Outlaw Gardeners Beautify City

#58. Outlaw Gardeners Beautify City

Stamford Street and Blackfriars Road, London, planted with sunflowers, 2008 © Richard Reynolds

Seeds

Richard Reynolds, or Richard 001, as he is known in the Guerillagardening.org organization, descends on traffic islands, forgotten parks, public gardens, and roadway edges with troops around the world; he transforms ignored spaces into beautiful gardens. Other troops focus on productive planting, encouraging vegetable and fruit farming in the city.
Although Richard 001’s little war against mundane landscaping began in 2004 when he became fed up with the sorry condition of the yard in front of his apartment building, the guerrilla gardening movement can be traced back to at least the 1970s, when artists like Liz Christy and Gordon Matta-Clark used the term to describe illegal, and often nocturnal, horticulture missions.

100% genius

Actors: Guerrillagardening.org (Richard Reynolds); 5,113 gardeners

Location: London, United Kingdom, since 2004

Tools: Seed packets, plant bulbs, garden fork, gloves

Gardening

Guerrilla

Comments

May 15, 09 Wendy Ross:

brillant! I joked about guerilla gardening a couple of weeks ago how naive of me to think someone wasn't manifesting on that level. It's good to feel I'm still tapping into the collective unconscious. Right on! I wish I could submit a request for a location but then that wouldn't be guerilla now would it...,

(Speak up)

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