Guerrilla gardening is the act of gardening – raising food, plants, or flowers – on land that gardeners do not have the legal right to cultivate, such as abandoned sites, neglected public spaces, or private property. It encompasses a diverse range of people and motivations, ranging from gardeners who garden beyond their legal boundaries in defiance of state or local property laws, to gardeners with a deliberate political purpose, who seek to initiate change by using guerrilla gardening methods as a form of protest or direct action. The term, "guerrilla gardening" blends the Spanish word guerrilla (meaning "little war") with gardening to symbolize grassroots, activist-style tactics used to help nature reclaim public or private space. Guerrilla gardening often challenges social norms concerning land rights, aiming to promote criticism of how public institutions or private land owners manage property, by repurposing or reclaiming land perceived as being neglected or misused by its legal owners. Some gardeners work at night in relative secrecy, in an effort to make the area more useful or attractive, while others garden during the day.
History Two historical examples of gardeners who engaged in guerrilla gardening were the politically radical English Diggers of the 17th century, and the 18th-century American pioneer Johnny Appleseed, who planted apple tree seedlings on unclaimed frontier land as a business venture. The earliest recorded use of the term guerrilla gardening was by Liz Christy and her Green Guerrilla group in 1973 in the Bowery Houston area of New York. They transformed a derelict private lot into a garden. The space is still cared for by volunteers but now enjoys the protection of the city's parks department. Guerrilla gardening takes place in many parts of the world—more than thirty countries are documented and evidence can be found online in numerous guerrilla gardening social networking groups and in the Community pages of GuerrillaGardening.org. The term bewildering has been used as a synonym for guerrilla gardening by Australian gardener Bob Crombie.
Examples
International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day Since 2007, May 1 has been celebrated as an annual International Sunflower Guerrilla Day, in which guerrilla gardeners plant sunflowers in their neighborhoods.
Australia Guerrilla gardening is prominent in Melbourne where most of the inner northern suburbs have community vegetable gardens; land adjoining rail lines has undergone regeneration of the native vegetation, including nature strips. There are a few minor disputes between guerrilla gardeners in Melbourne, with most falling into one of two groups: those concerned most with native planting and those concerned most with communal food growing. However, people with differing opinions still work together without dispute. Growing Forward Kurilpa is a collective of people in Brisbane reclaiming unused space for guerilla gardening. In Melbourne there is a "Guerilla Gardening Narrm" collective that was established in 2023 and has created a large community garden in Coburg called the "Radicle Roots Common", they aim to help spread the idea of localising food and "reclaim the commons" to many other communities. Guerilla Gardening Narrm was largely inspired by Growing Forward Kurilpa. There are small community groups around Australia called "Permablitz" who gather regularly to design and construct suburban vegetable gardens for free, in an effort to educate residents on how to grow their own food and better prepare them if/when food prices become too expensive. Australian Network 10's show Guerrilla Gardeners featured a team of gardeners who make over areas of council-owned property without them knowing.
Canada
Arbutus Greenway, Vancouver, BC In 1902, the Arbutus corridor was a rail line developed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), connecting Vancouver harbour to the fishing village of Steveston on the South Arm of the Fraser River. In 1905, the BC Electric Company (BCEC) leased and electrified the line to operate interurban passenger rail service between Vancouver and Richmond. The BCEC passenger service was discontinued in 1952, but CPR freight operations continued infrequently until 2001. With the end of rail operations, CPR wanted to redevelop the 17 hectare corridor for residential and commercial purposes, but was prevented by the City of Vancouver, who wanted to acquire the area for green space and (potentially) a future light rail transportation line. In 2006, the Supreme Court of Canada affirmed the city's zoning authority to prohibit CPR development, but the final disposition of the area was not resolved until 2016, when the City of Vancouver purchased the land from CPR for $55 million. In the interim, home owners adjacent to the unused rail line and local community groups had built and maintained numerous gardens and plots on the 9 km route. The homes adjacent to the corridor are large, and they are some of the most expensive properties in the city, with the green space adding to the exclusivity of the properties. In 2014, as negotiations with the city dragged on, CPR began repairing the rail line, clearing the gardens, and preparing to run trains on the line. The city filed an injunction to block the railway from reactivating the line, but that bid was dismissed in B.C. Supreme Court. In 2016, the City finalized acquisition of the land. Terms of the complex purchase agreement included a stipulation that a portion of the corridor must be dedicated for light rail transit use. This has not entirely ended the conflict over the area. Since acquiring the Arbutus corridor, the city has built a bike and pedestrian trail, and developed an Arbutus Greenway plan, but adjacent home owners have pushed for a return to the previous state. Many would like to leave the area wild and inaccessible which would make the now public area an exclusive green space for the wealthy adjacent home owners. The official Arbutus Greenway plan has divided the 9 km route into 8 different character zones that will include bicycle and pedestrian paths, public spaces, community gardens, plazas, and public art.
Guerrilla Park, Welland, ON
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