Resistance is fertile

Happy New Year. May 2008 bring you joy and success in your new diet/exercise regime/job/home/family/hobby/stage of life/state of mind*.

Over the last year, I've frequently found myself thinking that I really ought to spend more time indulging in satisfying if somewhat illicit night-time activities.

I heard about guerrilla gardening in this piece on Radio 4 a couple of years ago. The notion of gardening as a political weapon and improving otherwise barren, wasted public space, and committing to its maintenance was immensely appealing. I immediately developed a mental image of well-spoken, welly-wearing, mild-mannered, green-fingered, trowel-wielding nocturnal activists explaining their illegal acts of civil disobedience to the slightly confused members of the local constabulary called to investigate reports of illegal earth moving by suspects armed with forks and trowels. It occurred to me that it would be rather fun to join in...

My then home town of Farnham (a well-kept and blooming town with a decidedly ageing population in green and leafy Surrey) was perhaps not the most likely place in which to germinate successfully the seeds of horticultural discontent. I resolved to get involved in this movement on some level, at some later time, and most likely in some other place. Unlike Farnham, London is a veritable hotbed of guerrilla gardening activity.

In keeping with my earlier intentions, I have as of last week enlisted as a wannabe guerrilla and will be making myself available during the gardening season for raids on ignored and unloved patches of soil around the capital. Dispatches from the front are posted here.

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*Delete as appropriate.