Guerilla gardeners aim to start a riot of colour

Published on Friday 23 October 2009 10:13

THEY strike under cover of darkness, fighting a guerrilla war in the Lothians, armed with a formidable arsenal . . . of flowers.

The Edinburgh Community Gardening Activists, a band of "guerrilla gardeners" stretching from Prestonpans to Marchmont, have gone from strength to strength since their inception six months ago.

It started in a crescent-shaped patch of land in Marchmont Crescent, known as the "Green Banana", back in April when a group of volunteers took it upon themselves to transform the patch of council-owned wasteland.

Since then the movement, which mobilises volunteers to spruce up neglected patches of land, has grown and spread out across the city.

Amongst the latest projects undertaken by the team was a neglected community garden in Prestonpans, which was transformed from a sorry-looking patch of soil into a burst of violas, chrysanthemums, daffodils, tulip bulbs, cordyline, heathers and artemisia overnight.

"We got up at 6am to plant the flowers as a surprise to local residents," said guerilla gardener Lucy Ann Wiltshire.

"It's not how we do all our gardening though, and it's not really what guerrilla gardening is all about, but we thought that it would be nice for the residents to wake up to some pretty flowers.

"I got involved with guerrilla gardening last autumn when I read an article in a newspaper about it and thought it was such a beautiful and simple idea.

"You take a patch of land and transform it for the good of the community, for no other reward than making the place look nice. Some say that such work should be the responsibility of the owners but if it's community land then we are the owners and we should look after it."

Guerrilla gardening is thought to have started in New York in the 1970s when a derelict private yard in the city's Bowery Houston area was transformed into a garden.

Bringing it to Edinburgh has not been all plain sailing. A bid to transform a derelict patch of land by a railway line in Morningside three weeks ago was foiled when Network Rail bosses padlocked the gate and demanded 500 rent to allow the work to continue.

It was a brief hiccup in an otherwise successful and well-received campaign to improve the communities of the Lothians.

Community gardener Theodora Bayly said: "The 'Green Banana' has now been taken over by a couple of retired residents who have taken it upon themselves to maintain the work we did back in April. Since then we've moved on to planting flowers in tree stumps around the Sick Kids hospital and near the bus stop on Melville Drive.

"Since we started we've had feedback from all sorts of communities in the Lothians telling us that this is something they'd like to be involved in."