I live in an old neighborhood, on the east side of town, with a not so perfect perception or image. In the past, our area had high crime, lots of drugs and low income. The city has been working on a revitalization project for our neighborhood, including heritage designation. We will have the largest heritage designated neighborhood in all of Ontario. The image is starting a slow, slow climb upward. The old homes have such fabulous character and nearly 70% still have original existing architectural features. This is a huge number.
A group of neighborhood people that are avid gardeners and community minded individuals got together and formed a garden club. Several of our group started guerrilla gardening! What fun we had! The instigator, who calls herself Captain Orchid, and her husband, called us all together one early spring evening, on a Friday, meeting at dusk. We were told to bring shovels, dirt and seeds… The plot thickens. All of those attending our mystery random acts of gardening evenings throughout the summer had gardening names. I am Corporal Hollyhock. Our local paper did an article on the mysterious rise of plant content.
This group of spirited individuals proceeded to plant seeds along an abandoned boulevard beside the railway tracks bordering our neighborhood. We had such fun, the following weeks we all looked forward to our Friday night secretive outings. One week we planted a small plant on the boulevards of a dozen homes in the area, with a stake and sign saying they had been tagged by the Guerrilla Gardeners of the Old East Village. Another Friday we strung clay pots with geraniums on hydro poles along a one-way street that gets high traffic, and here we met another like-minded citizen that promised to water the potted poles. They lasted about 8 days before all went missing, hopefully to a home that had no flowers! Another evening we walked a bit further east, and again tied potted flowers to hydro poles. This street had a very, very bad reputation for drugs, illegal activities and a very, very negative image. The home owners there took several of the pots in at night and they lasted nearly two weeks!
We continued throughout the summer doing our random acts of gardening and received more recognition for these secret missions than we did for our honest gardening adventures at the local library cleanup and the downtown section!
The residents of our neighborhood were so grateful. We started seeing boulevard plantings, in various spots, and the gossip in the “hood”: everyone wanted to know who was tagging these hits with the words “You have been tagged by the Guerrilla Gardeners of the Old East Village, please enjoy your whatever plant, and the random act of gardening.”
This summer we have several more events planned, always under the cover of darkness, always Friday evenings and always much anticipated!
Corporal Hollyhock
London, Ontario Canada
{ 2 comments }
love reports from Corporal Hollyhock please keep them coming!
thanks for your kind words! the guerilla garden stuff is just a fun summer way to brighten the hood! twice last summer we got busted! takes the fun out of it..or we have to get better at it and not get busted! haha…
the first night we got busted we were doing stuff on the school grounds! how dare we..plants compost, watering cans..and ohhh the dreaded shovel! we weeded and rearranged and thought we were brightening up the yard of tarmac..grrrrr the cops came and took our names ..REAL names and lectured us on the bad judgement and that they had been called out to investigate the dastardly deed happening at the moment under the cover of darkness! sheeesshhh
the next time i was alone, no agents or others! i had a bunch of plants left from rearranging my front bed, and the leftover leftovers of a plant exchange..sooo i grabbed a big bag of compost, a bucket of water the dreaded implements..and how dare i during broad day light, decide on my own free thinking to add flowers and seeds and perennials to a garbage invested railway bed blvd kind of deal at the end of a street!
i had bags of plants, that i laid out, while i got the compost dug into the hard earth, around tree roots and bagged the garbage..i am hauling the last tray out of my car, and this woman comes screaming down the street hey you therre..this is not a garbage dump! i am calling the cops! i said whoa there..these are plants and this is dirt and a shovel..i am planting..in hopes to pretty it up so those walking their dogs and dumping garbage will enjoy it!
she proceeded to lecture me on the state of my intentions and who did i get i permission from..blah blah! i said it was federal property she might want to take a bucket of water to them now and again and get others to join her and the blvd would not be such an eyesore!
i finished my planting and it looked pretty ok for a few weeks..then i ran out of steam and time and desire to pretty up an area that others were so thoughtless about..but i promise to get back at it in the first signs of spring!
i started my winter sowed seeds this week, sooo with any luck at all we can get the city to dump some three way there and get on with it! whewww..i can hardly wait to our return to guerilla activities!
another spring project is to lob water balloons full of sunflower seeds behind the same fence..soooo the sunflowers will grow behind the fence and the rail yard will not be seen from our newly designated heritage street scape!
one seed at a time!
thanks for your positive feedback!
stay tuned….