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Guerilla Gardening

© Mary Henry

Are you a guerilla gardener? Is there a little bit of the revolutionary in you? Do you sometimes think Mother Nature could stand a little help with human indifference? So do I. In fact, I run a tight little guerilla operation right out of my own backyard.

What is guerilla gardening? That's my term for my sneak attacks on areas in my neighborhood that are horticultural wastelands. Those are places that have become, or are in danger of being overgrown by weeds with no human intervention. We all know that plants will spread into all exposed soil areas that can possibly support their growth. We also know that the most aggressive quite often are the exotic weeds that we try hard to eliminate from our gardens. Here in the Upper Midwest people get so upset over creeping Charlie in a neighbor's yard that they threaten to sue because they are afraid it might creep over into theirs.

The inspiration for my Guerilla Gardening is down the alley to the North. There is a strip of soil between a garage and the paved alley there that is just over a foot wide. Over the years it has been producing weed seeds at a rate that would make a farmer proud. That year I had decided that my green-headed coneflower, Rudbeckia laciniata (the prairie parent of the heirloom flower 'Golden Glow') was both too large and seeded around too much for my garden. The neighbor directly across the alley from this weedy strip was thinning the double tawny daylilies, Hemerocallis 'Kwanso', that keep her garage strip weed free and was looking for a home for her extras. As we discussed our excesses, our eyes fell on the weed patch and the idea was born. If you plant something in the weed patch that can out compete the weeds, it will not only look better, but the annual crop of weed seed from that area will be eliminated. She and I put the extras there and watered them a time or two during the summer.

How do you decide where to do your Guerilla Gardening? I choose the kind of places that often get cited for weeds by local authorities. These can be vacant lots, property lines under utility right of ways, edges of alleys and walks next to buildings where the owners don't grow plants or weed. Also, look for edges of parking lots and homeowner parking pads that are neglected. These are areas that are not allowed to "go back to nature" by municipal ordinances.