well it’s time for a garden reboot I’ve
been a gardener for over 30 years and
guerrilla gardening has not only made me
happy but it’s made me successful and
rich as well for those of you who don’t
know guerilla gardening is the act of
gardening without permission on land
that does not belong to you and
basically you do it for the purpose of
improving your surroundings and to
provide fruit flowers and vegetables for
yourself and everyone else to use them
enjoy I first learned about guerilla
gardening when I came across this quote
gardening is the most therapeutic and
defined act you’ll ever do and it was
attributed to someone named Ron Finley
now I understood the whole part about
gardening mean therapeutic but I
couldn’t wrap my head around how
gardening could possibly be considered
defiant so I decided to research this
Ron Finley guy turns out he calls
himself a gangster gardener and he uses
it’s true and he uses him uses guerrilla
gardening to improve his community so he
started off by planting vegetable
gardens all along the curb in front of
his house and he allowed the people in
the community to come by and pick
whatever they wanted next thing you know
Ron gets a citation from the city for
gardening without a permit because there
was actually laws against planting
anything but grass or trees on the side
of the curb so Ron decided to defy the
law and he fought for his right to grow
food on public land the community
rallied behind him and the city backed
down
now this made perfect sense to me
because well it was public land and
public lands for everybody at least
that’s my definition of public and I
couldn’t see why there was ever even a
problem with this in the first place
because it was a benefit to the
community well I thought this might be
kind of a good idea and I realized that
because again I believe it’s easier to
ask for forgiveness than beg for
permission so I thought that gorilla
guarding just might be a really good
idea for the first time in my life I
lived in a house and then I moved to a
townhouse and with a townhouse you there
are rules so here I am I’m a townhouse
dwelling plant obsessed guerilla
gardener without uh without a yard so I
started off planting vegetables and
seeds and flowers of my neighbor’s
places even though even though I didn’t
ask for permission this seemed to make
the neighbors pretty happy so I was
feeling encouraged so then what I did
was I got an apple tree and I planted it
between my townhouse unit and the one
next door and I did this because well I
like apple pie jam turns out my neighbor
does too this came in very handy and she
was very forgiving when the ripe apples
were falling over her deck now there
happened to also be children in my
townhouse complex so I decided to create
some fairy gardens on the public space
as well and and I built them under a
tree just there on the common area and
the children in the neighborhood would
pop by every now and again to see you
know if there any new occupants my
guerilla gardening experiment was going
pretty good but in an every town house
complex there was always a but I know
you’ve been there right so when I
started lining up multiple containers of
flowers and vegetables all along my
walkway and then I started calling at my
pot garden something happened I got a
letter and it was from the town house
council about the excessive number of
pots on my walkway now to be fair my pot
usage was a little excessive
I did have almost 40 different pots
lined up down the walkway and around the
but because I was a guerilla gardener I
didn’t let this bother me much I figured
the letter was just a suggestion or
maybe an informed opinion so I promptly
ignored it surprisingly nothing happened
at all like absolutely nothing it’s a
fact you can actually buy off your
neighbors with plant seeds and jam so it
was all going really really well so I
thought well I’m gonna expand my
guerilla gardening activities so I
continued to leave plant seeds and jam
on my neighbor’s doorsteps which I think
helped distract him from the greenhouse
I had set up on my balcony and I started
learning how to collect seeds well I
gave away four hundred and sixty-five
packs of seeds and I did this for three
reasons one because my mother taught me
to share too because people really
seemed to like getting free stuff and
three my seed stash was vastly
overcoming my storage capabilities now a
lady should never discuss the size of
recede stash but I’m no lady and let me
tell you there was plenty to go around
if you know what I mean in an effort to
become greener I decided to you know
take some stuff from the junk pile and
repurpose them into garden planters now
this old radio that I recycled not only
did I save money on a container but when
I entered it in the fair I won first
place for best novelty planter and five
dollars in prize money I was making
money and I’d save something from
landfill I felt like some kind of eco
warrior so then I thought well I’m gonna
take some more recycled items and I’m
gonna create some other fairy gardens on
public spaces and people started adding
stuff until it became an entire fairy
village it was amazing that my people
were becoming involved in my guerrilla
garden activities without knowing
anything at all about it and I continued
as these little gardens that I had here
and there progressed I left flowers and
vegetables on various people’s doors
even if I didn’t know them and I joined
not just one but two community gardens
and I continued to plant flowers seeds
and vegetables wherever I could find
room even if the space did not belong to
me someone once said to me well how are
you gonna make money doing that but the
truth is guerilla gardening made me rich
I realized that I created happiness not
just for myself but for other people as
well
guerilla gardening was kind of turning
out to be my superpower so of course I
had to get an outfit when garden and
World magazine was pulled
they pulled 1,500 people and 80% of
those who garden said that they had
greater life satisfaction 93% said that
gardening boosted their mood and left
them feeling happy one study even showed
that you can reduce the incidence of
dementia by 36% by gardening daily 36%
that’s huge plus there’s also financial
benefits to gardening you can actually
save money on groceries especially if
you’re buying organic and it can help
increase your property values as well so
with this in mind I wrote something
called the gorilla garden manifesto and
it was about how he’s gonna encourage
people to to become involved in
gardening and use my guerilla gardening
skills to help reboot and improve my
community then I had a TEDx moment what
if I could use my gorilla garden
manifesto to inspire people to do what
I’m doing so that they could reboot and
engage their community as well I could
start like a gorilla garden revolution
and then not only would I be happy and
rich but I would be successful too now
this may seem like a really big idea but
you know I’ve never started a revolution
when I was growing up I was actually a
bit of an influencer when other people’s
mothers were saying to them if the kid
next door jumped off a
bridge would you do it to my mother
never once said that to me that’s her
she really never said that because she
knew I’d be the one of the front lines
come on
it’s gonna be so much fun and she knew
there were always people willing to join
me my adventures she’s kind of resigned
to the fact and you know I really still
believe that if something scares you
excites you at the same time it’s
definitely worth doing so who here likes
to have fun and adventures okay so
there’s a few of you I know some of you
might not want to say cuz your mom’s
here you know but we can talk later so
show her hands who here likes the free
stuff oh yeah everybody likes the free
stuff well you know what you guys are in
luck because I have brought enough free
seeds for everyone in the audience to
start their own guerilla gardening
adventures now for those of you who may
be in the cheap seats here’s a close up
always wear garden gloves before
practicing any kind of guerilla
gardening activities now for those of
you worried about the implications of
guerilla gardening you know you may want
to start off slow maybe plant them in
your own yard plant them at your
neighbors leave them on someone’s
doorstep that you don’t even know and
that’s great however every manifesto
needs some rebels and a call to action
before it can actually become a garden
guerrilla garden revolution so this is
what I’m gonna encourage you to do I’m
gonna I’m gonna tell you guys you guys
need to be rebels and you need to take
back your green spaces this is the most
important thing that you’ll ever do I
want you to take seeds and plants and I
want you to plant them in the that empty
ditch in the curb but in front of your
house or maybe that ugly vacant public
law that you pass by every day on your
way to work now you don’t want to plant
anything invasive because you don’t want
to wreck the environment and if you’re
gonna plant food you might want to make
sure that
the the land itself has not been
contaminated with herbicides or
pesticides or possibly any other toxic
substances because it’s not fun if you
poison yourself and if you must give
crap to someone by a little manure for
your local community garden the city
will know who they are and where they’re
located so give them a call and while
you got the city on the phone see if you
can talk them into incorporating edible
plants into your landscaping the city
spends thousands of dollars every year
on plants you might as well make some of
them edibles this is your tax money
people make it work for you in your
community don’t wait till cauliflowers
nine dollars ahead before you channel
your inner garden rebel join the
guerilla garden revolution today and it
will not only help you reboot your
community but it’ll make you happy rich
and successful to go rebels [Applause]
been a gardener for over 30 years and
guerrilla gardening has not only made me
happy but it’s made me successful and
rich as well for those of you who don’t
know guerilla gardening is the act of
gardening without permission on land
that does not belong to you and
basically you do it for the purpose of
improving your surroundings and to
provide fruit flowers and vegetables for
yourself and everyone else to use them
enjoy I first learned about guerilla
gardening when I came across this quote
gardening is the most therapeutic and
defined act you’ll ever do and it was
attributed to someone named Ron Finley
now I understood the whole part about
gardening mean therapeutic but I
couldn’t wrap my head around how
gardening could possibly be considered
defiant so I decided to research this
Ron Finley guy turns out he calls
himself a gangster gardener and he uses
it’s true and he uses him uses guerrilla
gardening to improve his community so he
started off by planting vegetable
gardens all along the curb in front of
his house and he allowed the people in
the community to come by and pick
whatever they wanted next thing you know
Ron gets a citation from the city for
gardening without a permit because there
was actually laws against planting
anything but grass or trees on the side
of the curb so Ron decided to defy the
law and he fought for his right to grow
food on public land the community
rallied behind him and the city backed
down
now this made perfect sense to me
because well it was public land and
public lands for everybody at least
that’s my definition of public and I
couldn’t see why there was ever even a
problem with this in the first place
because it was a benefit to the
community well I thought this might be
kind of a good idea and I realized that
because again I believe it’s easier to
ask for forgiveness than beg for
permission so I thought that gorilla
guarding just might be a really good
idea for the first time in my life I
lived in a house and then I moved to a
townhouse and with a townhouse you there
are rules so here I am I’m a townhouse
dwelling plant obsessed guerilla
gardener without uh without a yard so I
started off planting vegetables and
seeds and flowers of my neighbor’s
places even though even though I didn’t
ask for permission this seemed to make
the neighbors pretty happy so I was
feeling encouraged so then what I did
was I got an apple tree and I planted it
between my townhouse unit and the one
next door and I did this because well I
like apple pie jam turns out my neighbor
does too this came in very handy and she
was very forgiving when the ripe apples
were falling over her deck now there
happened to also be children in my
townhouse complex so I decided to create
some fairy gardens on the public space
as well and and I built them under a
tree just there on the common area and
the children in the neighborhood would
pop by every now and again to see you
know if there any new occupants my
guerilla gardening experiment was going
pretty good but in an every town house
complex there was always a but I know
you’ve been there right so when I
started lining up multiple containers of
flowers and vegetables all along my
walkway and then I started calling at my
pot garden something happened I got a
letter and it was from the town house
council about the excessive number of
pots on my walkway now to be fair my pot
usage was a little excessive
I did have almost 40 different pots
lined up down the walkway and around the
but because I was a guerilla gardener I
didn’t let this bother me much I figured
the letter was just a suggestion or
maybe an informed opinion so I promptly
ignored it surprisingly nothing happened
at all like absolutely nothing it’s a
fact you can actually buy off your
neighbors with plant seeds and jam so it
was all going really really well so I
thought well I’m gonna expand my
guerilla gardening activities so I
continued to leave plant seeds and jam
on my neighbor’s doorsteps which I think
helped distract him from the greenhouse
I had set up on my balcony and I started
learning how to collect seeds well I
gave away four hundred and sixty-five
packs of seeds and I did this for three
reasons one because my mother taught me
to share too because people really
seemed to like getting free stuff and
three my seed stash was vastly
overcoming my storage capabilities now a
lady should never discuss the size of
recede stash but I’m no lady and let me
tell you there was plenty to go around
if you know what I mean in an effort to
become greener I decided to you know
take some stuff from the junk pile and
repurpose them into garden planters now
this old radio that I recycled not only
did I save money on a container but when
I entered it in the fair I won first
place for best novelty planter and five
dollars in prize money I was making
money and I’d save something from
landfill I felt like some kind of eco
warrior so then I thought well I’m gonna
take some more recycled items and I’m
