Guerrilla Garden

{Those are not my legs with the goofy rolled-up trousers}

 

I’ve built my first Guerrilla Garden. It’s an idea I’ve been meaning to act on for some time, but I’ve finally found the space and motivation to do it. I’ve cleared about a six-by-six plot in the big open lot in between my apartment complex and the road, built rickety wooden structures for plants to climb, and planted beans and squash (and one epic sunflower). I also buried a 3-liter soda bottle with holes punched around the sides to slowly seep water deep down into the soil. Now that I’ve got the trellises up and the plants in the ground, it actually looks like a real garden, instead of just a squared-off patch of dirt.

My brother asked me the other night, somewhat exasperatedly, why I’m doing it; why am I putting so much work and sweat into a project that could be bulldozed tomorrow. It really could, too. I’ve already had one space that I’d cleared for a garden destroyed when they came to haul away the giant wood piles that previously stood behind our building (sadly, replacing the forest that stood there before that). There’s no telling when or if they’ll be back again, to begin some sort of construction or pave it for a parking lot or who-knows-what-else. Even if they don’t come, and the lot remains empty, I’m only going to be living in this particular spot for another six months or so. Some of my plants are transportable and can come with me; but there’s no way to move my guerrilla garden.

It doesn’t matter, though. There’s sixteen units in each building, and two or three buildings with a good view of the open lot; not to mention all the cars that drive by when using the back entrance gate. If even one or a few of those people might gaze out the window (might unglue their eyes from their screens; perhaps during a commercial) and see me working and digging in the dirt and planting seedlings and become curious, even interested, then it would have been worth it. Even better, if one of those people should think to themselves, ‘You know, that’s a pretty good idea; I should grow something of my own,” then I shall have had a victory. Even better still, if one of those people were gregarious enough to come out and join me, take up a shovel or a rake, and start digging their own garden; why that would be the greatest reward of all. Vegetables and Greens, fine; Community and Action, better.