Guerrilla Gardening
 As often as he can, Richard Reynolds hits the streets of London to slyly plant, secretly weed, and sneakily leave behind greenery. Devoted to making his city a more habitable, foliage-friendly place, he is a revolutionary with a water can. And he's not the only one.
Since launching the web site Guerrilla Gardening, Richard has connected with nighttime planters from around the world and appeared in numerous TV and newspaper stories. We reviewed his site in May of last year. Now, Richard tells us how he got started and why the Web itself is like one big "communal picnic." When did you first commit an act of "illicit cultivation"? It was late at night in October 2004. The immediate surroundings of the central London tower block that was my home was a horrible horticultural mess, a blot on the landscape and a personal embarrassment. It had been for all of the four months I had known it: overgrown shrubs, piles of litter, dead rose bushes, weeds, and general misery. During this time the block was going through a difficult patch. The council stepped in to take back control of the building from the imploding tenants management organisation, and whilst observing these civic meetings I concluded positive action would be a lot more effective than conversation. I just started gardening to make me more proud of where I lived, to cheer others up, and to flex my itchy green fingers for the first time since moving in. What inspired you to flex your fingers over the keyboard and start the web site? I started the web site and gardened as a guerrilla because at first I was nervous about sharing what I was up to with local people because they seemed such a suspicous aggresive bunch. But I wanted to share what I was doing with other like minded people and friends—I was proud and excited and keen for moral support. To me what I was up to felt like a form of guerrilla action, so I called it "guerrilla gardening". Blogging my progress online was the perfect way of doing this—my secret guerrilla gardening was out there for those who were curious enough to find it, or for those I let in on the secret. Later I found out other people were guerrilla gardening too all around the world. How did you get the word out about it? Word of mouth, and the power of online search. After that, media interest from BBC Radio 4 introduced many more new people to the idea. What other sites do you like? I have a lot to learn about plants. When gardening in public space that's far from easy water and in exposed positions a guerrilla gardener needs plants that can fight those conditions and flourish. I usually end up using the RHS Plant Finder and the BBC Plant Finder to build on my basic knowledge. Any advice on cultivating an activist community online? If you are passionate about something, someone else out there will be, too. The Web is the best way of finding them. Once you've got a little community going, remember a community feeds off each other's passion. I see it a bit like a communal picnic... everyone will have something packed in their metaphorical Tupperware. Share your food, go home and try out their recipes, then come back and share that food again. Someone may even have brought a long a frisbee, you may all go off and play that for a while. Next a stranger will see what fun you're all having and join in. Keep rules to a minimum; let the community take on a life of it's own. Oh, and be patient. Your picnic might be quiet to start with. You can always go home and bake a better cake. We're packing our basket. Thanks, Richard! And keep up the green vigilantism!
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