Guerrilla gardening
In 1902, the Arbutus corridor was a rail line developed by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), connecting Vancouver harbour to the fishing village of Steveston on the South Arm of the Fraser River.
[8] In 1905, the BC Electric Company (BCEC) leased and electrified the line to operate interurban passenger rail service between Vancouver and Richmond.
In the interim, home owners adjacent to the unused rail line and local community groups had built and maintained numerous gardens and plots on the 9 km route.
Terms of the complex purchase agreement included a stipulation that a portion of the corridor must be dedicated for light rail transit use.
In 2013, a handful of local residents, including visual artists and guerrilla gardeners, reclaimed the space by fully restoring overgrown flower beds, adding outdoor paintings, and overseeing general landscape maintenance.
An empty piece of land in the middle of the city at Guldbergsgade in Nørrebro, Copenhagen, Denmark, was transformed into a garden in a single night.
[19] Christina Barton writes that in the months that followed, "it captured the hearts and minds of Wellingtonians, who followed the growth of the cabbages, adding their own embellishments to the site, and contributed to the week of festivities (with poetry readings, performances, and the distribution of free coleslaw) that celebrated their harvest", describing the work as "a provocation to the local council and the city's developers".
In 2017, they established the "World Day of Planting Pumpkins in Public Places" (May 16) and, from 2020, the "National Suspension of Lawn Mowers", a campaign to reduce the frequency of mowing the city.
In August 2012 Richard Reynolds visited South Korea and spoke to many Korean audiences about guerrilla gardening through TEDxItaewon.
[23] GuerrillaGardening.org[24] was created in October 2004 by Richard Reynolds as a blog of his solo guerrilla gardening outside Perronet House, a council block in London's Elephant and Castle district.
Reynolds's guerrilla gardening has now reached many pockets of South London, and news of his activity has inspired people around the world to get involved.
Local people, facilitated by Manchester Permaculture Group, took direct action in turning the site into a thriving community garden.
[27] In 1974, the artist Bonnie Sherk founded The Farm as a work of urban gardening, performance art and environmental sculpture in San Francisco.
With region-specific seedbomb mixes, Greenaid aims to integrate and beautify (rather than disrupt) traditionally bland urban areas such as sidewalks and highway medians.
[33] At the Los Angeles Green Grounds, designer Ron Finley started growing produce on a strip of parkway lawn, but came into conflict with the city council.
He was successful in maintaining this urban market garden and has promoted the idea in a TED talk and appearances at international conferences, such as the Stockholm Food Forum and MAD in Copenhagen.
Gardens emerged for Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, George Floyd, Daunte Wright, Winston Boogie Smith, and Deona Knajdek.
[36] From the mid-1970s, Adam Purple created and tended a circular garden (shaped like a yin-yang) in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, in an abandoned lot.
April 7, 2001, Cascade Neighborhood Council, Seattle, commissioned a sculpture created by Paul Kuniholm to be present in a void adjacent to the rightofway, in a safe and beneficial installation.
