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Troop Dig: Baron’s Court Rd W14 London
Leader: Tom (354)
Guerrilla Gardening: Thursday 29 March 2007A grand square of West Kensington had become an unofficial municipal dump.  Behind a shabby fence in the shade of two hundred-year-old plane trees were piled old mattresses, mislaid bicycle helmets and even a soggy roll of Christmas paper. Small shrubs, juniper and mallow, and 3 daffodils were struggling amongst this mess. Tom (342) saw this as orphaned land after the street cleaners told him it was beyond their reach and no one in authority was investing in cultivating it. So he got to work, first by getting the council to remove the old fence and agree to clear the worst of the filth, and secondly by posting the date for a dig on the GuerrillaGardening.org Community forum.  We struck with shears and secateurs taming the wild deciduous shrubs, clearing the rest of the litter and making a start with new planting.  In went a spring flowering Clematis, a Forthysia, three lemony
Guerrilla Gardening in Baron's Court Road, West Kensington W14
Cupressus Wilma, Donald’s (2474) bluebells and a scattering of foxglove seeds.  A Harvey Nichols paper bag was reused as a chicken pellet scatterer and a mountain of rubbish and twigs were loaded into my car for Battersea dump.  Tom was the perfect guerrilla leader, providing fresh chocolate brownies (cooked by his wife), and lead us to the local pub afterwards where plans were made by some of the West London troops for a new dig in Kilburn (check the Community boards for news about this in the next week or so). Tom, who is local, even meet new neighbours - flabbergasted at the improvement we had already made to their area in such short time... this is just the start.A Harvey Nichols Bag is used as a chicken pellet scaterrer by guerrilla gardeners in W14
NEWS: Winter 2007. A short film about guerrilla gardening aired on Current TV, Al Gore's new channel, and the big man gave us a mumbled endorsement on British TV. Click on the images to watch these clips.  To read recent magazine coverage download PDFs by clickingAl Gore talks to Richard MadelyGuerrilla Gardening on Current TV
here:Swindle (USA)&Metro (Japan)
Troop Dig: Brixton Road, SW9 London
Leader: Charlie (2429)
Guerrilla Gardening: Wednesday 7 March 2007
Budget: About £70 
This patch was recommended in the Community forum and Charlie (2429), a local, decided to take make it a dig to lead.  Recent gang shootings have raised the police presence here but a pair of coppers strolled past mid dig and showed no interest at all.  And so, with Andrew (1679) and his spade carrying bicyle (see pic below) a force of twelve or so troops transformed this road side brick planter into another small fragrant
space, peppered with Lily of the Valley, some summer bulbs and anonymous herbaceous shrubs.  I turned up with a boot load of 36 lavender plants - we need as much of these as possible given the strong demand for Lavender Pillows this year.  (In 2007 I think we’ll make a range of pillows associated with different districts in London.)  Two hours later the work was done and we retired to a nearby pub to get fresh and quench thirsts.Guerilla gardening in Brixton Road
Spade on wheels - how to transport your tools when guerilla gardening
Troop Dig: Regan Way, N1 London  Guerrilla Gardening: 21 February 2007  Budget: £260  David Bond (2436) wrote me a letter asking for help with a sorry patch round the corner from his flat.  Tree pits sat empty in a sea of concrete and council estates just waiting for guerrilla action.  Better still, not only would he look after the garden but would fund most of the work and film it for a short documentary on Al Gore’s new Current TV. So it was anBefore guerrilla gardening in Regan Way
early morning start at New Covent Garden to fill an overflowing car with plants (carbon neutral for a moment perhaps) with good old lavender, yuccas, cordyline, cyclamen and primulas. The night wasAfter guerrilla gardening in Regan Way
 crisp, the soil deep.  Regular and new
troops joined in, John came in his electric Sinclair C5 and Kate, David’s wife cooked us a curry soup.
Sinclair C5 guerrilla gardening in Regan Way, London
Project Five: St George’s Circus, SE1, London
Guerrilla Gardening: 19 February 2007
Budget: Laurels from Viv (116)
Viv (116) e-mailed me to say her new home had a garden full of encroaching laurels (Aucuba japonica) which she wanted removing.  Whilst her three year old and friends dug up the garden path we removed the plants from her Blackheath garden and I added them to St George’s circus near me that evening.  The laurels tolerate dry soils and will form a solid evergreen hedge that will hopefully deter the pedestrians who use this corner of the bed as a dubious short cut to cross the busy dangerous roundabout.  I dropped in a few more heathers and filled up a sack full of wind blown carrier bags, banana skins and crisp packets (mainly ready salted).
Guerrilla gardening Aucuba japonica at St George's Circus Southwark
Guerrilla Gardening 14 February 2007 London Road. Over the past few weeks I’ve been making solo missions to the sprawling shrubbery beneath my flat in Perronet House, finally clearing out the really hard to reach ancient litter that is now visible under the bald shrubs.  It is now Planting jasmin outside Perronet House
more impressive than ever, but it’s also very dull in winter.  So this afternoon I added to rugged Winter Jasmines (Jasminum nudiflorum) which is just starting to burst into bright yellow flowers. Last time I did an afternoon mission I got agro from a street cleaner who picked me out as the culprit who had been “filling his bins with rubbish”!  So I usually stick to nights.  But this time the free newspaper boy strolled over for a chat.  A Russian called Sarvar, he has now agreed to help clearing litter from the beds as he stands in front of them every afternoon and gets bored.
GuerrillaGardening.org Haberdashery Division. Our newly formed Haberdashery Division assembled on Saturday morning at Pam (184) and Gary’s (728) Brixton house.  Our mission was to assemble six metres of screen printed linen, several large sacks of lavender (harvested from the traffic island in Westminster Bridge Road) and some Good at Magic labels into one hundred London Lavender Pillows.  With cakes and fruit salad as fuel and three sewing machines as machinery we powered through the day, despite the soporific fumes.  These very special limited “2006 Crop” edition are to raise funds for more guerrilla gardening. Please click on the ad at the top of this page to buy one online now!The making of the Guerrilla Gardening London Lavender Pillow
The making of the Guerrilla Gardening London Lavender Pillow
Andrew persuaded Alibi bar in Shoe Lane to give us 3 large rooted Christmas trees.  Still sporting a few silver decorations we lugged them out of his flat and into the car for transport to our small forest in the Lambeth Southwark border country (a big traffic island).  Enroute police pulled me over and insisted I dump the trees by the roadside rather than drive on with two eight foot tall passengers sticking out of the roof.  I arrived at the dig treeless but with a good force of troops ready to dig holes and weed. Clara (005) came to the rescue at the wheels of the old Ford and we picked up the trees from the street.Christmas Tree planting on the Lambeth Southwark border
Barnaby (1423) e-mailed to say he had a Christmas tree with a good ball of roots on it. Rather than add it to the miserable seasonal forest of dead trees I called by to give it a new home. It is now taking pride of place in the Lambeth lavender field.Barnaby Gordon donates a Christmas Tree to Guerrilla Gardening
Guerrilla Gardening Christmas Tree in Lambeth
Guerrilla Gardening News Winter 2006
GraziaOrganic LifeIntersectionTime OutLondon Paper

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