The Origins of Guerrilla Gardening

The phrase “Guerilla Gardening” was conceived in the 1970s when the organization “Green Guerillas” came to be. According to the website dreamgreen.earth:

“Rebelling against state neglect and wasted land, a group of young artists and residents started throwing seed bombs into vacant lots, planting sunflower seeds in road meridians, and placing planters around adandoned buildings. They called themselves the Green Guerillas, so coining the phrase 'guerrilla gardening'”

​

However, the practice of Guerilla Gardening dates back much further. Dreamgreen. Earth details that Guerilla gardening “emerged during (or following) periods when a society stopped treating land as a community resource, and started treating it as a commodity” (dreamgreen.earth). As it turns out, multiple aristocracies throughout history banned commoners from farming in particular fields, and so "some brave folk began to cultivate illicit gardens on the land stolen by their oppressors" (dreamgreen.earth). Gardens that were found were destroyed, so it is very difficult to award credit where credit is due to the originators of the craft. However, people generally recognize African farmers  and “The Diggers” of England as the early leaders of the movement.

​

Due to its covert nature, there are likely many undocumented or underreported instances of guerilla gardening throughout history. Dreamgreen.earth includes a few examples in their article, including “the greens grown along train tracks in Mumbai; crop fields cultivated by landless Kenyan farmers; Brazil’s co-created and self-managed favela gardens; and food and flowers tended by Syrians in the Domiz refugee camp.”

​

​

​

​

​

​