Gardeners plant on public lands to address climate and affordability crises

About 40 years ago, Brenda Dyck committed her first lone crime.

She remembers grabbing her gardening tools, marching to a meadow behind her apartment building, digging a small hole in the ground, and planting her first apple tree.

“It was like a dopamine rush for me,” says the 61-year-old from her home in the remote Cariboo Mountains in British Columbia.

“I have always been a die-hard gardener. I eat, sleep and breathe gardening.”

She says she now regularly goes to a community shed near her home to drop off hundreds of seeds she has grown over decades to encourage more people to do what she did – guerrilla gardening.

“Guerrilla gardening is gardening on land that does not belong to you without permission,” says Dyck.

“It's revolutionary. Especially in today's climate, there are so many people who don't own land or can't afford food. It's better for the planet. It's better for the community. It's better for everyone.”

Laura Taylor, a professor of urban planning at the University of Alberta, says the term was coined in Brooklyn, NY, in the 1970s.

“The municipality took over a site where buildings had been demolished due to safety concerns, and then the vacant lot was simply left lying there,” Taylor says.

The area “has gone from being an eyesore to being a place where people grew vegetables and got food from them.”

Taylor says it's difficult to determine the extent of the movement, but it has continued since then, especially in urban areas.

The law comes with risks, she says. Anyone who gardens on property that does not belong to them without permission can be charged with trespassing, especially if there is a “No Trespassing” sign in the area or the gardener has been verbally warned not to enter the property.

Some zoning regulations that govern the development, use and maintenance of a property can cause unscrupulous gardeners to come into conflict with the law.

Dyck agrees that guerrilla gardening is difficult to track.

“It's such an underground thing because no one wants to admit it.”

She says several gentle rebels who don't own land and can't afford food but have a passion for gardening have asked her for her seeds.

“If you can’t afford potatoes, you can have three different varieties with my seeds,” says Dyck.

She can't count exactly how many illegal gardens have sprung up because of her, either. But she receives hundreds of messages every month from people asking about her seeds, how to plant them, and when she will next deliver them.

Dyck says she never got into trouble.

The closest she came to doing this was the first time she went into business on her own. After the apple tree had grown into a full-grown garden, some plant pots that Dyck had made from old, broken household items, including an old radio, caught the attention of her landlord.

She says she received a letter from the developer demanding that she remove her “fairy garden.” After she gave him some of her vegetables and promised not to let the plants get in anyone's way, Dyck says the developer was willing to turn a blind eye.

Her neighbors, who watched her garden grow over the years, were also happy about the seeds and fruits she distributed.

Megan Lewchuk, a horticultural technician from Alberta, says she learned about guerrilla gardening last year from a colleague who plants on land owned by the City of Edmonton.

The 25-year-old says she fell in love with the concept because she didn't know if she would ever own a house and garden of her own.

“I find the possibility of planting more permanent things in areas that I can return to later appealing,” she says.

Lewchuk says she also cares about the climate, and has planted willows in Edmonton's ravines without a permit, whose deep roots prevent erosion.

It has also dropped “seed bombs” – seeds wrapped in compost and concrete – in urban areas to combat the heat island effect, which causes urban areas to become several degrees warmer than the average daytime temperature as vegetation is replaced by concrete.

“Every little difference is still a difference, you know?” she says.

Eric Boyd, a semi-retired investor from Toronto, says he practices guerrilla gardening to beautify places in his city together with like-minded people.

“It’s very satisfying to put something in the ground and then turn it into something beautiful, as opposed to the polluted space it was before,” says Boyd.

He says he is not afraid of getting caught.

“Don’t let fear of the law stop you, okay?

“The neighbors come by and thank us – that is by far the most common result.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published August 31, 2024.