W e have too much stuff. I mean “we” in the collective sense of Western society. Unless you’ve embarked on a personal campaign to cut back, Mahatma, you’re probably included. Our living spaces and storage areas are crowded with useless manufactured “goods.” Once a year we realize how ridiculous it is to shelter crate-loads of inanimate objects with no apparent purpose in our lives, and so we have a yard sale. But it doesn’t work. Because the neighbors have a yard sale too, and for some reason, maybe because we’re as fascinated by trinkets as any Pacific island cargo cult, we end up buying and storing as much crap as we sell.
This chapter is about all the things you need to be a guerrilla gardener. The short answer is: not much.
The longer answer is: keep reading. But it’s still not much. Even my kids know the basics of this rule through learning the Three Rs at school: Reuse, recycle, and one more I forgot. But those two are probably enough. Especially reuse. We should take that one seriously.
Technology has produced some pretty amazing things recently, but when it comes to what we use to personally dig holes, move earth, hack weeds and so on, we’re not much further ahead than in the Iron Age. New twists get tried all the time. Like that twisty three-pronged fork in the TV commercials, they may even get popular for a spell, but the people I know who bought one and gushed about it at the time were back to their usual shovels and hoes in a couple of months.
Little things lead to bigger things — that’s what seeds are all about.
— Pete Seeger
Egg cartons make good trays for starting seeds of things such as annual flowers and lettuce. The pressed paper type will hold up long enough for the seeds to germinate, but break down easily once in the ground so you needn't disturb the delicate roots when transplanting.
Start by poking a hole in the bottom of each cup with a nail. Cut off the carton lid and put it under the cups to collect the water that drips through. Fill the cups with sterile seedstarting mix. Place two or three seeds in each cup and cover with a little more mix. Wrap the whole thing in a plastic bag to retain moisture and store it in a warm place.
When the seeds germinate, remove the plastic bag and move the carton to a bright windowsill. After about two weeks, snip off (don't pull out) the one or two extra plants so that each cup has just one plant. If you like, an organic liquid fertilizer can be used when watering, but only at V4 to V3 strength. After about four to six weeks, harden off the plants by putting them in a sheltered spot outside for a week. When it's time to plant out, separate each cup and break up the walls before burying.
Tool selection is obviously limited to your budget, which is why finding well-made used equipment can be your best move.
If you are buying new, resist the temptation to snag the cheapest thing in the store. It’s true, the prices can be surprisingly low for some tools, and tempting for that fact alone. I know I’m always reluctant to pay anything more than I have to. But with tools (unlike, say, with clothes or restaurant meals) you’re usually going to get what you pay for, and a $12 hoe that bends or breaks or is a pain to use is no bargain. If you accept this reasoning but still find yourself in the store aisle leaning toward the bargain-rate dubious stuff, try some simple math. Divide the cost of the tool by the number of years you might expect to use it. A $12 hoe that lasts a year costs $12 per year. After that you’ll need to buy another, if you’re still interested after the physiotherapy. A $60 hoe that lasts 60 years costs $1 a year, and then you get to give it to your grandchildren. If you can’t afford quality tools, you’re better off saving up until you can or else pooling your money together with friends to share. The bottom line isn’t just the cost, but what you get for it. If it’s important work, it’s important to do it properly. A gardening tool should be a joy to pick up and use.
The list of equipment you might want when starting out could be long. Yes it would be grand to have a solid round-point shovel, a sharp-edged border spade, a wide-bladed scooping shovel and a decent selection of trowels. Also a fork and a pry bar and a weeding hoe or two, along with a bow rake and a lawn rake if you’re going to be working on grass. Toss in some bypass secateurs (pruners) and shears and loppers and a foldable saw. Don’t forget a big carry bag or drop sheet tarp to handle trimmings and, oh yes, a wheelbarrow to carry everything.
Grand it would be, but not all necessary. You can often improvise with things on hand, especially if you’re a group and some of the members have garages full of stuff. But you do need a good shovel. Maybe a trowel, too. But at least get the shovel.
Some garden celebrity experts who may or may not be in cahoots with the manufacturers will insist you need more than one shovel. How many? Oh, three or four should do: a round-pointed one for digging holes, a wide-faced type for scooping and moving things, something with a straight edge for cutting clean holes and edges, one with a deep, narrow blade for transplanting and bulb
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planting and so on. Long-handled shovels Are recommended because they let you work with a straight back (an ache-saver), but a shorter type with a D-ring handle can be useful in a tight place in the bushes or down a deep hole. It can get more involved if you let the pedants insist that no one digs holes with a shovel, because that’s what a spade does, while the former is more properly employed in shoveling or casting soil. What ever. I’m going to assume you aren’t out to create an arsenal (at least not yet) and also that you, like me, are comfortable not calling a spade a spade when it’s easier to call all those things shovels.
