Fork The Law: Guerrilla Gardening in Ireland

Wish someone did something constructive with that abandoned, vacant site across the road?  Watch this space.....

Guerrilla Gardening is quite simply, "Gardening on another persons land without their permission".

It is carried out on vacant, derelict sites, mostly in urban areas.  Guerrilla gardening can lead to the establishment of community gardens for production, aesthetic and sensory purposes.  Guerrilla gardening can also be used in forms of living art or "green graffiti".

But why is it done and what is the degree of success of this illegal activity in Ireland?

Guerrilla gardening has quite a rich history, with references to Gerard Winstanley of Great Britain and Johnny Appleseed in America in the 17th and 19th centuries, respectively.  The most recent tide of Guerrilla Gardening, however, was started by Liz Christy and her "Green Guerrillas" in 1970's New York.  In fact she coined the term, "Guerrilla Gardening".

Guerrilla Gardening takes form in many different activities and involves people from all walks of life; The hobby gardener, the artist, the ecologist and the curious.  You can be as determined as you want and set up a community garden or as lazy as you want and simply toss a couple of seedbombs.

Guerrilla community gardens have proved to be a success here in Ireland, with two notable projects.  These are, the now demised, Dolphin Barn community garden and the active South Circular Road community garden.  The latter is more a legalized form of guerrilla gardening, with a lease of the land agreed with the owner, ST Salvage.  The community garden is supported by local residents and donations from organizations (an example being the donation of veg plants from the 2007 Bloom showgarden "Agraria").  The community garden hosts workshops, teaching valuable skills to locals and invites artists and numerous charities, including survivors of Hiroshima, to visit the garden.  

The guerrilla's weapon of choice (beside a trowel!) is the Seed Bomb.  It is a small ball of clay, mixed with compost, pepper and seeds, in a ratio of five parts clay, two parts compost and one part seeds.  The seed bombs are thrown into vacant lots, tree planters and wherever a spade won't reach.  The clay protects the seeds from the impact and from being eaten by wildlife, the compost improving water retention and the pepper acting as a pest deterrent, to give the seedlings a head start.  Seed bombs are also known as seed balls, seed grenades and "weapons of mass creation".  Seed Bombs are cheap and effective, best results are achieved with wildflower, sunflower and nasturtium seeds

I myself have organized several seed bomb events, raising money for various causes.  In March 2011, i organized "Weapons of Grass Construction" with several classmates at Senior College Dun Laoghaire.  The wildflower seed we used was donated by Sandro Cafolla of Design by Nature.  Our break even point was €15.  We raised €180.  We spent the day talking to students and educating them about the importance of wildflowers in urban spaces for wildlife.  All the money raised was donated to Greystones Community Garden.  The funds where used for the installation for a permaculture hedge/windbreak.  I then organized further seed bomb events at the opening of my towns new creche and at the launch of a local arts network.  At both i held a "make a seed bomb" workshop, which proved extremely popular.  (The kids were slightly disappointed when they found out seed bombs don't actually explode!)

Seed bombs have also recently been used in a rather unique way.  Mary Conroy, a masters student at Limerick School of Art and Design, created "Wildroutes".  For her masters project, Mary decided to do an eco-art project and turned to guerrilla gardening.  Hosting workshops, she makes maps and distributes them (with seed bombs) and the volunteers mark on the map locations where they have seed bombed and return them to Mary.  Her aim is to engage the public with nature and to create green-way habitats in Limerick City.

Guerrilla gardening in Ireland has now even started receiving help from local authorities.  Iziar Sarazola was weeding the strip of green along her housing estate on Clancy Strand in Limerick City.  Across the road was the Limerick City Council offices.  Iziar was soon confronted by the head of the Parks Department who had been watching her work!  She informed Iziar what she was doing was illegal.  After a back and forth over the rights and wrongs of what Itziar was doing, she was advised to apply to the council for funding for such work to be carried out.  Out of this, the Limerick Biodiversity Network was born.  Planting plans, with sustainable, low maintenance schemes are submitted to Limerick City Council, who then pay for the materials and install the schemes.  The focus of the planting schemes is on biodiversity and low maintenance with the inclusion of wildflower grasses more so than the traditional ornamental, high maintenance schemes.  Most of the work has taken place along Clancy Strand, but the hope is to expand over all of Limerick City.

