permaculture

[Keith Johnson <keithdj@mindspring.com>]

In Bloomington, IN, there are lots of community gardens, a new community 
orchard, urban farmers, farmers markets, university gardeners, local 
seed growers / sellers cooperation, increasing levels of garden / farmer 
training and support.

We don't have any "official" guerrilla gardening groups locally (that I 
know of) but as a seed saver I find myself thinking about all the things 
in my garden that could grow on their own, or with little support, in 
wilder urban niches. I have in mind a diversity of plants with multiple 
yields and the creation of mixed seed / cutting collections of locally 
adapted, low maintenance, often self-sowing, occasionally high 
nutritional value, beneficial insect / bee / butterfly attracting, 
colorful, fragrant, sometimes perennial, economically valuable, 
nitrogen-fixing, wildlife food / habitat, and mineral-accumulating types 
of plants that could also partially self-employ those who establish / 
manage / harvest them.

Maybe a tall order but doable, I think..

A few of the plants that would lend themselves to some neglect under 
less-cared-for conditions in  my local (going on zone 7 [was zone 5  25 
years ago]) list include (in no particular order)

amaranth,
magenta lamb's quarters,
cilantro,
dill,
carrot (especially the cosmic red and purples which bloom in rosy pinks 
and are swarmed by beneficials),
walking or Egyptian onion,
leek,
chard,
lettuce,
radish,
ground cherry (Physalis spp.), tomatillo,
broom corn (Sorghum),
wheat,
long beans,
lablab beans (hyacinth bean),
sunflowers,
balsam impatiens (I grew them as understory in the asparagus and 
scattered through the garden and they shaded out weedy competition 
beautifully, butterflies and pollinators love them, simple and 
effortless to weed),
cup plant (Sylphium),
indigo (Indigofera tinctoria [polygonaceae], I have white- and 
pink-flowered types of this beautiful blue-dye plant that self-sow in 
the greenhouse and outdoors);
the moschata branch of the cucurbits (solid stem, borer resistant) and 
includes tromboncino, butternut and others;
orach (Chenopodium),
motherwort (careful, succeeds easily in poor soil),
celosias (very elegant, colorful and beneficial hosts),
garlic (plant cloves or bulbils),
field / winter / Austrian peas,
kale,
collards,
senna (short woody, N-fix, bee forage, yellow flowers for 1-2 months),
baptisia (blue, yellow and white varieties, perennial, N-fix),
Amorpha fruticosa ("false indigo", bee forage, fodder, mulch, N - highly 
recommended),
cherry tomatoes,
buckwheat,
liatris,
hollyhocks,
zinnias,
marigolds,
hibiscus,
sweet potatoes,
stonefruit,
paw paws,
service berry (from seed and side shoots),
currant / gooseberry (from cuttings),
thornless blackberries and
che fruit (melon berry / Chinese mulberry, fig / mulberry family, can be 
grafted onto wild Osage orange [Maclura]).
Apples could be grafted onto crab apples and hawthornes, pears on to 
ornamental pears.

What would your local lists look like?
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Any groups like these (below) happening in your regions?
(Snip) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guerrilla_gardening
Greenaid

Greenaid is a Los Angeles based organization founded in 2010 by Daniel 
Phillips and Kim Karlsrud of Common Studio. The organization converts 
vintage gumball machines to dispense seedbombs, a combination of clay, 
compost and region-specific seeds. Once dispensed, seedbombs are tossed 
or planted in any area that may benefit from wildflowers. Greenaid 
partners with business owners, educators and citizens to distribute 
seedbomb vending machines in various communities worldwide. With 
region-specific seedbomb mixes, Greenaid aims to integrate and beautify 
rather than disrupt traditionally bland urban areas such as sidewalks 
and highway medians. In July 2010, Greenaid received $10,398 in funding 
from the Kickstarter community. This funding will be used to spread the 
initiative to new locations and support current operations.
Utah

In Northern Utah, apple trees commonly grow along the banks of canals. 
Asparagus grows along the smaller ditch banks. Many of these plants were 
seeded 150 years ago by the workers who dug the canals, by burying their 
lunch apple core in the freshly dug soil or by surreptitiously spreading 
seeds along a new ditchbank. Guerrilla gardening continues today, as 
individuals secretly plant fruit trees, edible perennials, and flowers 
in parks, along bike trails, etc. Some guerrilla gardeners do so for the 
purpose of providing food. For example, the Tacamiche banana plantation 
workers in Honduras illegally grew vegetables on the abandoned 
plantation land, rather than leave with the plantation's closure in 1995.
Pure Genius!!

One high-profile example of guerrilla gardening took place in May 1996, 
when about 500 activists affiliated with The Land is Ours, including the 
journalist George Monbiot, occupied 13 acres (53,000 m2) of derelict 
land belonging to the Guinness company on the banks of the River Thames 
in Wandsworth, South London. Their action aimed to highlight what they 
described as "the appalling misuse of urban land, the lack of provision 
of affordable housing and the deterioration of the urban environment."
A community grew up on the site called "Pure Genius!!" (named after the 
Guinness advertising slogan). They lived there for five and a half 
months before being evicted.
Have på en nat

Later, on 1 July 1996, Have på en nat ("Garden in a night") was made by 
the Danish Økologiske Igangsættere ("Organic starters").

