Guerrilla gardening is a form of environmental and social activism involving the cultivation of plants in neglected or unused public or private spaces without the owner’s permission. It is an act of “people power” that transforms forgotten urban areas into vibrant pockets of green space, blending gardening with protest against urban decay and the lack of access to nature.

This drive to reclaim and beautify public spaces extends beyond flora to include yarn bombing, a related form of temporary street art using knitted or crocheted yarn instead of permanent paint or plants. There are many other ways to reflect and enhance the core philosophies of guerilla gardening such as community food gardens, appropriation and reclamation of unused community land, planting streetscapes cohesively within a community group, free plants vending machines and community free library books at street level. All these activities, operate with the same core philosophy: softening sterile urban landscapes, injecting colour and warmth, and sparking conversation about who defines public space.

You may think these practices are not relevant in the context of Australia, a continent with vast open spaces in the outback, but the majority of the population is concentrated in increasingly dense and expensive coastal cities. Sydney and Melbourne have urban populations over 5 million and urban densities in excess of 40,000 people per square Km in places, but the average for the entire continent is about 3.5 people per sq Km.  As populations increase, the reduction in greenspace needs to be addressed and guerilla gardening is one of the responses to a need that intensifies.

The core motivation for these “guerrillas”—whether armed with seed bombs or knitting needles—is to beautify neighbourhoods, improve biodiversity, and foster community engagement.

My piece is a fanciful representation of a guerilla gardening space that might include a play space; food production area; non-formal landscape planting; bee hotels and wildlife havens, or it might not. It is up to you to decide what you put into your guerilla garden.

Disclosure:           Text initially generated with AI; edited, expanded, deleted and rewritten by me.

Completed:        November 2025

Dimensions:      985mm H X 1020mm W

                        38.5” H X 40” W

Materials:          Commercial printed cottons; recycled and thrifted clothing and fabrics; screen printed cottons; rip-stop nylon; commercial threads.

Techniques:       Iron-on applique, Machine stitched