Guerilla Guardening - local food, community building, security, beauty!

A few weekends ago we visited a fantastic guerilla garden located just by Granville Island on the site of an old CP railway. The city does not own the land and CP cannot do anything with it -no trains are likely to pass by the garden since there's a Starbucks built right on the tracks about 300 meters from the garden: what a perfectly grey area for a guerrilla garden!
So one day, Justin Tilson, who lives next to the tracks, decided to clean that unused piece of land that and turn it into a simply amazing garden. Other residents soon joined the "revolution", namely Jen Gauthier and Trevor Hodgson, who also met with us that weekend.
Basically, these guerilla gardeners completely transformed a space where people felt more or less safe (dark, dirty, where thieves would hide stolen merchandise) and that others used as a dump (apparently an incredible amount of garbage came out of that site!).

Now, the garden produces locally grown vegetables, fruits and flowers for the residents (and for bypassers' enjoyment...). People say they feel safer when walking in the area since the land is being taken care of and there are often people working at the garden. Also, Jen and Trevor mentioned that through gardening, they've met so many of their neighbourgs that they've created a community that would otherwsie be inexistant!



The place became so popular that the gardeners are often asked: "How do I join this community garden?". Well, this is the beauty of guerilla gardening; there are no basic rules except: clear the land and it is yours to cultivate! One of the downsides of that practice is that since it is a guerilla tactic, gardeners are never sure how long their garden will last but, on a positive note, the garden has been running for seven years!





The moral of the story: Do not wait to own a piece of land to do something; available land is nearer than you may think!
Rethink your space!


>>To see the complete photo album click here!




Our sincere thanks to Justin, Jen, and Trevor for taking time to show us around their beautiful gardens.