Guerrilla Gardening
Re-greening abandoned urban spaces is a great way to improve and celebrate public space.
Guerrilla Greening includes activities such as guerrilla gardening and guerrilla urban forestry. These activities seek to re-green otherwise abandoned urban spaces — improving them with the addition of native wildflowers, plants, shrubs and trees. As such, guerrilla greening provides environmental benefits as well as aesthetic improvements for neighbourhoods and local areas. Guerrilla greening can be as simple as planting a few seedlings in an abandoned lot or as elaborate as developing a local community garden.
Next Meeting - Friday, April 9, 2010
The 2010 garden season is here and our first Guerrilla Gardening meeting of the season takes place on Friday, April 9 - 6:00pm-7:30pm in Kitsilano at 2nd Avenue and Balaclava.
Please come out and join in a discusssion of potential locations for guerrilla gardening throughout Vancouver, fun events and creative greening tactics. We have some exciting ideas for activities this year and will shortly be posting the first seed bomb workshop date.
Hope you can make it!
To RSVP/get location details - Please contact - Elaine [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca
Seedball Scattering
Seedballs — or seed bombs as they’re sometimes known — are tiny clusters of clay, soil and native seeds (wildflowers, vegetables or other seeds) that are mixed together and allowed to dry. The hardened seedballs are then broadcast at the leisure of the guerrilla gardener and allowed to sit in wait. Come the next rain, the clusters begin to break down. The soil and clay provide a growing medium for the seeds which then begin to germinate… and with a bit of luck a once grey or bland landscape will soon start to blossom with a bit of colour.
The VPSN hosts seedball making workshops as a way to train guerrilla gardeners and enthusuastic greenthumbs. There are plans for other workshops in the summer of 2008.
1000 Cedars for Cedar Cottage
Still one of our favourite projects... In 2006, the VPSN teamed up with Fairview-area guerrilla gardener Justin Tilson who had managed to procure a substantial number of Western Red-cedar (Thuja plicata) seedlings. We decided that we would help to plant these seedlings in an effort to repopulate the city with more of this once-ubiquitous and majestic species.
Our plan focused on the Cedar Cottage neighbourhood: the historical community situated within an almost triangular boundary linking Kingsway, Broadway and Nanaimo streets. At one time, the towering cedars would have been abundant here. Of course there are still some good examples (like Clark Park) but we reckoned that there was also the opportunity for a few more.
Balaclava optional, trowel essential: sign up for the brigade.
Want to lend a hand? Please send an email to elaine [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca.