Some Inspiration: Guerrilla Gardening is a Worldwide Movement

The response to our first project on Pearl Street in Hamilton has been remarkable and inspiring. Over the past two weeks of working on the garden and the cement wall in behind it, lots of community members walking, cycling and driving past have stopped to inquire, comment, express their excitement and thanks, and volunteer to help. Who knew that changing this small corner would have such an immediate effect on how people feel about their street, and would start so many conversations between strangers? Stay tuned: a post with the full range of before, during, and after pictures is coming soon!

In the meantime, for folks curious about what guerrilla gardening is all about, here are a few links that highlight both global and local groups that are using gardening to improve their communities and also challenge assumptions about what our cities should be like and who they should serve.

• Richard Reynolds' blog, The Guerrilla Gardening Homepage: Richard Reynolds lives London, UK, and started guerrilla gardening by planting the empty planters in front of his highrise. He's also written a book, On Guerrilla Gardening.


• The Toronto Public Space Committee: This group emerged to protect streets and public spaces from commercialization and privatization, particularly as large billboards began to occupy so much of the visual space in Toronto. Guerrilla Gardening is one of their major areas of activism.


• The Green Guerillas: A New York-based community group that helps people develop and sustain community gardens and public art projects. The network of community gardens that they have helped to found and sustain numbers in the hundreds.

This is the tip of the iceberg in this diverse and global movement, but there's a lot to be inspired by in these three websites.

Calling all Neighbours: Let's Beautify and Transform our 'Hood Together

Kirkendall Guerrilla Gardeners is a group dedicated to transforming neglected spaces in our neighbourhood into beautiful oases for everyone to enjoy. We're inspired by the thousands of people in cities around the world who, individually and collectively, are:

• reclaiming unused, misused and abandoned urban spaces to grow flowers, trees or food for public benefit;
• empowering themselves and each other to transform their own communities and cities into the places they need and want, rather than waiting for others to do it for them; and
• creating and strengthening relationships in the community by acting together to make positive change

We recognize that the economic and environmental challenges of our era will require large scale changes, but also small and local changes too, in the way we organize our cities, get and share our resources, and relate to each other as a community. The KGG aims to make a contribution to that change, through the simple act of neighbours gardening together.

We've got one project nearly completed, and some exciting plans for the coming months. Check back soon for pictures of the KGG's first garden, on Pearl Street. In the meantime, if you're interested in getting involved, please send us an email at kgggrow@gmail.com.