Guerrilla Gardening – Everything You Need to Know

Ok before we start, here’s the rub:

Guerrilla gardening is an illegal activity, but not all illegal activities are immoral, in my opinion. That being said, this is still illegal. Guerrilla gardening is planting on land that is not yours. The land you are targeting are abandoned properties or even certain private or public lands.

This practice is usually done in the city where many properties were abandoned. It’s just terrible to see these unused lands go to waste while people in these neighborhoods could use the land for growing. Guerrilla gardeners either grow flowers to improve the look of the area or fruit and vegetable plants.

Guerrilla gardening is done on the sneak when no one is looking and sometimes in the dark of night. It’s a great way to produce more food than you can on your own property and is even a great way to share with neighbors.

Parks that are not maintained much are potential areas to grow all sorts of plants. Finding a low growing branched tree and planting vining squash next to it gives you a natural trellis. It’s amazing how much better these plants do as compared to plants on a farm that get eaten by bugs. Sneaking in kale, onions and other items will usually go unnoticed.

Being smart about what you plant can mean that you won’t need to replant next year. Perennial plants will regrow or reseed themselves without your help. When choosing your seeds, buy heirloom open pollinated varieties. The seeds from these plants will grow true unlike hybrid or GMO (genetically modified seeds.) Saving seeds and sharing them is one of the best things you can do!

Guerrilla Gardening 101: Seed Bombs

One fun way to wage your war on unused land is to seed bombs. I suggest doing this when you have a few days of rain coming around to help the plants germinate. Seed bombing is easily done with just a few ingredients.

1. Seeds
2. Air Dry Clay
3. Compost
4. Water
5. Plastic bag

With just these few ingredients you will be taking part in the guerilla growing revolution. Soaking the seeds in water over night will increase your germination success. Follow these steps to assemble these seed bombs.

1. Put out a thin small 2”x2” layer of Air Dry Clay on a piece of plastic bag.
2. Sprinkle a bit of compost but not enough that you won’t be able to close it up and roll into a ball.
3. Put 2 seeds on the compost.
4. Add a small amount of water to the compost. Too much water will make the clay too wet to use.
5. Using your fingers under the plastic bag, close up the clay ball encapsulating the seeds.
6. Set the ball on a drying rack until it’s just dry enough to handle. Make as many as you like.

You are ready to wage war against those that try and keep you from your squash and cilantro! Casually walk the neighborhood with your pockets bulging of ammunition dropping or tossing them as you go. Not every seed ball will work, but the pride you feel as you get away with each one is empowering!

An upgraded and more fun way to get back at greedy hoarders with huge lots of useless grass is to potato cannon. I can’t tell you here how to build one, but you can find YouTube videos on that. The key here is to dig out the center of a potato without going through the end. Fill it with moist compost, seeds, and plug the end of the potato with clay. Now when you launch the potato 100-200 yards, the wildlife can enjoy your plantings.

Using a simple slingshot is also a fun way to broadcast your seed bombs. Launching seeds and then watching them grow is so satisfying. It’s also a good way to get your kids into planting!

Guerrilla Gardening To Make Things Look Good With Perennial Plants

Any sorts of plants can be grown, but a really fun plant to guerrilla garden is thornless blackberries (roots are perennial and canes are biennia if you really need to know.) They spread well and will give you enough berries to eat fresh, preserve, make wine, juice, even the leaves can be used for tea or a tobacco substitute and to share with neighborhood kids and wildlife. It would be hard to find any other plant that has so many uses and kids will consume daily.

Some other easy plants to guerrilla garden are strawberry plants (which will spread on their own), ground cherries and even tomato plants because they all will regrow on their own, year to year.  They are low maintenance crops that manage themselves.

Sneak in the Herbs

Herbs are also easy to sneak into little corners and lots. Broadcast cilantro, parsley, basil, chives, and dill in the fall for a spring to winter harvest of fresh herbs. It’s really easy to just toss out seeds, and they will eventually germinate.

Medicinal Herbs

If you haven’t the room to start a medical garden, this may be your opportunity. Grow some medicinal herbs and collect wild growing ones. Dandelions are a powerful medicine, and the roots are a good substitute. Mullein grows in many deteriorating lots and is my go to for coughs and colds!

It’s really important to learn all these ways to find and grow food and medicinal plants even if not on your land. Look at Venezuela which was once a powerful oil-rich land. Now, millions are dying from hunger and sickness.

Beware of Chemicals

One word of caution. Beware of areas that have been sprayed with chemicals like Roundup or parking areas that may have oil from junked vehicles. Many plants can grow fine in these poisoned soils, but the plants will have taken up chemicals that may make you sick or kill you.

I hope you have the courage it takes to step outside the box and spread mother nature. It won’t be long until you find another trusted few Guerrilla gardeners to go on night missions with!

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