No Garden? No Problem. A Beginner’s Guide to Guerrilla Gardening

We speak to the green-fingered guerrillas themselves

The middle of a busy junction next to a south London tube station might not be the most obvious place for a garden, but for a guerrilla gardener, it’s a perfect opportunity to inject some greenery.

The Lambeth Lavender garden is a guerrilla gardening success story, started by the UK’s most recognised guerrilla gardener, Richard Reynolds, and more than 200 volunteers, over a decade ago. It still flourishes every summer, providing food for passing pollinators and a moment of mid-traffic calm for pedestrians.

There are many such gardens taking root in previously neglected patches across the UK and around the world…

What is guerrilla gardening?

Guerrilla gardening is the practice of gardening on public land without explicit permission. In recent years it has evolved from a fairly clandestine pursuit (sometimes carried out in the dead of night) to one mostly ignored and sometimes embraced by local councils.