Are you tired of seeing vacant lots go to waste? Of passing fallow garden beds on the edge of the sidewalk? In this city of concrete, trash, and residential sprawl, do you yearn to take direct action to create life and beauty where now there is only space and dust?
Well, you are in luck, because you hold in your hands a field guide to launching your own green-thumb insurrection against wasted space. Guerrilla gardening, also called bewildering, is the act of turning dead urban space into unsanctioned garden space. Whether you want to make a political statement, increase food production, bolster our ecosystem, or beautify your neighborhood, guerrilla gardening is a creative way to reclaim space for the good of the entire community.
“But I don’t know how to garden,” you say. Fair enough. Here’s what you need to know: Plants grow from seeds that have been buried in dirt. They need soil, water, and sunlight, but not too much.
That’s it. You’ve finished the introductory course. You’re a gardener now. Here are five tools to get you started:
1. Seed bombs. Suppose a fence surrounds the vacant lot you want to spruce up. You could start by planting blackberries along the fence itself. But if you want pansies and sunflowers to grow for the benefit of passing pedestrians and bumblebees, and you don’t want to risk trespassing, consider a seed bomb. Form a ball of clay or some other plant-friendly malleable material into the size of a golfball or so, then roll it in whichever seeds you want to plant. Toss the seed bomb over the fence, and leave the rest to nature.
2. DIY birdfeeders. Between eroding habitat, reflective skyscrapers, and housecats, songbirds have a hard go of things in Seattle. Preying on insects that harm trees, they are part of a larger ecosystem that we weaken at our peril—but one you can strengthen, bit by bit, using cobbled-together bits of trash.
You’ll need an empty plastic soda pop or drink bottle no larger than 12 ounces, a single chopstick, some string, and some bird feed (sunflower seeds will do in a pinch). Two inches above the…
