Culture & Celebrity (books)

We’ve covered the spread of guerrilla gardening before. From Toronto to London, green-fingered rebels have been surreptitiously planting up neglected land with flowers, trees or vegetables, simultaneously brightening up their neighborhoods, fostering a sense of community, and often even growing food for those around them. Now we’ve come across Guerilla Gardening: A Manualfesto - a book that aims to guide would-be guerrilla gardeners through the process. The following is from the book’s blurb:

“The term "guerrilla" may bring to mind a small band of armed soldiers, moving in the dead of night on a stealth mission. In the case of guerrilla gardening, the soldiers are planters, the weapons are shovels, and the mission is to transform an abandoned lot into a thing of beauty. Once an environmentalist's nonviolent direct action for inner-city renewal, this movement is spreading to all types of people in cities around the world. These modern-day Johnny Appleseeds perform random acts of gardening, often without permission. Typical targets are vacant lots, railway land, underused public squares, and back alleys. The concept is simple, whimsical, and has the cheeky appeal of being a not-quite-legal call to action. Dig in some soil, plant a few seeds, or mend a sagging fence-one good deed inspiring another, with win-win benefits all around.”