The term “guerrilla” may bring to mind a small band of armed soldiers, moving in the dead of night on a stealth mission. In the case of guerrilla gardening, the soldiers are planters, the weapons are shovels, and the mission is to transform an abandoned lot into a thing of beauty. Once an environmentalist’s nonviolent direct action for inner-city renewal, this movement is spreading to all types of people in cities around the world. These modern-day Johnny Appleseeds perform random acts of gardening, often without permission. Typical targets are vacant lots, railway land, underused public squares, and back alleys. The concept is simple, whimsical, and has the cheeky appeal of being a not-quite-legal call to action. Dig in some soil, plant a few seeds, or mend a sagging fence—one good deed inspiring another, with win-win benefits all around. Guerrilla Gardening outlines the power-to-the-people campaign for greening our cities. Tips for effective involvement include: • Finding plants and seeds cheap (or free) • Handling city officials • Getting the dirt on soil • Planting to bring back the birds • Knowing when to ask first Social activists, city dwellers, and longtime gardeners will delight in this fast-paced and funny call to arms. David Tracey is a journalist and environmental designer who operates EcoUrbanist in Vancouver. He is executive director of Tree City Canada, a nonprofit ecological engagement group.

On Guerrilla Gardening is an activist's call to arms to all citizens - green-fingered, green-thinking or curious - to join the revolution of guerrilla gardening: transforming public space into oases of colour and life. The enemy: neglect, apathy and the disintegration of community spirit. The arsenal: daring, a packet of seeds and a passionate commitment to social change. When Richard Reynolds first embarked on guerrilla gardening, growing flowers by moonlight outside his tower block, he had no idea it was part of a growing global movement committed to cultivating the potential in the land regardless of all obstacles. Charting the battles fought across thirty different countries and the revolutionary history of this subculture, On Guerrilla Gardening is an inspirational take on gardening in the 21st century.

War is the natural occupation of man . war-and gardening. Winston Churchill to Siegfried Sassoon, 1918 In the common public perception, contemporary gardening is understood as suburban, as leisure activity, as television makeover opportunity. Its origins are seen as religious or spiritual (Garden of Eden), military (the clipped lawn, the ha-ha and defensive ditches), aristocratic or monarchical (the stately home, the Royal Horticultural Society). Radical Gardening travels an alternative route, through history and across landscape, linking propagation with propaganda. For everyday garden life is not only patio, barbecue, white picket fence, topiary, herbaceous border.. From window box to veggie box, from political plot to flower power, this book uncovers and celebrates moments, movements, gestures, of a people's approach to gardens and gardening. It weaves together garden history with the counterculture, stories of individual plants with discussion of government policy, the social history of campaign groups with the pleasure and dirt of hands in the earth, as well as original interviews alongside media, pop and art references, to offer an informing and inspiring new take on an old subject.

Ophélie is a thirty years old city-dweller who’s joined the guerilla gardening movement fighting for decades to bring more green back into cities - and now she’s putting the guerillas’ motto into action by reviving the true spirit of her city and showing everyone the true nature of their world! “PLANT...EVERYWHERE!” Ophélie is a thirty years old city-dweller who’s joined the guerilla gardening movement fighting for decades to bring more green back into cities that increasingly resemble concrete jungles. Now she’s putting the guerillas’ motto into action by reviving the true spirit of her city and showing everyone the true nature of their world! Cookie Kalkair & Ophelie Damblé explore the real world of the guerilla gardening movement that teaches us the principles of making our cities more beautiful and sustainable places, one plant at a time.

A defintive guide to restoring a neglected, damaged garden explains how to work with the tough plant survivors of such devastation, offering detailed instructions on how to rescue castaways and cuttings and how to grow healthy plants to suit any climate from cuttings, leaves, dead bouquets, compost heaps, and more. Original. 15,000 first printing.

An exciting introduction to a new generation of street artists whose spontaneous craft installations are leaving their mark on cities around the world In the past decade, street art has transformed from a practice carried out by anonymous creators, seen by some as vandalism, into a commercial enterprise and a respectable part of the international art market. One of the richest movements in street art has been the development of an alternative, crafts-based, three-dimensional movement, broadly identified as Street Craft. This new generation of artists is creating uncommissioned, site-specific works employing a range of art and craft techniques, including weaving, crocheting, sculpting, painting, gardening, light installation, and more. Street Craft brings together twenty-eight different artists from different countries whose work has redefined what street art can be. By diversifying materials and techniques, Street Craft artists are pushing beyond the two-dimensionality of graffiti and mural-painting, many of them using craft techniques to bring inventive beauty to bland urban surroundings. Tasha Lewis’s blue butterfly swarms decorate derelict corners of Indianapolis and New York, and Mademoiselle Maurice’s origami and lace graffiti beautifies the streets of Paris and Hong Kong. Other artists create sophisticated urban interventions bearing their personal tags, such as the artist SpiderTag, who intertwines sturdy rope and nails to construct abstract graffiti in Madrid, and GorillaLighting, who haunts Berlin’s industrial estates with impermanent projections. Each artist’s profile includes project descriptions, artist statements, and a selection of photographs of their work: a document of the vibrant panorama of Street Craft, which, like the art form itself, engages with its audience in new and exciting ways.

London is home to over 3 million gardens, from pocket handkershief front yards to historic horticultural sites like Westminster College Garden. This book celebrates the wealth of London's gardens with an inspirational compost of specially commissioned photographs, reviews, practical gardening advice, and much more.

The book presents an in-depth and theoretically-grounded analysis of urban gardening practices (re)emerging worldwide as new forms of bottom-up socio-political participation. By complementing the scholarly perspectives through posing real cases, it focuses on how these practices are able to address – together with environmental and planning questions – the most fundamental issues of spatial justice, social cohesion, inclusiveness, social innovations and equity in cities. Through a critical exploration of international case studies, this collection investigates whether, and how, gardeners are willing and able to contrast urban spatial arrangements that produce peculiar forms of social organisation and structures for inclusion and exclusion, by considering pervasive inequalities in the access to space, natural resources and services, as well as considerable disparities in living conditions.

Creative strategies for gardens on balconies, ledges, fireescapes, planting beautiful borders and walkways, kids gardens, and much more!