I'm nerded the fuck up about gardening this year!! So stay tuned for pictures once things start a-brewing!
I've also been reading a bunch about urban gardening and guerrilla gardening as of late.
So have a seat (ok yes, you're probably already sitting), and let's chat a little.
What is guerrilla gardening?
"Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. It is related to land rights, land reform, and permaculture. Activists take over ("squat") an abandoned piece of land which they do not own to grow crops or plants. Guerrilla gardeners believe in re-considering land ownership in order to reclaim land from perceived neglect or misuse and assign a new purpose to it."
These are the books I've gotten out from the library thus far (with many more to come), and I figured I'd share.
This one is my favorite guerrilla gardening book so far:
My favorite tidbit thus far has been the idea of seed-bombs:
CHECK IT OUT!!
Love love love the idea.
If guerrilla gardening intrigues you, my city dweller friends, you can get more information on guerrilla gardening at Guerrilla Gardening.org!
I also found this book really useful as well (it's about urban gardening, not guerrilla gardening):
If you're a city dweller who's gardening from a small plot or on rooftops/balconies/fire escapes, this is a great starter book. They list out the best plants to grow under these conditions, including various tips on how to grow them and the best containers and all that. And they have general tips as well on how to grow out of containers, best soils, utilizing space, etc.
Good stuff.
Now get thee to some urban gardening and seed-bombing, loves!
Go for it! I too love the idea of guerrilla gardening, and I have practiced it, too, nor am I squeamish about dumpster-diving for bulbs (call me a weirdo, but I always look into dumpsters as I pass for abandoned kittens or puppies; the bulbs are just a bonus, and I guerrilla planted them...er, well, actually, I also found some really cool glass Christmas bulbs in a dumpster one time...well, maybe that's something nobody really needs to know). I'm a longtime fan of yours and so pleased you're back online!
ReplyDeletehell yea! i've always wanted to start a garden in an abandoned plot when i move into the city (which i probably will someday).
ReplyDeletecurrently i'm a renter in a suburb with parents, so i just have a lot of pots of things that i've dumpstered/seeds i've bought.
do you use the biodegradable seed pots or the reusable terracotta?
i'll bookmark this post so i can refer back to it for the guerilla gardening book when i finally can do it.
thanks so much for the post.
keep your head in the dumpster and your hands in the soil. (:
-ashley
Aww, thanks, Zoa! Is nice to be missed. (And I dumpster dive all the time too. Have lots of sweet-ass furniture from keeping my eyes out on the curbs.)
ReplyDeleteAshley: When I do my rooftop garden, I use mostly plastic reusable pots (and a few terra cotta). If you click on the gardening link at the end of this post, you can see my rooftop garden from last year. Enjoy the guerrilla gardening! May 1 is guerrilla gardening sunflower day, so get out there and plant some rogue sunflowers!!
Thank you! I am nearly motivated to go garden a lot that's for sale near my house. It's been for sale for over four years, and it's HUGE! And since I live in the Portland area I wouldn't have to worry about watering it. Now if I could get the hubby on board with me.
ReplyDeleteOh, and I've requested both books from my library. Thanks for the tip.
YAY! We just went to a gardening expo to get motivated and gave our sad little dead patch of lawn a once over... heirloom tomatoes, peppers, melons, berries... here we come! Also, contemplating some seed bombs. :)
ReplyDelete