Guerrilla gardening hits the streets

On a recent trip to Neato-Burrito we spotted evidence of someone taking the cultivation of Spokane literally into their own hands by doing a little guerrilla gardening.  Guerrilla gardening has been around for quite awhile and is a pretty simple yet rewarding act.  The idea is to identify your target, usually a neglected piece of public right of way, pull together some volunteers, planting material, tools and go for it.  The riskiest maneuvers require a bit of clandestine perhaps done in the cover of darkness, but more often than not its done in the open.

The target we saw was an abandoned street tree well.  All the dirt had been replaced with a nice mix of soil, a small street tree had been planted, and the concrete topping the tree well was placed nice and level.  However at closer inspection we realized they hadn't planted a street tree, but rather a shrub that will grow to be about 6'x6' tall and wide.  The actual species is a Korean Spice Viburnum, and it's not a street tree.  Still something like this is a good sign that people are starting to consider the public realm worthy of their attention.  We applaud the effort, but this thing will be lucky to make through August.

Comments

[Michael]

I'm a plant freak employed at a local nursery. I and my fellow hortisexuals have often talked about how much fun it would be to do something like this, especially as a way to promote horticultural diversity in public spaces. We're all sooo tired of seeing the same trees and shrubs being used (and abused!) again and again. We'd plant something that's really cool where people could see it, and maybe, they'd come looking for it. But frustration with the "Lollipop Guild", those 'professional' nitwits who shear everything into gumdrops and lollipops, has checked my enthusiasm. Perhaps I should get over that.