gonna create some other fairy gardens on
public spaces and people started adding
stuff until it became an entire fairy
village it was amazing that my people
were becoming involved in my guerrilla
garden activities without knowing
anything at all about it and I continued
as these little gardens that I had here
and there progressed I left flowers and
vegetables on various people’s doors
even if I didn’t know them and I joined
not just one but two community gardens
and I continued to plant flowers seeds
and vegetables wherever I could find
room even if the space did not belong to
me someone once said to me well how are
you gonna make money doing that but the
truth is guerilla gardening made me rich
I realized that I created happiness not
just for myself but for other people as
well
guerilla gardening was kind of turning
out to be my superpower so of course I
had to get an outfit when garden and
World magazine was pulled
they pulled 1,500 people and 80% of
those who garden said that they had
greater life satisfaction 93% said that
gardening boosted their mood and left
them feeling happy one study even showed
that you can reduce the incidence of
dementia by 36% by gardening daily 36%
that’s huge plus there’s also financial
benefits to gardening you can actually
save money on groceries especially if
you’re buying organic and it can help
increase your property values as well so
with this in mind I wrote something
called the gorilla garden manifesto and
it was about how he’s gonna encourage
people to to become involved in
gardening and use my guerilla gardening
skills to help reboot and improve my
community then I had a TEDx moment what
if I could use my gorilla garden
manifesto to inspire people to do what
I’m doing so that they could reboot and
engage their community as well I could
start like a gorilla garden revolution
and then not only would I be happy and
rich but I would be successful too now
this may seem like a really big idea but
you know I’ve never started a revolution
when I was growing up I was actually a
bit of an influencer when other people’s
mothers were saying to them if the kid
next door jumped off a
bridge would you do it to my mother
never once said that to me that’s her
she really never said that because she
knew I’d be the one of the front lines
come on
it’s gonna be so much fun and she knew
there were always people willing to join
me my adventures she’s kind of resigned
to the fact and you know I really still
believe that if something scares you
excites you at the same time it’s
definitely worth doing so who here likes
to have fun and adventures okay so
there’s a few of you I know some of you
might not want to say cuz your mom’s
here you know but we can talk later so
show her hands who here likes the free
stuff oh yeah everybody likes the free
stuff well you know what you guys are in
luck because I have brought enough free
seeds for everyone in the audience to
start their own guerilla gardening
adventures now for those of you who may
be in the cheap seats here’s a close up
always wear garden gloves before
practicing any kind of guerilla
gardening activities now for those of
you worried about the implications of
guerilla gardening you know you may want
to start off slow maybe plant them in
your own yard plant them at your
neighbors leave them on someone’s
doorstep that you don’t even know and
that’s great however every manifesto
needs some rebels and a call to action
before it can actually become a garden
guerrilla garden revolution so this is
what I’m gonna encourage you to do I’m
gonna I’m gonna tell you guys you guys
need to be rebels and you need to take
back your green spaces this is the most
important thing that you’ll ever do I
want you to take seeds and plants and I
want you to plant them in the that empty
ditch in the curb but in front of your
house or maybe that ugly vacant public
law that you pass by every day on your
way to work now you don’t want to plant
anything invasive because you don’t want
to wreck the environment and if you’re
gonna plant food you might want to make
sure that
the the land itself has not been
contaminated with herbicides or
pesticides or possibly any other toxic
substances because it’s not fun if you
poison yourself and if you must give
crap to someone by a little manure for
your local community garden the city
will know who they are and where they’re
located so give them a call and while
you got the city on the phone see if you
can talk them into incorporating edible
plants into your landscaping the city
spends thousands of dollars every year
on plants you might as well make some of
them edibles this is your tax money
people make it work for you in your
community don’t wait till cauliflowers
nine dollars ahead before you channel
your inner garden rebel join the
guerilla garden revolution today and it
will not only help you reboot your
community but it’ll make you happy rich
and successful to go rebels [Applause]
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