So which shovel will it be? Individual preferences will of course vary. Gardeners can get particular about their favorites and will tout them the way some talk up a favorite beer or musical group. Generally if it works for you and does the job, you’ve got the right tool. If picking it up gives you a pulse of pleasure and a heightened sense of anticipation, along with a compelling desire to tighten your grip and bend your knees and plunge it through the earth’s crust at once, you’ve got the right tool worth bragging about.
If you aren’t sure yet what that might be, you won’t go wrong buying a classic “round-tipped” pointed shovel with a fairly wide blade that makes both digging and tossing dirt effective in a single tool. Look for a blade forged from a single piece of cast steel — that’s the kind made by pouring molten steel into a mold. Cheaper models use thinner sheets of steel stamped into the final shape. For one thing, these aren’t durable, which you’re likely to discover at an inconvenient time. For another, because the stability they do have depends on the curved face, they have an annoying tendency to let clay or wet soil stick to the back, making you work harder with each lift.
You can tell a lot by how the blade fits onto the handle. This is called the “tang.” They say if you use a new word in a sentence three times it will be yours, so here’s one opportunity: when the garden store employee shows you the cheapest shovel on the shelf, say: “Do you have one with a longer tang?” The best shovels have tangs extending well up the handle, and include custom fitting or a bolt for a solid seal.
Even if you are on the right trackyou will get run over if you just sit there.
— John Ray
DESIGN TIP
Rocks make great garden features, suggesting an elemental connection to the foundations of the earth. At least the right rocks, placed properly, do. A big stone partially buried to resemble a natural protrusion will appear more formidable than a bunch of smaller rocks scattered as if by accident about the ground.
Placing rocks properly is an art. Don't just drop them onto the first place you reach because they're heavy. Examine each specimen carefully to determine which way it's inclined to lie, whether horizontally, vertically or diagonally. Place groups of stones in combinations that please the eye — three together look better than two, but not if you space them equally apart.
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Be glad of a few days of peace in this garden where the nightingales sing. When the singing has been silenced the beauty of my garden will be gone, too.
— Kiiushal Khan Kiiattak, ijA-century Afghan poet
Now look closely at the blade edge. A narrow angle is best for digging a straight-edged hole. But you’ll get more use out of a wide-angled type good for digging the more common saucershaped hole.
Wooden handles remain the most popular. And why not? Wood is light, flexible, feels good in the hand and might well outlast you. There are newer versions of shovels with fiberglass handles that are said to be pretty good too. I don’t think I’ll buy one.
It doesn’t seem worth it, on an environmental scale, to replace a renewable resource like ash trees with all the gunk that goes into making fiberglass. Besides, it feels right to combine wood and skin and soil the same way our grandparents and their grandparents did. Although you should watch it on the skin. Gloves are always a
Who you calling trash? The following suggestions are meant to inspire even more ideas on howto breathe new life into old objects (and reduce the amount we send to the landfill).
Before After
Large cable spool Broken concrete, used brick Railroad tie Used tire Driftwood Plastic pail Plastic gallon jug Loading pallets Oak barrel Egg carton Bathtub Metal bed frame Old piping Scrap lumber Carpet scraps Milk crate, wooden crate Old window screen Old glass window Hockey stick Old trash can
Picnic table, work bench Pathway, patio Raised bed (non-food) Container, swing Garden fence Container, storage Scoop, watering can, cloche Compost bin, fencing Container, mini-pond Seedling flat Container, water storage Trellis, gate Fencepost
Sign, cold frame, raised bed Mulching, weather stripping Seating, storage Food dryer
Cold frame, greenhouse Stake
Container, compost bin
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good idea when working in repetitive motion. Again, it’s worth it to spend a little extra for a quality pair that fits properly and feels good to tug on. That way you’re more likely to use them and actually get some work done.
One last thing to buy along with your shovel: a file to keep it sharp. Many gardeners never file their shovels, and never wonder why it takes so long to dig a hole. The difference between a wellhoned tool and the average dull one can be startling. Your hardware store will set you up with the right file. If you want to sound as if you know what you’re talking about, ask for a 10-inch bastard cut mill file. No, I don’t know why it’s called a bastard cut either. I do know, however, that sharpening a shovel is fairly easy if you hold it in a secure position (a vice is handy if you have one), place the file on the edge of the shovel at the same angle it’s been sharpened to already, then push (don’t pull) repeatedly until you get a smooth, clean, shiny edge. And now that you know the importance of a sharp tool, you’ll glare appropriately when someone borrowing your shovel drags it along the pavement or tries to break rocks with the pointy tip.
I said you could get by with a single shovel and I meant it, but there is one more tool that’s highly recommended. It is a specialist’s item, but that’s what guerrilla gardeners are. Some times we must be mobile, versatile and discreet all at once. There are situations (waiting in a bank line, asking a cop for directions) when a shovel could be considered conspicuous. This is when you will be glad you have a trowel.