An empty piece of land in the middle of the city at Guldbergsgade in 
Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark, was transformed into a garden in a single 
night. About 1000 people took part in the project.
May Day 2000

On May Day 2000, Reclaim the Streets organised a mass guerrilla 
gardening action in Parliament Square, London. After a carnivalesque 
procession with a samba band and a Critical Mass bike ride from Hyde 
Park, thousands of guerrilla gardeners occupied the square and planted 
vegetables and flowers. A maypole was erected, around which many of the 
gardeners danced. Banners hung in the square reading "Resistance is 
Fertile" (a pun on futile), "Let London Sprout", "Capitalism is Pants", 
and "The Earth is a Common Treasury for All", the latter being a quote 
from the seventeenth-century Digger Gerrard Winstanley. An Indymedia 
public access terminal was set up in the new allotment, and the statue 
of Winston Churchill was given a green turf mohican. The perpetrator (an 
ex-British soldier) was fined for his vandalism of the Churchill statue.
International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day 1 May

In 2007 guerrilla gardeners in Brussels, known as The Brussels Farmers 
[2], declared 1 May International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day. 
This is a day in which guerrilla gardeners around the world plant 
sunflower seeds in public places within their neighborhood (in practice 
this event is limited to regions of the northern hemisphere where the 
climate and season are most appropriate). Participants in that first 
year included Brussels, London and Bordeaux. Every year since then the 
occasion has gained momentum and been promoted through the 
GuerrillaGardening.org network and in 2010 more than 5000 signed up to 
take part.
Leaf Street Community Garden

Leaf Street is an acre of land in Hulme, Manchester, England, that was 
once an urban street until turfed over by Manchester City Council. Local 
people, facilitated by Manchester Permaculture Group, took direct action 
in turning the site into a thriving community garden.

Abahlali baseMjondolo
The South African shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo has 
planted gardens in a number of their affiliated settlements[8], such as 
the Kennedy Road settlement.

GuerrillaGardening.org
GuerrillaGardening.org was created in October 2004 by Richard Reynolds 
as a blog of his solo guerrilla gardening outside Perronet House, a 
neglected council block in London's Elephant and Castle district. At the 
time, his motivations were simply those of a frustrated gardener looking 
to beautify the neighborhood, but his website attracted the interest of 
fellow guerrilla gardeners in London and beyond, as well as the world's 
media. Reynolds's guerrilla gardening has now reached many pockets of 
South London, and news of his activity has inspired people around the 
world to get involved. He also works alongside other troops, some local 
and some who travel to participate. He has also guerrilla-gardened in 
Libya, Berlin and Montreal. Today, GuerrillaGardening.org is still his 
blog but also includes tips, links and thriving community boards where 
guerrilla gardeners from around the world are finding supportive locals. 
His book, On Guerrilla Gardening, which describes and discusses activity 
in 30 different countries, was published by Bloomsbury Publishing in the 
UK and USA in May 2008."Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto" by David 
Tracey has accounts of community garden leaders and public officials. 
"Guerrilla Gardening: How to Create Gorgeous Gardens for Free" by 
Barbara Pallenberg is a how-to on gardening that was "everything you 
wanted to know about gardening but were afraid to ask"

Early on Saturday, April 26, a team of volunteers installed forty-nine 
small birdhouses along the entire length of Hanover Avenue in the Fan 
District of Richmond, Virginia. They were built from untreated lumber 
and were specifically sized to provide a safe haven for some of 
Richmond's local songbirds, including wrens, blue birds, and finches, 
from the unwelcome non-native species such as the Starling and the 
European Barn Swallow.

Additionally, the guerrilla gardening movement has been catching on in 
Richmond, Virginia. In 2006, Style Weekly reported an act of guerrilla 
gardening in an alley off Hanover Avenue adjacent to the new birdhouses. 
Also, a group called Tricycle Gardens has begun the reclamation of 
blighted urban spaces in some of Richmond's poorest neighborhoods. Their 
efforts are bringing locally grown food and a better understanding of 
the interconnectedness humans have with nature to the city.

The volunteers who installed the birdhouses have asked members of the 
community to tend the houses in the fall once the breeding season is 
complete. The houses have been designed with a hinged right panel for 
easy cleaning.

Kew Bridge Eco Village, London, England
In July 2009 land rights activists moved on to a derelict piece of land 
near Kew Gardens in West London. Kew Bridge Eco Village is a small 
community of squatters who have grown vegetables and built basic wooden 
dwellings on the land.
Guerrilla gardening in Australia

Guerrilla gardening is prominent in Melbourne where most of the inner 
northern suburbs have community vegetable gardens; land adjoining rail 
lines has undergone regeneration of the native vegetation, including 
nature strips. There are a few minor disputes between guerrilla 
gardeners in Melbourne, with most falling into one of two groups: those 
concerned most with native planting and those concerned most with 
communal food growing. However, people with differing opinions still 
work together without dispute.[14]

There is a small community group in Melbourne called "Permablitz" who 
gather regularly to design and construct suburban vegetable gardens for 
free, in an effort to educate residents in Melbourne on how to grow 
their own food and better prepare them if/when food prices become too 
expensive.

Australian Network 10's show Guerrilla Gardeners featured a team of 
gardeners who make over areas of council owned property without them 
knowing.
--

Keith Johnson
"Be fruitful and mulch apply."
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