Guerrillas in the Mist

When I was a kid, one of my favourite fairy tales was The Elves and the Shoemaker. An impoverished shoemaker is helped out by a couple of elves, who secretly make shoes for him overnight until he’s back on his feet. I adored the story because I was intrigued by the altruism of the elves. The glow I felt inside when reading the story is the same one I now feel when volunteering.

These days, I am fired up by the concept of Guerrilla Gardening. From the moment I first saw a news item about it, I loved the fact that these enterprising individuals would emerge from the mist, transform some miserable scrag-end of land into a colourful feature, and then disappear into the night.

Throughout the capital, Guerrilla Gardeners have quietly transformed their communities. I used to study impro in Kentish Town and loved walking round the area: because everywhere the council has planted a tree, someone has turned the surrounding bare earth into a miniature garden. Guerrilla Gardening can, it seems, be done on a modest scale.

When I moved into my current house, there was an area nearby that used to depress me. It was a small neglected piece of land: mainly clay with deep holes in it, and covered with brambles and nettles. I hated passing it, and I am sure the locals felt the same. It was way too big a project to do in a couple of hours overnight, but happily the owners of the land were delighted for me to tackle it.

So over a series of weekends, I

I wanted to do the whole project on a shoestring budget, so many of the original flowers were cuttings from my or my Mum’s garden, and abandoned plants and wild flowers on a nearby building site that was about to be cleared. At one of vInspired’s project showcases, the Waterways Trust was giving away wild flower seeds, so I accepted these gratefully and scattered them in the Community Garden.

The garden needed a feature to tie it into its surroundings, so I built a bench from railway sleeper offcuts and created paths to draw the eye to this focal point from both directions. The garden now has real presence in its corner location, and the design works well whether you are approaching by car, foot or horseback from the nearby stables. The project has drawn many appreciative comments from the community and a dog walker joined me for an hour's weeding last spring, to add his contribution to the project.

So if there is a local eyesore that would benefit from a bit of TLC, do see if you can improve matters.