A trowel is a mini-shovel, and a good one is a wonder. It is a tool made to encourage earth-related intimacy. It will bring you as near as possible to the hands-in-soil joy of nurturing growing spaces without actually using your fingers to scrape and dig. A trowel can dig holes, kill weeds, divide perennials, save seedlings, transfer soil and perform many more of your routine garden chores, although things do take longer when you work in small steps.
Trowels come in an astonishing range of shapes and configurations — even more than shovels. The garden tool industry has managed to pack a lot of options in those few short inches of metal and wood (or more likely, plastic). You can buy them with serrated edges to cut through roots, scooped blades to act as
Do you live in a neighborhood with a talented gardener?
Does this garden include some gorgeous perennials that you just know would look great in some other part of town, say in one of your guerrilla gardening plots?
Many perennials fare better after being divided as it encourages new growth. If the plant you're admiring is a candidate, watch your neighbor carefully when the weather starts to warm in late winter or early spring. At the first sign of activity in the garden, you must pounce.
First, praise the plant.
Next, praise the planter. Then inquire innocently whether there will be any extra portion left behind after the plant is divided. And if so, might you suggest one use for it? Why, yes, now that you mention it, the plastic bag you happen to have in your back pocket would make a good carrying device.
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A weed is a poor creature whose virtue has not yet been discovered . — Ralph Waldo Emerson
You can too, with some recycled materials and a few flower seeds.
carrying devices, and sectioned baffles to hold seeds. Perhaps the most important consideration for a guerrilla gardener is the size. You want one small enough to take anywhere (try fitting it into your daypack or briefcase or pocket) yet strong enough to do a tough job without bending or breaking. Portability is key because you’ll feel better when you can walk the city streets knowing you’re prepared to handle any impromptu project that might come up. Whether it’s a volunteer maple seedling in need of rescue or a handful of sunflower seeds that belong in the soil beside a school fence rather than in the garbage can, trowels can turn inspiration into reality. If you see a good one, buy it (they’re rarely expensive). I’ve gone through a number of them but am still searching for the perfect one. When you do find a favorite, take care to hang on to it. Like sunglasses, they’re small and likely to disappear.
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How can you get the goods you need for free or cheap?
Ask.
The combined garages of a typical suburban neighborhood in North America hold enough shovels to dig another Grand Canyon. Many of them have not touched soil in years, and will remain that way for more years to come until you or your group show up with a brochure announcing your community-minded intentions and requesting donations of under-used gardening tools and supplies.
Some of the things you get offered may not be worth the trouble. A rusty hoe with a wonky attachment probably belongs in the city dump. But look carefully. A little sanding and sharpening and tightening could bring it back to life, or if not that, the handle might still be usable when attached to another tool.
You could also try your city landscaping department. They typically buy sturdier stuff. When the budget calls for new supplies, they may be happy to have you cart away their old shovels and hoses and more.
A lot of people cringe at the idea of asking for money, but that’s partly because they forget an important point: you’re not begging, you’re helping people do what they really want to do, even if they don’t quite know it yet.
Potential funders are everywhere, although few organizations will open the door to anything but a group. It doesn’t cost much to get your squad registered as a non-profit society. That opens up your prospects to a variety of funding sources, including corporations with staff hired to do nothing but figure out how to give money to people like you.
Naturally, it’s not that easy. You may not be the first group to show up with a good idea on how to improve the environment. The traditional financial fishing holes have been crowded for a long time. You should feel encouraged to try nonetheless, as applying is free. Anything that helps your application stand out while still meeting all the funding guidelines can be good — although perhaps not the fact that you’re a guerrilla organization. Think carefully about your group name if you are planning to go for
Hybrid seeds are developed to maximize certain traits borrowed from their parent species. This can be a good thing. If we can grow vegetables outside their normal range, we're happy. One disadvantage is that hybrid plants typically benefit from the vigor of the first generation after the cross, but after that all bets are off. They may still produce seeds, but (as I've discovered after an entire season nurturing hot peppers) the plants that grow from them may be infertile and thus produce no fruit. Or if they do produce fruit, it may be something unexpected.
If you're in an experimental mood, go head on. You might come up with something interesting or valuable. But if you're keen on getting precisely what you want, plant and collect the seeds from known varieties such as heirlooms and leave the tinkering to someone else.
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Now if you will take any flower you please and look it carefully all over and turn it about, and smell it and feel it and try and find out all its little secrets; not of flower only but of leaf, bud, and stem as well, you will discover many wonderful things. This is how to make friends with plants, and very good friends you will find them to the end of your lives.
— Gertrude Jekyll in Children and Gardens
official funding. Smash the Capitalist Urban Machine? Catchy, but you might have better luck in institutional funding circles with something like the Neighborhood Improvement Council of Environmentalists.
Of course not many guerrilla gardeners will ever get as far as official funding or even think to try. So what to do when you still need at least some money for materials and things and you just don’t have it?
