HOW DO I GUERRILLA GARDEN?
7 STEPS
Know your purpose.
This is no time to be a rebel without a cause. The world needs an army of rebels with a cause.
The first step in creating any guerrilla garden is to know why you’re doing it. This will set you up for all the decisions that follow.
There’s a bouquet of reasons to start a guerrilla garden, including: increasing biodiversity, connecting community, food justice, beautifying neglected neighbourhoods, providing nature connection and education, or even using it as a protest.
Which inspires you to act?
SAGE ADVICE
Start small
Don’t set yourself up for disappointment by biting off more than you can chew. Start small, and build up to bigger projects as your confidence, connections and abilities grow.
Just do it
Don't over think it. You can’t predict how things will go until you actually get going. So, get going! And welcome any “failures” as a necessary part of the learning process.
Resist & persist
Guerrilla gardening takes grit. From combative busybodies to drought, we face all sorts of challenges. It’s our responsibility to be tenacious, and care for the gardens we create.
OUR MANIFESTO
(C.L.A.S.H.)
Seek sustainability
Be eco-minded. Borrow and repurpose instead of buying new, use peat-free compost, and source plants and parts as locally as possible.
Act local
Grow where you’ve put down your own roots. Others' neighbourhoods are their spaces to shape (though you can support them!)
Let nature lead
Work with nature, not against it. Avoid pesticides and herbicides, embrace undervalued lifeforms (from weeds to woodlice), go organic, and prioritise native species.
Commit to care
A guerrilla garden is not just for spring! Become your site’s gardening angel, ensuring it’s watered, protected, litter free and nourished.
Have fun!
The reasons we guerrilla garden might be serious, but doing it doesn’t have to be. Centre joy, and see challenges as opportunities to get creative.
ALL ABOUT ACTION
To become a bona fide guerrilla gardener, there’s nothing you need to sign or subscribe to. You just need to take action, transforming a neglected scrap of public space into a vibrant pocket of plant life.
