I have read a few stories about Guerrilla gardeners and think it is a great movement. It is a positive way to make a statement, and to create change.

I did some research on the history of psychiatric hospitals. Back in the 1800's and early 1900's, the psych hospitals, or asylums as they were known then, would be farms. Farming, fresh air and exercise were seen as important treatment modalities for people who were patients there. Psychotropic medications were created in about the 1950's, and soon became the treatment of choice. Farms, gardens and the like disappeared. I think Whitby Psych in Ontario was the last institution to have a large gardening program. I think that is gone now too. I am out of touch with what is happening in Ontario, so I could be wrong.

We need to get back in touch with the earth, and simplify. Maybe this movement will lead to other, more productive ways to feed and help people. If not, if all it does is make our world a more beautiul place, then that is good too.

Northwind, you reminded me of a therapeutic community in Victoria called Woodwynn Farms (perhaps you have heard of it). Basically they take people who live on the streets in Victoria and bring them to live on this farm located on the northern edge of the city. It's a long-term residential program (3-5 years) where they work on the farm, learn new skills and are given all the help they need (medical, legal, etc.). Their website, for anyone interested in reading more about it is: www.woodwynnfarms.org.

Here is another group in the US ....

Guerrilla gardeners’ spread seeds of social change

By Emily Wax, Published: April 14

“Let’s throw some bombs,” a young woman calls out, waterproof floral purse swinging on her shoulder and Laura Ingalls braids flying behind her as a band of 25 followers cheer, “Cool!”

They rush toward a drab vacant lot in Shaw. Some climb up onto the back of a truck to get better aim at their target. But these bombers aren’t likely to appear on any terrorist list or even get arrested. They’re throwing “seed bombs,” golf-ball-size lumps of mud packed with wildflower seeds, clay and a little bit of compost and water, which they just learned to make at a free seed-bombing workshop for Washington’s guerrilla gardeners.

The benign bombing is part of a larger phenomenon known as activist gardening that is taking off this spring in cities such as Portland, Detroit, Baltimore and the District, where young urbanites are redefining the seemingly fusty pastime as a tool for social change. This is civil disobedience with a twist: Vegetable patches and sunflower gardens planted on decrepit medians and in derelict lots in an effort to beautify inner-city eyesores or grow healthful food in neighborhoods with limited access to fresh food.

“Guerrilla gardening is urban gardening and food justice. It’s just this really cool mix,” says Emmy Gran, 25, who is teaching seed-bombing in a floppy sun hat at a recent Saturday morning workshop in the courtyard of Old City Green, a gardening store in Shaw. “But it’s controversial, too. If you see an abandoned, neglected lot and you decide to do something about it by planting vegetables and herbs, are you an occupier? It’s kind of radical, in some ways.”

And every radical movement needs graffiti. Gran hauls out her Cuisinart to make the green “spray-paint” required for gardening activism’s biodegradable moss graffiti. Ingredients: moss, a half teaspoon of sugar and beer or yogurt which, when blended, will stick to walls. (“You can also use buttermilk,” she adds.) With a light rain starting to fall, the group walks over to a curb near the garden store and uses the gloppy mixture to write “Nourish, Grow, Shaw” in big, moss-green letters.

Activist gardening is the latest face of social justice in the District. Forget living in a tent in McPherson Square. Instead, try pulling on muddy work boots and hauling fertilizer and mulch to a forlorn lot, then persuading your housemates to get off their iPads and go outdoors to plant snap peas and garlic. The group at the workshop includes former Peace Corps volunteers, environmental activists, plaid-ensconced hipsters and social justice workers, all eager to learn more about subversive or sneaky gardening, as it is also known.

“It’s all a lot less devious than it seems,” says Ellen Abramowitz, 22, who works for the Alliance to Save Energy, a nonprofit group that educates schools about energy efficiency. “Besides, who doesn’t love flowers?”

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oh.  very cool - might have to add seed bombs to our retreat projects for the weekend, (since obviously, I just don't have enough to do ;)  )

This would be fun.  Sweetheart & I enjoyed a TED talk by some mouthy American liberal guy who liked the f-word (not fundamentalism!)  and he talked about spaces people want to be in, want to like, want to care for.  And then he showed ghastly examples of wasted architecture, strip malls, people farms (modern subdivisions) and crap that separate, alienate and frustrate the masses. 

He showed ideas of architecture and landscape architecture that invited relationships, and participation and ownership - it was really good.  I can see that Seed bombs and moss paint and rogue tree planting could be welcomed, among all sorts of other creature-friendly actions.