Time to get the creative juices flowing. Tap into sources you haven’t seen tapped before. Ask friends for ideas, maybe from places where they work, shop, play or volunteer. Is there an event/ party/show you can stage that will give everyone an excuse to have fun and drop a few bucks? Local artists and musicians often have the least money but are the most generous with their work and time. Local businesses aren’t necessarily run by profiteering swine; they may well be owned by people just like you. Which could mean they don’t have much money either, but they might have something to chip in, perhaps sandwiches and drinks, or space for a fundraiser party, or help in printing up flyers, or at least a discount
Aphids are fascinating creatures. Ants must think so too. They farm aphids like cows, herding them onto their favorite plants where there is emerging foliage, stroking them to extract their sweet honeydew and fighting off any insect predators that might try to rustle them away.
The trouble with aphids is how they suck the sap right out of the leaves of your tender crop. To keep them out of your prized fruit tree, you may have to discourage the ants that bring them up the trunk by using a sticky substance like Tanglefoot. Tape plastic wrap or foam in an 8" band around the trunk and slather the sticky stuff on it. Try not to get any on you because it's like the world's stickiest booger that will not let go of your finger (not that you would know what that's like).
Garden books often recommend ladybugs (ladybird beetles) as an anti-aphid strategy, but this idea may be more quaint than useful. Ladybugs are kind of pricey for a bug (I'm told they must be collected in the wild since no one has yet set up a lady
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on things you were going to buy anyway. It never hurts to ask. Even if you get turned down this time, you might start a relationship you’ll both find rewarding for years to come.
Some of the spaces you attempt to garden will come with soil that’s all but unworkable. True, anyone can transform a compacted, clay or rocky wasteland into a fertile site — or at least anyone can with a small army. Garden books often describe techniques such as “double digging,” an odd exercise in which you attempt to enhance bad soil by unearthing the even worse subsoil. Maybe it does work, but it’s always looked to me like a chore. Exhaust yourself on one project and you’re less likely to take up another. So when it comes to poor ground, consider simply growing above the mess by introducing fresh soil.
Where to get it? Try the internet to find your area’s free or recycled goods, starting with Craigslist.org. Somebody always seems to be offering free topsoil from their building projects in my city, and maybe yours too.
Shade happens. Rather than avoid it, pick plants that don't need or want all that much sun. The choices are vast. Here are a few:
Annuals — begonias, foxglove, impatiens Perennials — bleeding heart, ferns, phlox, hosta Trees/Shrubs —azalea, blueberry, fuschia, hydrangea, Oregon grape, viburnums
bug farm). Plus you may release your expensive squadron only to see it fly immediately off to your neighbor's yard. Some claim you can deter an escape by first chilling them in the fridge. They do not mean the freezer, which was tried in my house, due to a miscommunication with a four-year-old, and produced the world's first cryonic facility for ladybugs. I can report to science the fact that none survived the re-animation thawing process. Another suggested strategy involves spraying the ladybugs
with a sticky substance such as soda pop to prevent them from
flying away...but isn't this sounding a bit harsh for something that's supposed to be your ally?
The simplest way to deal with aphids is to set the hose nozzle to jet and blast them with prejudice. You have to do this early enough in the attack cycle and often enough to stay ahead of the pack. Once they get entrenched, they cover up in the curled undersides of the sap-less leaves and are most troublesome to reach with water, soap, sprays or anything else.
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'
CAREFREE GUERRILLA GARDEN SEED PACK 2
"Simply break the soil a bit and then toss the seeds":
Fava beans
Vetch
Clover
Alfalfa
Lupines
Borage
Black nightshade
Ground cherry
Cayenne pepper
Dandelion
Sunflower
Cosmos
Wild lettuce
Marigold
Shasta daisy
Sowthistle
Curly dock
Sheep sorrel
Shepherd's-purse
Smartweed
Milkweed
Cocklebur
Lamb's quarters
Mustard
Stinging nettle
Goldenrod
Burdock
Nasturtium
Amaranth
Flax
Rye
Plantain
Keep any eye out for construction sites in your area. If they have to remove the topsoil but aren’t planning to replace it after development, you may be able to get it free. Because it costs money to haul soil and the cost rises with distance, they may even pay you for the privilege of delivering it to your nearby lot. Alternatively you might rent (or better yet, borrow) a pick-up truck to shift the whole load to the base of your new garden.
A little research here could save you a lot of trouble later. You don’t want to take soil from a site that may have pollution issues (such as a former gas station). If in doubt, you can always get soil tested for contaminants at an environmental lab. It typically takes a few days and a few hundred dollars.
You might also try contacting your city for compost. Some offer non-profit groups decomposed leaves and yard trimmings for free, including delivery. The arboriculture department may also have wood chips to add to the mix.
