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The worldwide Guerrilla Gardening movement has been around in some form for quite a while, in New York the Green Guerillas even took over a vacant lot on Bowery in the 70s. Since then some residents of the city have been embracing the idea of secretly beautifying the landscape and beginning their own guerrilla groups here. There's solo mission seed bombings and joining community tilling troupes like Bushwick's Trees Not Trash...but what about the more "illicit cultivation," the more underground nocturnal planting.
The New York section of the GG message board seems to be somewhat active as of late, with one entirely too short thread discussing where the most horticulturally neglected places in the city are. Some locales brought up were the US Passport Office on Varick St, a lot where the Q/B crosses the grid between Woodruff and Crooke Aves, and East New York. What other major (and minor) patches of land or lots need to be greened? Maybe the plant-barren Williamsburg State Park could use some guerrilla interest.
Last year Web Urbanist explained that while guerrilla gardening "is a kind of graffiti or vandalism - just done with plants instead of spray cans," it rarely gets people into trouble (though it has in the past). If you see a patch of land in need of some green, here are some tips on becoming a guerrilla gardener. And if you look closely, you'll see secret gardens in even the smallest of places.
Guerrilla Garden in Red Hook, circa 2006, via Apartment Therapy.
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How is this a new york only thing?
When the city uprooted a hug tree in my mom's chicago neighborhood she put bricks around it and turned it into her own garden.
I guess she was hip before hip was in!
I hate it when people take something that people have done for years and then say it's now a "new cool MOVEMENT or CRAZE instead of just what it is - in this case "planting gardens in urban areas".
Never mind that our taxes should be paying for the greening of New York City - not DIY.
I guess the idea of planting trees and beautifying the city, while sounding good when coming from the lips of politicians on Earth Day, is not something that city government can actually accomplish.
No one said it was a new york only thing. But since this blog tends to focus new york, they're letting us know about the local manifestations. It doesn't diminish your mom's coolness in any way.
These people are vandals and should be arrested. I will promptly file a report to the NYPD if I see activities as such. Reminds me of those hipsters that took over valuable park spaces by the curb to plant temp. green spaces.
My mom is the shit.
Smith Street could really use some of this guerilla gardening. Take away the boutiques and restaurants and the strip is a virtual desert.
I'm thinking Atlantic Yards will need some greening as soon as Ratner decides he's had enough and takes off.
what's annoying is a 'movement' that considers itself subversive or 'guerilla' and use terms like 'seed bombings' to describe what they do. it's gardening. i think it's great that people want to reclaim urban space. i'm all for it. but can we just call this what it is and leave the politically and socially charged terms for the movements that deserve them? come on people, this isn't the cuban revolution. it's planting some shrubs and trees. get over yourselves.
What a bunch of grumpy old farts.
If they want to be seen as a guerrilla movement they should be treated as such. I recommend contacting the Feds so they can promptly beat the shit out of these hipsters and throw them in Jail. Then blow up their shrubbery with some C4 explosives.
They just call it 'bombing' cuz that makes it more fun. Why plant seeds when you can seed bomb.
Since when is "guerrilla" spelled with one "R?" Sort of sums up the whole idea, doesn't it: pretentious and stupid.
while the idea of a gurreilla garden is nice and it's practical and I'm all for it, at the same time It's fucking ugly. Too bad there's no pre-fab guerrilla garden.
This sounds suspiciously similar to the Garden Club my grandmother and every one else's grandmother belonged to (at least out in Connecticut). They'd find some ugly median or traffic circle, plant some flowers and make it look quite nice.
These dirty "gardeners" are a menace and must be stopped. There needs to be a special unit of the NYPD to deal with these animals. Our precious concrete and asphalt are at risk!
Check out what's being done in Los Angeles.
http://LAGuerrillaGardening.org