

dead land ?

Why can't you just let it be? Not every inch of our cities has to be manicured to some artificial, faddish, meaningless standard.

Why can't you just let the verges, and unused spaces do their own thing, and support the wildlife that use them.

Why litter them up with all this crap, that you have a personal preference for, but not everyone else does.

The land isn't "dead" because it isn't being micromanaged - it is more "dead" when it is being managed.

What is wrong with "unadorned" - it is only "unadorned" by your own very narrow estimation.

And neglected! That is the best thing that can happen to it, it isn't a terrible thing you have to go out and change!

Please just leave it be. The land we live on is punished enough, let it breather and live when it gets a chance.Don't destroy it.

no as the clay soil here would require more than a gorilla to make it a viable growing space

Dead land = land not being used for anything, no grass, old cracked tarmac, old car parks closed off that nobody uses...i love the thought of old tarmac breathing! Without plants, none of us would breathe. The best thing we could do is to plant some trees in unused places. I guess you prefer litter and grafitti - each to their own.

I gave away about 20 oaks and 20 sorbus a few weeks back to a group to go guerrilla plant around the city.

land not being used for anything it doesn't have to be put to a HUMAN use! - it really doesn't.

I gave away about 20 oaks and 20 sorbus a few weeks back to a group to go guerrilla plant around the city well, it depends exactly where they went, but this sort of behaviour IS in fact litter and grafitti

I'm interested in this topic because we have a street tree outside and the pit is empty with quite hard looking earth. Could I plant something, should I?

it doesn't have to be put to a HUMAN use! - but this sort of behaviour IS in fact litter and grafitti

If we put more of the barren dead land to plants, everyone benefits. From insects to humans. Are you saying that concrete and tarmac are good for wildlife? Because if you are - you really are 'totally bewildered'.

My mum did. She weeded and litter picked the flower beds around the bus station next to her home. The local council no longer has the resources to up keep the area and she took it upon her self to do this. She would also go out to clean the road signs that were so covered in algae they were barely visible.

I enjoy seeing edibles planted around the inner city area where I live, always makes me smile!

I've had an attempt at guerilla gardening, just scattering wild flower seeds around the scrubland near where I live, I doubt pollinators and other mini beasts would consider wildflowers to be 'crap' (if they thought in that way of course! .).

We now have random poppies and forget me nots springing up along the pavement and along walls, partially as a result of guerilla gardening, there's something really great about seeing plants thriving in depressingly concreted and tarmac-ed environments, I love it!

Litter and graffiti, crap, artificial, meaningless...

Goodness me! I didn't expect such a reaction. I'm not talking about planting lelandii, knotweed or himalayas balsam..

I was thinking more along the lines of foxgloves, poppies, delphiniums, cornflowers, daisy's etc..

My garden has more insects in it then the car park to the front of my house and it's all artificial (although I take offence at you calling it faddish crap! ) but the wildlife love it and it looks lush.

again, I would rather it was just left alone, and not tarted up with unnecessary rubbish. I would consider this to be vandalism.

I was going to chuck some wildflower mix down. Need to encourage the bees and butterflies.

I doubt the bees will think it unnecessary rubbish.

You should change your name to TotallyBewildering.

Today Bewildered: either you are v bored and having a laugh or quite bad. I bet the former.

Ooops, that should read "quite mad".

We have some foxgloves in our garden, so I might collect the seeds from those and spread them about in the local woods.

I would leave the woods to self seed, personally.

I hadn't thought of sharing seeds. I guess you would want to think it through and add seeds to cover the full season, or you will attract insects into an inhospitable area that can't support them.

Most guerilla gardening has very little to do with producing a manicured space. Frankly, it would be very difficult to do Victorian carpet bedding surreptitiously. Not only is it extremely bright and attention-grabbing, it actually needs a hell of a lot of care.

No, what people are talking about here is turning things like a monoculture grass verge that is occasionally mown by the council and gives very little benefit to wildlife into a wildflower area full of bee-friendly plants, which are organically managed.

It is actually a mistake to think that areas of huge and important biodiversity are just 'left' to take care of themselves. My Dad is a conservationist who manages ecologically important meadowland, and it actually requires quite a bit of care and maintenance to ensure that the rare plants have the environment that they need. Ditto for moorland habitats. Human-nature interactions are highly complicated, and very few of the most precious ecosystems we have are 'left unadorned' to look after themselves.

However, I would say: it is one thing taking a bit of derelict wasteland and sowing a proprietary wildflower mix to make it bee-friendly. But please DON'T go spreading the seeds of garden plants into woodland or other ecologically sensitive areas that are already being managed by councils or wildlife trusts. It's completely irresponsible and can lead to the catastrophic loss of native plants. Imagine what would happen to our lovely native bluebell, for instance, if people spread the Spanish variety all over the place.

A few of us look after the piece of land that runs by the footpath at the end of our road. It was neglected and sad looking, full of rubbish from the sports club next door, so we took it over. It's mainly blackberries (already there - we hoped that leaving them would aid the birds and insects) and some apple and plum trees we've planted, with some flowers. We just tidied it up really. It still looks 'natural' but it is (mainly!) clean and has a few plant/tree additions.

We did it as secretly as possible!

PS Excellent points from Shove The Holly