If you have some money, another option is mushroom manure. Producers go through the stuff rapidly in large volumes. I wonder how nutritious it is after the mushrooms have had their way, but perhaps fungi don’t take all that much out — they’re not exactly the wonders of the nutrient world. You might ask the producers about their chemical strategies if you’re strictly organic.
Another budget-saving measure is to grow your own green manure. Seeds are relatively cheap for crops such as crimson clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, rye and oats. Just sow them onto the ground you wish to improve and do nothing beyond the occasional watering. The plants do the work for you by grabbing nitrogen from the air and fixing it into the soil. Finally, turn the soil and it’s ready for planting.
Animal manures which enrich poor soil may be secured for nothing from owners who tend to have too much of it anyway.
Not your pet dog or cat poop, though, which may have parasites or diseases you don’t want mixing with your vegetables. But people who have rabbits, poultry or petting farm animals might be worth a visit. Also llamas — I know an apple grower who swears by the micronutrients they produce. Horse manure is fine too, but ask for the aged piles. The fresh stuff will be too hot to plant directly into and may contain the seeds of weeds that will be hard to get out later.
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Some people add coffee grounds which'they get free from the local coffee shop. These would be off the chart for acidity on the pH scale, but a little won’t matter and larger amounts could be good news for your acid-loving plants such as blueberries and azaleas.
One more source of a soil helper to consider is the local lumber mill, particularly if you’re trying to bring more variety and structure into a heavy clay soil. It takes a lot of organic matter to make a difference in clay, but lumber mills tend to have no shortage of sawdust and may be happy to let you take it by the truckload. This may not be what you want for a site to be planted immediately. Sawdust requires a lot of nitrogen to decompose and that could take away from the plants you’d like to grow. You also need to check into what kind of wood it is. Fir or hemlock will do well. Ceda r, on the other hand, will inhibit the growth of some plants and may even be toxic to tender seedlings.
Try this test to find out which of your friends are honestly trying to walk lightly on the earth and which are just blowing envirosmoke: watch what they do with the rest of the apple. If the core goes into the compost bucket or straight into the garden, they pass. If it goes into the regular garbage to be trucked to some distant landfill, call bullshit.
But not too loudly. Composting is not always as easy as some have made it out to be. First, not everyone has the space for a decent pile. Yes, there are apartment-friendly bins for vermiculture, or worm composting, but they’re even trickier to get right. I know I’m going against the religion here in even saying so, but watch out for those worms. I followed the directions (at least I thought I did) for a few diligent months. Then I suppose I must have let up. Somehow my worms all died. I felt bad about this, so I got more worms and vowed on the memory of their shriveled cousins to do them right. Only they died too. Nor did I get the sweet, loamy, black treasure I had expected to spread onto my houseplants. My bin produced an oozing, smelly pile of yuck.
Of course, you would do better. I mention it here only as fair warning. Basic composting is no more difficult to pull off than a school science fair project, but not everyone is going to get an A.
When it comes to urban agriculture, things are looking up.
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To lock horns with Nature, the only equipment you really need is the constitution of Paul Banyan and the basic training of a commando. — S.J. Perelman
DESIGN TIP
Advice from landscape designers, garden experts and fancy magazines is all good if you remember to take it for what it's meant to be: advice. What you end up doing is your choice and should reflect your own style. If you're curious or courageous, don't be afraid to try new things. Come up with your own new combination of colors.
Try new plants nobody told you would go well together. Every garden is an experiment anyway.
One thing to keep in mind, though, if you are keen on expressing yourself, is to be bold.
The meaning of a design idea is likely to get lost in a garden if it's too small or insignificant. Your best intentions may soon be overgrown unless you make them clear. If you have something to say in a guerrilla display, don't be afraid to shout.
Stick with it and you will, eventually, produce a pile of rich, fragrant, organic material your plants will love. But there may also be times when you get a reeking mess. I don’t want to come across as pessimistic, because I do keep a compost pile myself and I get plenty of workable material from it, but let’s just say it’s not under my bedroom window.
Here’s the skinny on home compost control: don’t forget to add enough brown and dry (carbon) to counter the typical overload of green and wet (nitrogen) from your daily kitchen scraps. Dried lawn cuttings (which you can collect from the local park if they don’t spray pesticides and the cut grass sits in the sun for a few days) or your neighbors’ collected and bagged fallen leaves can be added all winter long.
There are enough sources of free information on composting (anywhere from your local library to greenie group brochures) that it isn’t necessary to go into detail here. The best way to get good at it is to learn by doing, while being constantly inspired by the fact that the most sensible soil additive will always come from your own garden.
Clear plastic sheets stretched over a frame of curved PVC pipes stuck into the ground can turn a bare patch into a minigreenhouse. Look for free sheet plastic in places that use a lot of it to cover something like furniture; or you could try taping together dry cleaning bags. The structure should be sturdy enough to stand up to wind and rain, but you don’t need to go to great lengths since you’re only aiming to get through a single growing season.
