Guerilla-ing

Seeing this book on the shelves was really the first moment I had heard of the movement, and it seemed fantastically appealing. I have always craved bringing life and use to neglected spaces, houses, objects. Potential is irresistible to me, and I took the book home with all the excitement of someone who felt that so many nebulous ideas were about to be solidified. This movement is based around gardening on property that is not your own, out of a love of beauty and a desire to fight neglect, misuse, and abuse (which seems to be the primary driving force for the author himself) - though occasionally the battle is more political and against perceived waste, proprietary ownership and capitalist industrialization. In all of the cases I found an interesting tension.

To clean and improve the spaces around us I find to be only human - and a glorious part of being human at that. In most cases the projects do seem to start out here, with a bit of adventure in late night gardening on someone's abandoned lot or traffic median. A delicious idea, and a triumph over more than just trashy ground. Often these spaces are haunts for drug addicts and alcoholics, with hypodermics and shattered bottles littering the space. But it seems that it doesn't take long for edges to blur, lines to shift - and suddenly what was a gift becomes a right. This is our garden now. And we will fight to keep it. Murky battles rage that are (occasionally) hard to choose a side for. I found it interesting that those who rage over their property rights could have so little concern for the property itself, and that those who clearly close one eye to property rights could then be so proprietary.

The very nature of this type of work almost dictates it's eventual dissolution. Improving space increases value and draws attention, prompting the original owner to take notice of the changes - whether it's with displeasure or pleasure, they tend to step in. Isn't the likely transience of the garden a risk you need to be prepared to take? It seems that is easier said than done. In the beginning you half expect it, but a few years later when you have grown attached to your seedlings and the garden is established - it would seem to require saint-like mentalities to watch the land be bulldozed for a new condo. It's a particularly interesting situation for renters - who, by improving the land, improve property values and may well be increasing their own rent!

These tensions I find particularly interesting considering the evident respect the author has for Che Geuvara, and the obvious parallels between guerilla warfare and guerilla gardening are drawn throughout the book. Some of this is done with tongue in cheek, but it's clear that there is much respect and study of Che. This prompted me to learn more of him, and I was struck by another slight parallel between Che and factions of the GG movement. Che represents to me what can happen to a human being when you become so entrenched in an ideal that you loose all sight of the original promptings of that goal and become obsessed with the ideal itself. The man who sets out to fight the worst of capitalist oppression and exploitation becomes the worst of socialist oppressors, destroying any man who dared to breathe of disagreement. He was an incredibly heroic, idealistic and terrible man, who seemed to embody the extremes of all that was beautiful and hideous in masculine nature. The goodness of his original desires to help the exploited lower classes, combined with the tragedy of how vicious and despotic he became seems ridiculous to line up with a topic like gardening, nevertheless I was struck by how people could be so focused on a goal that they can't see the goal anymore. How it stops being about a neglected space that you gave a use for (and perhaps now the owner has another use for it) - and becomes about the garden. My garden.