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    Harvest Time for the guerrilla gardening lavenderOur 2010 'Liberty' London Lavender Pillow for Guerrilla Gardening org
    Clipping back the lavender that we planted here over four nights in March 2006. Click for video
    Location: Westminster Bridge Road, London SE1 Guerrilla Gardening: Saturday 14 August 2010 The fourth annual guerrilla grown lavender harvest was a battle against the elements, a dodge against torrential rain clouds which would ruin our precious crop if we cut them damp. So you might imagine a frantic hacking would be necessary in such circumstances but this is quite impossible when chopping such a fragrant and soporific plant. So we glided through three hours, unperturbed by the approaching storm clouds, and successfully escaped a soaking. Thanks to Freshly harvested lavender
    members of Kennington Gardens Society who showed up in force. This year's fund raising pillows are being made in
    partnership with Libertyand a few are already on sale in
    their shop made from the remnants of last year's crop. To know when online sales resumee-mail me
    Eric of Cobblers Nest sharpens our shearsMy trolley laden with post harvest pruning and one of the old collapsed cabbage palm
    GuerrillaGardening.org
    Location: All around London Guerrilla gardening: 1 May ‘10 Explosion: August 2010 Back in May more than 6,000 Guerilla Gardening Sunflower Day
    people joined our event to sow
    sunflowers anywhere. Some we left to fend for themselves, others nursed with buckets of water. Some perished, some triumphed and now I’m keen to find out what happened to your sunflowers. Here’s what we sowed on walks from the Elephant & Castle district in London. Please upload your Amongst the poppies and euphorbia at Millbank near Vauxhall Bridge
    pictures to Facebookand Flickr
    Guerilla sunflowers on a giant mound of rubble in a giant empty lot on the New Kent RoadSteedman Street guerrilla sunflowers
    Tree pit at Lambeth North and Nr Vauxhall BridgeSt George's Road sunflowers and Denmark Hill (self seeded from 2009)
    GuerrillaGardening.org
    On The Road - John and Joanna sweeping the edge of the A1 at SandyGuerrilla road sweepers
    Location: The A1, London to Sandy Passing by: 26 July 2010 A busy weekend on the road, but not for me one for much gardening because instead it’s a busy time for talking about it and spotting it. First
    at Cumberland Lodge in Windsor Great Park (I resisted the urge to
    add something to their fine borders) and then the Secret Garden Party festival to give a sermon. En route I spotted a couple beavering away sweeping the kerb of a busy junction Did you plant these triumphant perlagoniums?
    on the A1, just the kind of random action in public space that stops me in my tracks in fascination. I pulled over to ask them about it: John and Joanna have been sweeping here for years “because the council don’t and it’s hardly worth asking”. I thrust some spare sunflower seeds into their hands in the hope they’ll progress onto even greater acts. And there were more surprises to spot on the return to London, some incongruously planted perlagoniums growing around the base of two trees on the verge of the north circular. Room for more!
    GuerrillaGardening.org
    In Tbilisi
    Location: Freedom Square, Tbilisi, Georgia Guerrilla Gardening: Wednesday 21 July 2010
    I’ve been in Tbilisi contributing to Frozen Moments
    an art exhibition within the ruined Ministry of Transportation, a 1970s building built on a cliff face and designed to be covered in creepers, but one which nature has nearly taken over. My ten “Quadrants in Tundra 145” marked talking points of confrontation between nature, the building and Ana plants a rose
    humans. But beyond the Ministry was guerrilla gardening to discover and to do - as I’ve done before while abroad, a small horticultural intervention in a grotty public Tripoliplace can be a great conversation starter, most successful in the past was
    View hereAfter eyeing up numerous possible tree pits, I settled on a shabby planter on the edge of Freedom Square next to the Bank of Georgia (who are due to renovate the Ministry of Transportation soon too).
    Showing 'Quandrants in Tundra 145' around the reuined Ministry of TransportationA local guerrilla garden cultivated near the mashutka garage and frozen cable car station
    GuerrillaGardening.org
    Planting out pansiesPansies Move. The Pansy Project garden (see blog entry below) being dismantled to be replanted in guerrilla gardens
    Location: From Elephant & Castle to Lambeth North Guerrilla Gardening: 12 and 13 July 2010 Big flower shows are like big flower arrangements, which means afterwards a lot gets thrown away. But efforts are increasingly made by the exhibitors to find new homes for the plants, and an obvious place for Paul and Tom’s award winning pansies was to guerrilla gardens. So on Monday morning I returned to Hampton Court and squeezed seven old banana boxes full of pansies into my BGT. At this time of the year in the UK planting out new bedding is a commitment to watering because it’s late and dry, but it’s also a time when there are a few blank patches in the herbaceous borders to fill. So that evening we went out and filled gaps around Perronet House, and the next evening, with a pair of Italian journalists along to help, I stuffed more into the tree pits of St George’s Road, bumping into a local resident with her watering can at the same time, who, unknown to me, had recently adopted one of our tree-pits of sunflowers! It’s the first to flower. London Road pansies, Elephant & Castle. Guerrilla sunflower, sown on International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day 2010. In bloom 17 July, St George's Road
    GuerrillaGardening.org
    Celebrating Gardening Against The OddsCompetition: Closing date 17 September ‘10 “Gardening Against The Odds” is being rewarded in a new UK competition that celebrates the spirit of the late Elspeth Thompson, a gardener and writer who championed guerrilla gardening. Obstacles may include the following: 1. Creating a garden in an unlikely, or inhospitable corner, e.g. a derelict site or built-up area 2. Gardening in the face of physical health problems 3. Gardening in the face of mental or psychological health problems such as depression or grief. Elspeth suffered depression and in March she took her own life.
    Click here to read more and enter
    I am particularly proud to be one of the judges of this competition, partly because Elspeth was very encouraging of what we do, the first writer to report on what I was up to. And also because the affliction of
    mental illness is something I have seen eased by gardens and gardening - the beauty and satisfaction is mentally nourishing. The turning point in my mother’s battle with bipolar disorder was on a family visit to Bodnant Gardens in North Wales. Aged 13 I vividly remember that afternoon ended four bleak years, and when she returned home we slowly started tackling our neglected overgrown garden around Holsworthy Rectory together.
    GuerrillaGardening.org

    For blogs earlier in the year clickFor blogs earlier in the year click here