Mary and Itziar's efforts have come under the wider umbrella of Green Limerick.  A hub of various environmental organizations co-operating with one another and pushing for Limerick to become European sustainable city of the year in 2014.

Another guerrilla gardening group is Fed Up, based in Kinsale, Co. Cork.  The group consists of artists, horticulturists and permaculturists, operating around Kinsale and Cork City.  They take a unique approach to guerrilla gardening themselves.  They use painted, recycled milk cartoons as planters.  These planters are then potted up with edible plants such as Nasturtium, Thyme, Strawberries and Chives.  The planters are attached to various street lights, telephone poles and road signs.  The planters often resemble tribal like paintings and besides from being productive, they certainly are eye catching.   The aim of the group is to turn urban areas into productive, edible food-scapes.  Fed Up have held workshops at the Body & Soul and Electric Picnic festivals. 

While these efforts have more sustainable and wider goals at heart, other guerrilla gardening activities are just done for fun.  They are often unsustainable and short lived.  The best example of this is in Temple Bar, Dublin.  Tampopo, a Guerrilla Gardener, decided to do something about the potholes in the cobblestones of Temple Bar.....and add some colour.  They decided to plant up the potholes in Temple Bar!  A better solution to standard council practice of dumping tarmac over the trademark cobblestones of Temple Bar.  I know which of the two solutions i prefer.

Now, i believe it should be obvious at this stage that Guerrilla Gardening is illegal, no matter how beneficial it is.  It counts as vandalism, littering and criminal damage.  Abandoned public property tends to be easier to work with and will encounter less objection.  The improvements made will also last longer.  It may be worth looking into the arrangement of a lease to prolong the life of the guerrilla garden.

For guerrilla gardening to be successful, the right plant choices are necessary.  As the majority of guerrilla gardens takes place in urban areas, chosen plant species must be able to deal with the physiological stresses of the urban environment.  Plants with attributes such as soil binding, nitrogen fixing and removal of heavy metals should be chosen to make the site more hospitable and safe to plant life.  The following is a list of power plants for guerrilla gardening.

• Nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus)
• Poppy (Papaver somniferum)
• Sunflower (Helianthus annus)
• Potatoe (Solanum tuberosum)
• Apple (Malus domestica)
• Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia "Hidcote")
• Sweet Pea (Lathyrus odoratus)
• Blueberry (Vaccinium Species)
• Heather (Erica carnea)

Guerrilla gardening however can have negative effects.  Damage to existing property, use of invasive alien species, lack of site insurance and accidents occurring on site.  Veg production in guerrilla gardens must also be done with care.  Heavy metals present in soils (and indeed fungicides present in timber sleepers) can leach into vegetables and cause untold sicknesses in those who consume them.


Many guerrilla gardeners use numerous tricks to avoid detection.  Seed Bombs allow for a quick "Drive-By", with little chance of getting caught.  Many guerrillas work at night, under the cover of darkness, in groups.  It is advised to wear normal clothes, as garden work clothes tend to attract unwanted attention.

However, one particular guerrilla dons a high vis jacket and works in broad daylight, pretending to be conducting work for the local authority.  No questions asked :)

I believe guerrilla gardeners should receive more support, as the Limerick Biodiversity Network has from Limerick City Council.  Guerrilla gardening offers a unique opportunity to create a greater sense of ownership for communities, especially in urban areas.  As shown with groups such as Fed Up and Wildroutes, the efforts of local guerrillas can create a unique, local identity.  The benefits can be economic, ecological, aesthetic or social.  Guerrilla gardeners can help maintain public planting schemes, saving council money and helping communities to integrate better.  It can also have the secondary effects of lowering crime, vandalism and raising land value.

Fork the Law.

Lets plant some flowers ;)

Recommended Websites:

http://wildroutes.weebly.com/

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Guerrilla-Gardening-Ireland/102983883081342

http://beelimerick.blogspot.com/p/biodiversity-friendly-planting-scheme.html

http://southcirculargarden.blogspot.com/

 http://www.wildflowers.ie/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fed-Up/132523856781695