A more formidable cold frame can be made from an old window propped up on bricks, rocks or wood. Here’s another technique your neighbors may call “trash,” until you correct them with the proper term “cloche” from the French for “bell jar” — although in this case it describes a plastic soda pop bottle with the bottom cut off. If you put this over certain tender plants in early spring or late fall, you can extend your growing period by weeks, giving you the first peas on the block or the last tasty lettuce in winter. Keep the screw cap as a regulator vent to be taken off on hot days.
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Another use for plastic bottles is to fill fhem with water and surround a plant such as an early season tomato. The bottles soak up heat during the day and radiate it back at night, giving your tomatoes a warming head start.
, Gardeners are the most generous people on earth. They’re also the biggest scrounges. They love to give things away, and they love to get things free. To watch a gaggle of gardeners in action is to believe the whole market economy thing never happened. Keep an eye out for plant or seed exchanges in your area. The fact that you have no plants or seeds to exchange should not keep you away. Everyone understands, because they had to start somewhere too. Just go, talk to people and vow to bring up your end of things once you’re able.
Or if you can’t find an organized exchange, start one. Put up a notice, pick a spot and see who shows up. Seeds and plants are popular items in spring of course, but there’s nothing that says you have to restrict yourself to that. How about extra food crops in August? Or clothes? Or books? Or maybe it’s not even a meetand-exchange but a straight-forward Free Table (not the table but the stuff on it).
There’s more to choosing seeds than deciding what flower or vegetable you want. Now you also have to make sure you’re on the right side of the line in the battle for the future of farming.
The traditional planting community is under siege. A practice of planting crops, collecting seeds and replanting the result that has been passed down for generations is now threatened by profiteers who hope to turn the very idea of agriculture upside down.
A problem with plants, as the world’s biggest seed-selling corporation sees it, is that they produce their own seeds. If only that annoying biological process could be stopped, farmers would have to buy the seeds every year. Ka-ching! And so long as they’re playing with the genetic content of life itself, why not rework the plants so that these new mutants alone have the ability to tolerate the same corporation’s best-selling pesticide? Why that would make the
What can't you grow in a pot? The world's largest tree, giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum), in a container near Vancouver's False Creek, or so it appears.
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DESIGN TIP
Is one of your plants giving you a hard time? Is it not doing what you'd hoped or expected at planting time?
There's no gardening law that says you have to keep tending your mistakes. People are often reluctant to pull up a plant even though the proof that this experiment isn't working may continue for years.
Ask yourself: is this plant helping the garden? Does it belong in this spot? Would it be better somewhere else — such as the compost pile?
If you feel guilty, you can always try to foist it on someone else. If you don't have a recipient in mind, put it in a pot on the sidewalk beside a sign saying "Free Plant." If it's still there three days later, toss it out.
growers dependent on the corporation not only for their seeds every year but also for the chemicals needed to help them grow! Ka-ching! Ka-ching!
Thus the push by Monsanto to develop “terminator” seeds. Whether a scam on a scale this huge could even have been tried in any other era but our own corporate rampage is open to question. But let’s answer it elsewhere. For now we might simply agree not to buy into any technology invented to help greed flourish while crippling the last of our family farmers. So check into what you’re buying. Don’t go for genetically modified plants or food. Preserve and promote heirloom varieties. Grow consciously. Plant with heart. And share.
Water, some say, will be the oil of the 21 st century, a source of political strife, international intrigue and outright war. Or maybe it won’t, any more than food is today. If you’ve got it, you’ve got it, and if not, sorry, and better luck next life.
Fortunately, for now, whatever falls from the sky is still free. You can collect as much as you like if you set up the containers to store it. These can be as simple as a large, open, plastic tank you
Saving seeds is not just a smart way to cut back on gardening costs. It also expands your knowledge and deepens your relationship with plants. You'll feel more a part of the cycle of things when you learn to tend plants through the entire circuit from seed to seed.
Fortunately it's fairly easy. Plants do all the seed-producing on their own, if you let them. Your only task is to pay attention and gather at the right time. Think of how things are supposed to work in nature and act accordingly. Wait until the flower or fruit holding the seeds is ripe and about to fall. That means the seed is fully developed and contains all the genetic material it needs to produce another plant for the next growing season.
Pick the seed head or fruit. Remove the seeds. If they're wet, dry them on a plate in a sunny window. Label and store the seeds in a reliable container such as a film can or baby food
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dip into to water your plants, or as elaborate as rooftop drainage systems which collect enough to supply the entire house and garden for the year.
Collecting rain is not difficult. Water goes where you expect it to (if you expect it to go downhill). And because what falls from the sky is typically softer than that from your tap (or at least less chemical-ridden), you may find your plants respond enthusiastically.
