Reconstruction 7.4 (2007)
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David Tracey. Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto. New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, British Columbia, Canada, 2007, 227pp. ISBN 0-865-71583-1 (sbk), $19.95.
<1> David Tracey, author of Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, summarizes the philosophy of guerrilla gardening in a simple statement: "Every plant is political" (32).
<2> Guerrilla gardening is political gardening. "Guided by an eco-based code of ethics, [and] armed with a determination to make the landscape itself a declaration of interdependence," guerrilla gardeners see the construction and development of gardens as acts of ecological, economic, and political intervention into industrial capitalism. Guerrilla gardening is aimed at challenging conventional notions of private and public space by reclaiming, for public use, private land that is neglected, underused, or misused. Guerrilla gardeners identify pieces of land (such as abandoned lots, drainage ditches, neglected planters, patches of grass along buildings, etc) and reclaim those spaces for the community and the environment by planting gardens (often illegally) in them. It is a form of non-violent direct action aimed at transforming society.
<3> Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, says Tracey is "meant to be two things: 1) a manual for people using plants to reclaim public space for the public good, and 2) a manifesto inspiring you to join them. So it’s a Manualfesto" (1).
<4> Tracey makes the political, ecological, and (dare I say it) moral case for engaging in guerrilla gardening - it is a direct challenge to industrial development, corporate domination, the ever-increasing privatization of space, and steady destruction of the planet. Among the favorite targets of guerrilla gardeners are empty city lots. Tracey explains why. "If we agree that a city is a shared experience, something we all create together, what kind of anti-social message is made by someone who buys a prominent space in a crowded district and leaves it to collect litter" (50).
<5> Guerrilla Gardening is a pleasure to read. It is interesting, useful, funny, inspirational, and deeply political - without coming across as heavy-handed or elitist. A great strength of the book is its success in presenting guerrilla gardening as entirely reasonable and eminently doable. The book has the potential to inspire people of a wide range of backgrounds to get involved with or expand their involvement with guerrilla gardening campaigns.
<6> I picked up Guerrilla Gardening after a couple of friends and I (budding but inexperienced guerrilla gardeners) planted several small vegetable gardens in Lexington, Kentucky, where we live. Not being expert gardeners (or guerrillas, for that matter), we were for looking for both ideas and inspiration when I came across the book online and read it. I wasn’t disappointed.
<7> In fact, within the first twenty pages, my mind was already wandering away from the text and toward places in my city that could use some horticultural enhancement, and toward how I might use the notion of guerrilla gardens (and even the book itself) in the geography courses I teach at a small state college. While reading, I was constantly tempted to put the book down and bury my hands in the soil (which I did several times). This reaction, I suspect, is precisely what Tracey is going for.
<8> The book opens with an introduction to the idea of guerrilla gardening and the politics behind it. "Guerrilla gardening," Tracey argues, "offers a way to see your city in a different light. You may redefine your role as a citizen as you discover new ground on which to make a stand... No longer a passive consumer, you become what has never been needed more: an active citizen engaged in your environment" (1). Tracey raises a question that lies at the heart of the guerrilla gardening movement: "what is public space"? The question is an important one, and although I wish Tracey had given it a little more attention in the book, he does use the question to invite readers to consider for themselves the roles and meanings of space in society.
<9> After the opening political and philosophical chapters, Tracey turns his focus towards the actual act of guerrilla gardening. Each chapter is engaging and informative, providing readers with helpful advice on gardening, in general, and guerrilla gardening, in particular. In addition to its central theme, each chapter also contains design tips, personal anecdotes, profiles of other guerrilla gardeners, and descriptions of specific "Power Plants."
<10> Chapter Two invites readers to learn some basics about their region’s watershed, soil type and quality, weather and climate patterns, drinking water sources, etc. Drawing on the work of landscape architect Michael Hough, Tracey also encourages readers who are new to guerrilla gardening to start looking at their urban environment from a different perspective, contrasting what he calls the "pedigree" landscape of lawns, fountains, and flowerbeds with the "natural and cultural vernacular landscapes" of the city, including "the back alley ways of immigrant neighborhoods as well as pavement cracks, rooftops, industrial sites, and more" (48-49).
<11> Chapter Three looks at the basic tools of the guerrilla gardener, from shovels and trowels to soils and seeds, suggesting ways to acquire these items for free or at least on the cheap. "Gardeners are the most generous people on earth," Tracey writes, "They’re also the biggest scrounges. They love to give things away, and they love to get things for free. To watch a gaggle of gardeners in action is to believe the whole market economy thing never happened" (73).
<12> Chapter Four focuses on the basics of gardening - planting, watering, nutrients, and the like. He takes time out here to describe "seed bombing" (a tactic that emerged in New York City when landowners fenced-off unused lots to keep gardeners and other ne’er-do-wells out). Seed bombs are seed projectiles lobbed by the dozens over fences that sprout wherever they land, turning abandoned lots into urban prairies.
<13> Chapters Five and Six offers suggestions in actually planning, designing, and implementing urban gardens. There are even plans presented for building "sod sofas" to encourage people to relax and hang-out in public gardens.
<14> Chapters Seven offers advice and encouragement for creating larger community gardens and how one might go about finding partners and even funding for such projects - a great resource for teachers, for example, who might utilize these ideas to create gardens on school or college campuses - perhaps even funded by the schools themselves. Chapter Eight encourages guerrilla gardeners to think strategically about when to seek permission to build and when not to. Although Tracey advocates seeking permission in some cases, a central theme of the book is: "it’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission" (158). Chapter Nine discusses public relations and getting attention for your gardens - a key component of expanding the movement.
<15> The concluding chapter reminds readers that guerrilla gardening (and community gardening more broadly) can not only be personally fulfilling but also socially transformative. "Every act of guerrilla gardening is a seed. It might germinate, it might not. It might lead to another act [...] Someone may become inspired. More people could join in. Who knows how big this thing could get" (199)?
<16> As an academic accustom to critiquing everything I read I found it a pleasure to read Guerrilla Gardening. Rather than attempting to lay out a carefully constructed intellectual treatise on industrial capitalism, public space, or political activism, Tracey has instead produced a practical and enjoyable guide to non-violent social change. I recommend the book to anyone interested in helping to create healthy urban environments, saving the planet from human-induced catastrophe, and challenging the pathologies of contemporary capitalism.
Michael Marchman
University of Kentucky
Northern Kentucky University
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