The guerrilla gardening groups of NYC and London are among my all time favorite heroes. Although designing gardens is my passion, I love engaging in sporadic-random acts of carefree willy-nilly gardening. My next door neighbor is a reluctant gardener, in the Donald Schimoda fashion of realizing the benefits but not wanting the responsibility, etc. Occasionally I can motivate her to give something a test try in her yard...just for the fun of it. Another friend of mine has an out of control blackberry bush that is taking over her tiny yard. We propagated some of the runners and needed a place to relocate the bounty. We created a square on the far side of the shed in full sun with railroad ties. Without weeding or preparing the ground, we just dug two holes and plopped the buggers in. That's was as much work as we were going to do for something that might not live. But then again, why shouldn't they live? The soil is rich, they were planted properly, they'll get plenty of air flow and sunshine due to the lack of anything else around...the garden gods just may smile on us. This last year was the first time I began testing out a few organic products in my yard and I think it's helped...but for 10 years things grew fine without the help of anything except water and my home made compost. I'd love to take some of these other baby blackberry bushes and put them on public ground to help feed wildlife/people whose lives have gotten wild etc. I think one of the core motivations for guerrilla gardening groups is some kind of an Eden archetype...the idea that where ever you roam there should be blooming fruiting things that could sustain us all. Maybe this is just the fantasy of a conscious gardener...still I'd love to hear some other gardeners thoughts on guerrilla gardening...ideas/tactics...the possibilities are endless.
Be free little blackberry bush...grow!
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