Need ideas for guerrilla gardening project

[guerrilla52]

I'm kinda new to gardening but ive enjoyed every bit of the minimal experience I do have and me being me decided to take it to the next level, I'm going to experiment with guerrilla gardening and the impact it has on the community, my project is going to be soley based on vegetable gardening and nothing else, as I see vegetables are allready beautifying the environment enough as well as the added benifit of fresh food, and I am not to concerned about people stealing the veggies. I just want to know if any one else has tried this style of gardening and if they were succesful, and if not, any ideas on how to generate better results.

[Meatburner]

what is guerrilla gardening?

[guerrilla52]

its a type of radical gardening involving planting randomly into urban lots and spaces that other wise would not be green, nobody usually ever sees the garden go up but everyone enjoys the benefits

[guerrilla52]

in other words its guerrilla warfare on urban lots with plants........... weird idea I know but it gets the job done

[rainbowgardener]

Seed bombs! Despite the name, neither the bombs nor the "warfare" involve any violence. Just throwing seeds into vacant lots and other unused properties to hope that something will grow there that isn't just weeds.

We had some really interesting discussions of seed bombing, the ethics and techniques of it, here, but unfortunately they are in the two years of archives that can't be accessed any more with Search the Forum, so I can't find any of it to refer to.

There are things that are easier to bomb than veggies. You need to make up the seed bombs with seeds and topsoil/compost, encased in clay. And then you need something that will survive on its own without maintenance. In Miami it just might work, since you have lots of warmth and humidity/rain. Many other places veggies wouldn't survive just tossed out like that.

Things to try would be beans, squash, beets, lettuce, kale, broccoli. But the beans and squash would be for next year, once it is getting warm again. The rest are cool weather crops that in Miami you could do now.

[guerrilla52]

I have heard of seed bombs only I didn't know you could make them, I wouldn't Want to waste the seed either if something went wrong with it, again impact on the environment has to be noticed immediately, I was wondering lately more of the ethics of it, would people see it and want to be a part of it or would the simple cut it down

[guerrilla52]

The seed bomb idea is the most ideal for quick deployment of seed though, and it seems rather fun to run around with.little green grenades !!!!!!!

[lorax]

Most people won't simply cut down plants on an empty lot or invaded public "greenspace" - I do a lot of guerilla gardening, and seed bombing is a great start. RBG has a good point - start with things that will require little care, like squashes and runner beans, then move up to other veggies. In the Florida winter, tomatoes are an excellent seed bomb payload, and will happily grow wild. Ditto to Physalis (cape gooseberries) and other fast-growing, drought-tolerant edible Solanums.

Then again, I'll also separate and transplant errant banana pups into vacant lots, and I throw cuttings of certain succulents over walls into fenced lots, so it's all a matter of how dedicated you are to doing it. I also happily climb the palm trees in my local parks to harvest fruit (I love altitude coconuts, but if I don't climb the tree, I can't have them. The cops here just ask for a share of what I harvest.)

In terms of the ethics of it, my two cents are that you're improving your city's food sovereignty and beautifying in a way that costs them zip, so there's no ethical impact whatsoever. Basically you're turning fallow land into productive. I'm not sure of the US laws, but in Ecuador you can't be sanctioned for planting food crops on empty lots - and my doing so actually reduces the property taxes for the lot owners, so they rarely complain.

[guerrilla52]

Excellent!!!!!!!!!! Thanx to both of you, Miamis grey should soon be green, I.will keep piks posted when I can!!!!

[DoubleDogFarm]

** Surgeon General's Warning **

Vegetables from contaminated soil maybe hazardous to your health

Eric

[guerrilla52]

Any ideas on how to quickly and effectively decontaminate soil? if there is such a thing, hope that wasnt a dumb question.....................

[DoubleDogFarm]

The saying here at Helpful Gardener is, " There are No dumb questions"

I can't think of any quick fixes other than building raised beds above.

Maybe someone else can help.
Eric

[guerrilla52]

you know what, this may be the solution to the destruction of the plants as well, in raised beds there would be far less reason to tear it down as the work has obviously has been put into it. its brilliant, thank you

[guerrilla52]

though this may take a bit more poise than seed bombs

[DoubleDogFarm]

though this may take a bit more poise than seed bombs

Seed bombs could be weed bombs. Be careful with your casting.

Eric

[guerrilla52]

gotcha, will do!!!

[guerrilla52]

thanks for the input!

[rainbowgardener]

But don't let people slow you down too much! Trying to build raised beds in a vacant lot you don't own is a whole different project than seed bombing it. If you don't pick a lot next to any chemical plants or anything, there's no more reason to think that lot is contaminated than our own yards. My yard seems to have been used as a dump in the past as near as I can tell from all the glass, beer cans, metal parts, etc I dig up anywhere I dig.

You are just trying to green the place up a bit. You have no idea whether any of these veggies will sprout and if so if they will thrive enough to produce anything and if they do, if anyone will pay any attention. Veggies usually take a bit of tending to be productive and the idea of seed bombing and guerrilla gardening is not usually that you are going to come back and tend them.

Because of all that, if I were to take up seed bombing, I would do it with hardy native wildflowers. But the veggies should work to green things up also.

If what you really want is to take over spaces for veggie gardens that people would tend and get veggies from, you should look in to community gardens. Look up Will Allen and the Growing Power movement.

[jal_ut]

Who owns the lot in question? Can you contact the owner and perhaps make a deal to use the lot? If so you could possibly have a great spot for a garden without sneaking around about it. Messing with another's property without permission puts you at risk.

[Dillbert]

in the 90's I did a number of "house rehabs" in what one could only describe as 'the worst of the slum environment'

there were vacant lots _everywhere_ - abandoned houses that eventually the city had to raze before somebody got hurt / killed by 'falling junk'

as the neighborhoods _slowly_ 'came back' any number of folk opted to use the abandoned / razed lots for veggie / flower / park styles of gardening.

then the city would send in a clean up crew - which would absolutely totally destroy / remove / level / pull up everything and anything on those plots and re-grade it back to rubble. I personally don't call that inner-urban progress, but . . .

at best I suppose one could assume some city inspector spotted an over-grown lot, probably five years ago, and put it on a list of 'places to be cleaned up' - some other city department apparently finally worked far enough down the list to come destroy the locals efforts.

scenes like 20-30 people out there protesting, a city employee saying 'I got orders to clear out this lot' - very ugly.

so, seed bombing an abandoned spot hoping the locals will find / harvest the beans / tomatoes / cukes is one thing; significant effort needs to be formalized.

[guerrilla52]

I understand the risk I am taking, its not exactly lawful but I do want to try, as far as the lots go I was actually thinking of just asking the owners to use the land, it seems more like the right thing to do. questions

[guerrilla52]

I'm trying to find websites advertising land now