On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries (Hardcover)

~ (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

With the rallying cry, "Let's fight the filth with forks and flowers," this lighthearted guide is a seriously silly romp through the adventurous pastime of gardening other people's plots. Reynolds, after five months living in a 10-story tower block in London, missed gardening and began surreptitiously cultivating the planters in front of his building, gardening in the dead of night to avoid interference. He started a blog to share his delight in illicit gardening, and discovered he was part of an international movement. Reynolds draws inspiration from pioneers of the movement: New York community gardens built on vacant lots, dispossessed Honduran Chiquita workers who appropriated abandoned banana plantation land, and Gerrard Winstanley, founder of the short-lived but influential Diggers who, in the tumultuous year of 1649, planted beans and barley on public land in Surry, England, "that every one that is born in the land, may be fed by the Earth his Mother that brought him forth, according to the Reason that rules in the Creation." He borrows techniques from more infamous guerrillas such as Che Guevera and Mao Tse Tung ("the guerrilla 'must move with the fluidity of water and the ease of the blowing wind'"). Both a manifesto and a manual (tips include how to build seed bombs and deal with pests unique to the guerrilla form of gardening: authorities and landowners), the book delights with tales of exploits from the anarchic, artistic community of guerrilla gardeners.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Calling up images of Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara, Reynolds advocates for the guerrilla gardening movement with a handbook exhibiting an inquisitive nature, social concern, and an international perspective. The focus is on illicit activities, as Reynolds dismisses any gardening taking place with consent. He sets the tone with examples of his own efforts in London, and similar endeavors reaching from Milan to Chicago to Singapore, where individuals are inspired to enhance their communities by reclaiming garbage-strewn vacant lots, empty flower boxes, and neglected street-side strips of dirt. In tracing the history of the guerrilla gardening movement, be it for beautification or to grow food, Reynolds’ voice is ardent as he writes about Johnny Appleseed and the Digger colonies that provided sustenance in seventeenth-century England. Reynolds is most assured when advising readers on choosing specimens for planting their own guerrilla gardens and when expressing love for gardening. --Alice Joyce

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (May 27, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1596914491
• ISBN-13: 978-1596914490
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.8 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #238,589 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #11 in	Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture > Techniques > Urban
  #55 in	Books > Home & Garden > Gardening & Horticulture > Essays

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A scattering of color photography enhances this eyebrow-raising gardening guide, June 9, 2008

By	Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

On Guerrilla Gardening: A Handbook for Gardening Without Boundaries is a different kind of gardening book, describing how to use the power of gardening to beautify land one does not own - a technically illegal practice! And so those who engage in it apply tactics of Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara to the (mostly) nonviolent acts of gardening. Cultivating plants has the potential to be an act of political defiance, yet it is a defiance meant to spread colorful blooms, fragrant smells, and happiness among neighbors rather than bloodshed or pain. Chapters cover the history of guerrilla gardening, the necessary tools, recommended courses of action (including positive propaganda tactics) and much more. A scattering of color photography enhances this eyebrow-raising gardening guide.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Guerrilla Gardening inspiration, July 7, 2008

By	K. Rudnicki (Santa Cruz, Ca USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I thought this book was great. After finishing reading the book I found a group in my area that was doing guerrilla gardening. I feel a lot better about living in LA now that I'm participating with the group. You can see what the book inspired at http://laguerrillagardeing.org

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Lovely book, June 15, 2008

By	Ava Torre-Bueno (San Diego) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

On Guerrilla Gardening is a delightful little book! The author mixes history, politics, environmentalism and practical gardening into an enjoyable weekend read.
Guerrilla gardening can be a strong political statement about the waste of good land and the potential for abundance even when we're faced with a "food crisis," or it can just be something you do for fun.
My only concern is the "waging battle" metaphor that sprouts throughout the book; I wish even as we guerrilla garden, that we could make our speech more nurturing. It's only a little quibble though.
If you've ever been saddened by an abandoned tree well near your bus stop or your office, this book will give you the gumption to go out there and turn it into a lovely little garden!