For the urbanite living in boxes on top of more boxes there is little or no space to grow with no soil to tend to, no vegetables to prune and no flowers to pick.
City dwellers around Southern California and other booming cities, like London, Berlin, Miami and Dublin, have decided to take direct action via guerrilla gardening.
Guerrilla gardening relies on guerrilla gardeners to search out or stumble upon ignored plots of dirt around the city.
These spaces are typically barren strips of city-owned land, like traffic medians or even the neighborhood vacant lot waiting to be turned into parking spaces.
Just recently in Los Angeles and Long Beach, three guerrilla gardening groups have sprouted: Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardening (LAGG), South Central Resistance (SRC) and SoCal Guerrilla Gardening.
Scott Bunnell, 49, creator of SoCal Guerrilla Gardening in Long Beach, is a 20-year experienced gardener. He remembers how his passion for guerrilla gardening started after he would see ideal vacant plots of land on his drive to work each morning.
His first big guerrilla garden was planted 10 years ago right off of Loynes Drive, on the outskirts of Cal State Long Beach. Bunnell favors planting drought-tolerant plants like aloe vera, agave and other varieties of exotic succulents.
Many guerrilla gardeners take different approaches when it comes to planting. Bunnell likes to plant more in the fall, an unconventional choice to those who prefer spring. Once the young seedlings are sowed in the ground, Bunnell waits for the rain to water the garden.
“I’ll work with what’s in [the plot] right now,” Bunnell said. “I’ll put a garden in with crappy soil, no water and see how it’ll grow in a couple of years. I don’t need $1,000 to improve the land.”
SoCal Guerrilla Gardening has planted new gardens in the Wrigley area of Long Beach and parts of Hollywood. Most of these plants used in these gardens have come from Bunnell’s own personal nursery. Once he weeds out his older and well-established gardens, little baby seedlings can be pulled out and potted up for another garden.
His biggest garden located on Loynes Drive has gotten much neighborhood and media attention. Talks have begun with the Long Beach supervisor of City Maintenance about the installation of a sprinkler system.
Bunnell has waited for the follow through of these plans but after eight months of pushing plans back and the politics of the city, there is still no sprinkler system. Bunnell said he has not given up hope and is always in search for new places and opportunities to promote sustainable living.
Guerrilla gardening is not a one-man show. It takes a whole village to grow a garden. SoCal Guerrilla Gardening has collaborated with other groups, like LAGG and SCR.
Guerrilla gardening walks the fine line between legal and illegal, right and wrong, and order and chaos. On one side of the argument, guerrilla gardeners are planting on land that does not belong to them. But in retrospect, others ask what harm is truly being done.
“I find it exciting because we’re doing it against the establishment,” said Zach Saunders, a sophomore CSULB theatre arts major.
Bunnell said that “it’s as much picking up trash than anything else.”
While guerrilla gardening has gained more popularity and mainstream attention, the authorities are unsure on how to handle the situation. Bunnell hasn’t been to a dig yet where the police haven’t shown up.
“I try to be obvious and overt, not defiant but calm,” he said. “When they ask me what I’m doing, I tell them I’m gardening.”
At Saunders’ Anaheim and Roswell garden, a representative from the private contracting firm that owns the lot was there one day taking pictures of the garden beds. The representative walked up to Saunders and asked him what he was doing. He explained his situation and the representative was quite puzzled.
“He wasn’t saying I needed to get out of the lot, but that they were planning to put something in there in six months to a year, and by that time we’d better be out,” Saunders said.
Guerrilla gardening has created new life in these lifeless plots of dirt.
“We need to have a love for the land and an appreciation for what comes out of it,” Saunders said.