Start your rain harvesting operation with something simple. Drill a hole into the side of a 55-gallon drum near the bottom to fit a spigot (or if your city encourages this kind of thing, it may sell subsidized plastic rain barrels with the taps included). Raise the barrel up on a stand (an overturned milk crate will do) where it can catch rainwater directly. Or else divert one of the downspouts from your roof. That’s basically it. Fill your watering can from the barrel as needed. Or, for a guerrilla garden which lacks a municipal water source, attach a soaker hose to the tap and run it right to the patch you’d like to water. In between rains, just open the tap and let the barrel drain into the patch. For more elaborate systems, a simple library or net search on rainwater harvesting will reap plenty of designs.
The first duty of a revolutionary is to get away with it. — Abbie Hoffman
jar. An envelope will work too — you don't need an air-tight vessel for this since what you're mostly worried about is preventing the seeds from getting wet and moldy. When you're ready to plant the following year, a net check or library run should produce enough information on the type of plant you're propagating to know if you should put the seeds through a cold spell in the fridge or nick their protective coats to get the process going. Or try a germination test by soaking several of the seeds in a wet paper towel wrapped in plastic and stored in a warm place. Wait several days (or more, depending on the plant) and check for sprouting. Then again you could just plant the seeds and see what happens. Nature does it that way, with pretty good results. Chances will be good you've successfully helped to turn the circle.
The best investment you can make in terms of future amenities for your community is a tiny thing you can probably find for free: a tree seed. Plant a tree today, and over 50 years it will provide an estimated $57,171 in benefits. 1 From reduced heating and cooling costs to air pollution filtration to stormwater management enhancement, an urban tree is a financial boon to any community lucky enough to have one...or many.
YOU SAID IT...
Loren Rieseberg
One of the world's leading evolutionary biologists, Loren Rieseberg does what Charles Darwin did with finches, only he uses sunflowers. He works at the University of British Columbia, continuing research boosted a few years ago by a $500,000 "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation Although we were both in Vancouver, we were too busy to meet. I
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Here's a tip I wish someone would remind me of next time I've got an empty container, a plant to put in it, and no potting soil in sight: do notfill the container with garden soil.
Because it won't work. Garden soil belongs in the garden on the ground. In a container it's only going to get as hard and as heavy as concrete. It will dry into a solid block between watering times, and lose the capacity to transport oxygen or hold water. Your plants are already constrained by the physical limits of the container, so don't make them suffer all the more by restricting their roots with a horrible growing medium as well.
You're better off waiting until you can get an actual potting mix, available at any garden store. The problem is the mixes aren't cheap. But wait, put that shovel down, you are not going to use that as an excuse to go back to the regular soil.
You can instead make your own potting mix. There are many different blends possible. You don't need a soil science degree to make them. Just know that you're looking for good drainage (Va of your total might be sand), holding material (73 could be the natural rock-based vermiculite or perlite), and organic material (Vs could be compost or something similar such
might have pressed, but then he did have his hands full trying to figure out the nature of the living universe. We did the interview via email.
On why he chose sunflowers for his life's work: The primary focus of my research is on how new species arise, one of the most fundamental questions in Biology. Botanists have often speculated that this might sometimes occur through interspecies matings or hybridization. It turns out that sunflowers are among the most promiscuous of plants (hybridization among wild species is common). Thus, they represent an excellent system for research on the role of hybridization in evolution and speciation.
On what that means: Plant promiscuity can have some surprising consequences including the origin of evolutionary novelties, the formation of new species and the evolution of noxious weeds.
On things that make the sunflower interesting: a) Sunflower is the only major crop domesticated in North America. Thus, it represents the cornerstone of the theory that agriculture was
Nothing is so interesting as weeding. I went crazy over the outdoor work, and had at last to confine myself to the house, or literature must have gone by the board .
— Robert Louis Stevenson
as peat moss — unless one of your enviro friends is around to nag that it takes 10,000 years to produce a thimbleful of peat).
Make sure you have drainage holes in the bottom of the pot to prevent your plant from drowning. Traditional clay pots are inexpensive and offer a classic Mediterranean look, but they also breathe which means the planting medium inside can dry out quickly on a hot day. Glazed pots will retain moisture longer.
New pot designs have emerged to lighten the chore of watering. Some have wicking tapes you can connect to a barrel of water to cover you during an extended absence. Others are called self-watering, although that's a bit much since they don't exactly turn on the tap themselves. They do however include a reservoir in the bottom of the container which can extend the time between waterings considerably.
But don't feel you must buy an expensive pot from the expensive pot store. Anything that holds your growing material and plants will do, including stuff too leaky for anything else. A wooden crate lined with plastic (don't forget the drainage holes), an old toaster, a toilet, a shoe, a bathtub — you get the idea.
What to Use | 77
Commander Orchid and crew
invented independently in eastern North America, b) The Jerusalem artichoke also is a sunflower, c) Sunflower was accepted as an oil crop in Europe mainly because it gave the Russian people a source of oil during Lent that did not break the laws of the Holy Orthodox church.
On a variety to recommend to guerrilla gardeners: Willowleafed sunflower ( Helianthus salicifolius ) is a perennial that can survive in poor soils and competitive conditions. It gets quite tall, but can be cut back in mid-summer and will come back much shorter.
On his favorite types: When I lived in Indiana I grew about thirty different kinds of sunflowers in my yard and garden (some wild; some cultivated). Some of my favorites for looking at:
Moulin Rouge (red sunflower)
Ring of Fire (yellow tips, red interior)
Sunbright (cytoplasmic male sterile — lacks pollen)
Teddy Bear (yellow, carnation-like flower)
Italian White (white flowers — Helianthus debilis)
Narrow-leafed sunflower (yellow-flowered perennial, flowers profusely in fall — Helianthus angustifolius)
IF I CAN DO IT...
Bev Wagar — Green Gang
"In keeping with a super-secret guerrilla organization, we had our monikers. I was Commander Orchid."
Bev Wagar did at least two things right in taking on small town mentalities in London, Ontario with guerrilla gardening. She got others involved, offering an important lesson in community building as well as plant growing. And she had fun, something that helps any kind of campaign.
We communicated a few times via email in setting up an interview, during which she sent me a story she had contributed to an on-line community news site. It captured the activity so well I didn't want to change a thing.
The Old East Guerrilla Garden Posse started out as a Friday night social outing with neighbors, some of whom were community activists (or just active members of our community association).
Some were gardeners and some were just along for the fun. ‘
We were a diverse and motley bunch. Between four and a dozen people would meet at our place at dusk. In keeping with a
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super-secret guerrilla organization, we had olir monikers. I was Commander Orchid. Donna, second in command, was Corporal Hollyhock. The rest of the crew took names like Sergeant Bloodwort or Private Petunia.
Sometimes there'd be a mission planned, sometimes we'd just do random acts of gardening. A few times the posse did "potting" missions on local streets —we'd string potted plants with wire around utility poles and attach a tag inviting people to water the plant and give it a home if they liked. Once we did a string-up right in front of a police cruiser. Obviously they had better things to do than get curious about a gang of nutty people tying pots to utility poles.
Sometimes we'd put plants in the boulevard. Once we planted seeds on the railway corridor. Another time we pulled seedlings of a gang of thugs called Ailanthus — a very noxious weed tree also known as Stinking Sumac or Tree of Heaven.
A very memorable mission involved a complete garden rescue. One of the posse members had been kicked out of her rented apartment. We transferred, by hand, every living thing in her garden to the new yard/garden a block away.
We did two unpopular missions at the local library, which was an abyss of clay and weeds. The library had a lot of stupid bureaucratic rules about volunteer gardening, which explained why the local branch had been so steadfastly neglected. Ignoring the rules, we pulled tons of weeds, cut a zillion dead shrubs, dug in some compost and planted stuff. Of course the authorities were not impressed, even though the gardens had never looked better. We were so put off by the attitude of the uptight library staff that we didn't go back.
One Friday only two posse members showed up: me and my husband Sean Hurley. Our mission was to weed the pathetic garden beds at the local public school and plant some lilies. By trowel and flashlight we toiled in the dust-dry "soil" that supported a surprising assortment of weeds and candy wrappers. The local police patrol noticed us and drove over for a little chat. They, of course, had not heard of the infamous Old East Guerrilla Garden Posse. After they realized we were harmless citizens bent on improving the neighborhood they drove off with much rolling of eyeballs and shaking of heads.
Sean and I are moving out of London, and I expect that the infamous gang of horticultural radicals known as the Old East Guerrilla Garden Posse will pass into legend. The group that for
two summers wreaked beauty and biodiversity in the area may garden no more. Perhaps a new leader will step up, rake and spade in hand, to spur the posse onward to greater and greener acts of daring and digging.
POWER PLANT
Sunflower (Helianthus annuus)
No wonder the Incas revered this plant and cast it in images of pure gold. Stand beside a 12-foot-tall green giant with its massive yellow head resembling the sun, and even moving in unison with the cosmic orb, and you can understand the appeal.
The sunflower is a visual treat that comes in many shapes and colors, but it is also an important food crop. Native Americans traditionally ate the seeds whole, ground them into flour or crushed them into oil. They also used seeds and other parts of the plant to dye their faces, clothes and baskets.
Sunflowers are easy to grow. Plant the seeds in spring, give them plenty of water and watch them soar. If you sow the giant variety two weeks before you plant pole beans you'll have a structure for the beans to climb up.
Did you know: The phenomenon by which the sunflower's head can follow the movement of the sun throughout the day is known as heliotropism.
Sunflower — Helianthus annus Credit: Gottlieb Tobias Wilhelm "Unterhaltungen a us der Naturgeschichte" (Encyclopedia of Natural History), published in Vienna from 1810, illustration by Paul Martin Wilhelm.
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CHAPTER FOUR