Four of us, One big dig!!!

Last night, 4 of us, Andrew, Jackson, Justin and I went out and gardening. It was a chilly night with a bit of sprinklings but our hearts were warm with excitement to another guerrilla gardening activity! It is Jackson and Justin's first time and Andrew and I were so excited and glad to had them with us. It was such a blast last night, words can not describe it!!! 

We first went to this lot that we discovered last week with a all around fence and a broken chain that intended to lock people out. We got our tools and sneak back in that lot. It was going to be our ground breaking night for this new lot but the lot is full of rocks and gravel, just not a good lot to grow anything. We were quite disappointed as we did have high hope for this lot. 

With disappointment and uncertainty, we drove around downtown a bit. Through a friend's tip on this empty lot, we headed to that direction. When we got to this new lot, we first found it hard to dig as the lot was also full of rocks like the last one we were at. Then we found a garden that someone in the area already planted with high metal wired fences all round it. If someone can build a garden here, the soil must not be bad. So we went to the other side of the garden and found this vast space and we sink our fork and shovel in, it sunk and we rejoiced!!! It was a nice ad soft soil that is so easy to work with. 

We dig trenches, placed in potato, filled the soil, watered, documented. 

We turned over circles of soil, place in cantaloupe seeds, smooth the soil, watered, documented. 

We planted 3 long rows of potato and 5 circles of cantaloupes with 6 seeds each circles. 

What a successful dig. It was such a blast!!! 

Jackson tear up the land for the potato!

Making trenches for the planting of potato!

Justin losing up the soil for the potato!!!

Look at the joy of gardening on Justin's face!!!

Jackson putting the potato seedings into the trenches!!!

The trench!

Justin watering!

Justin watering again!

again!

and again... Justin watered a lot!!! 

We all busy with our project except Jackson.. hmm.. ha, He was taking pics!!! 

What a beautiful form!!

Andrew working on those cantaloupes circles!!!

The long rows of potato

Jackson and Justin!!!

Andrew and I at the end of long rows of potato!

I just want to thank all 3 of my follow gardeners of last night for coming out and working hard and having so much fun in a cold, wet night!!! thank you guys!!! 

And if you are interested in join me... email me sometime please. 

hope you enjoy all these beautiful documentaries of our adventure and experiment of truth. 

keep in tune... 

4 police patrol car passed by and 3 passed without a word... but the last one...

Two night ago, We went out guerilla gardening last night again, Andrew and me. It was such a great night, great adventure!!! 

Before everything started, I went over to my studio to spray paint all my bright red gasoline container that I been using as water container since it is very suspicious looking when I carrying them across empty lots at the middle of the night. i wanted to spray them all black so they can be invisible like in the darkness of the night but I did not have enough spray paint. So now they are not uniform in color, almost like the black one is the leader of the rest or like a secret weapon like water container I have... but I love them all the same. 

Here in my studio, the painted water containers... 

What a beautiful blue!!!

The 4 blue and 1 black... The 4 regular one and my 1 secret weapon!!

Andrew posting for the pic unintentionally!

I am sitting in THRONE in my studio!!!

Andrew and I met back at my house and then we drove over to my studio to pick up the gas container with new looks. Andrew dressed all black, ha, he is ready for a night of adventure. We first headed over to the lots that we had previously planted 4 rows of potato and 40 pumpkins, to water them. We got there and noticed that the same polices car (which we figured out a bit later that it is only a security guide patrol car for a hospital near by.) We lay low for a second and then we ran for it. Andrew watered the pumpkins while I watered the potato. We ran in and out! What a successful story! We did not get caught! We exchanged our report of the garden, everything look fine!!!!!! NO little green plant had came out yet... I am so excited to see them come up!!!

But with the security guard patrol car sitting there across the park lot, we did not want to provoke him, so we decided we were not going to plant in that lot that night. 

So we decided we will plant instead in this 2 square flower bed on the sidewalk just outside of the lot we were not allowed to be set foot upon. But since it is on the side walk, it is a public place own by the city, so we are free to do whatever we like, as long as the police allow. 

We planted Carrot and Potato in those 2 square. The soil was very nice and soft. It is going to be a good place for the carrot and the potato. during the time we were gardening. 4 police patrol car passed us by, 3 of them continued without slowing down but the last one that we encountered, stopped. He turn his bright light on us, switching back and forth between Andrew and I, not sure who is more suspicious. He asked us what we are doing and we replied, "we are planting carrot... and maybe some flower later (I really don't know will I plant flowers there or not, I said I will just so it sound better than just carrot alone that we are plant... people like flowers generally)" He then said,"OK" and left. WOW... we just got permission from the police to do gardening, how amazing is that. We were so excited!!!

We finished the gardening and ready to head home. Right before we head into the car, a man came to us to ask for a ride. There really not a open seat in my car since my back seat is full of gardening stuffs, so I said no and I am sorry to him, but then my guilt did not let me reject him. We invited him into our car and drove off to where he is staying. His name is Steve and he is 47 of age, just got back from a bar downtown and speak of the beautiful women that he saw. We keep reminded him to be respectful to the women and not see them as objects. I wonder did he like to hear that. He is a good, kind, soft spoken man, really he is. Throughout the ride he told us of himself, his family and his situation now. He is a salesman that sells body oil. It was so nice to hear a story from a stranger, to be able to earn one's trust and have the honor to listen one... it is such a blessing. 

We dropped him off at his place. Before he left the car, he spoke of his true yearning to have a nice girl that he can care and respect for instead of those pretty women that he wanted to fool around with. I know he meant it when he said that, that he just wants a good girl to love, to trust and to be with. I appreciate steve, his honesty, his stories, and the time we got to be with each other and getting to know each other. 

Tonight, not just seed was planted into the ground, but a seed from Steve planted into my heart. 

Andrew losing up the square of dirt!

The painted watering container in its first mission!!!

The square planted with carrot!

Here is Steve!!! Thank you Steve for sharing and being what you are!

About the book that I love!!!

The front cover of the book that I love!!!

Here is my guide book to my guerrilla gardening activities!!! It is a book full of insights and advise on guerrilla gardening. If you are interested in guerrilla gardening, you should find this book in the library and I promise you that you will love it!!! 

Here is some reviews:

   From Publishers Weekly

With the rallying cry, "Let's fight the filth with forks and flowers," this lighthearted guide is a seriously silly romp through the adventurous pastime of gardening other people's plots. Reynolds, after five months living in a 10-story tower block in London, missed gardening and began surreptitiously cultivating the planters in front of his building, gardening in the dead of night to avoid interference. He started a blog to share his delight in illicit gardening, and discovered he was part of an international movement. Reynolds draws inspiration from pioneers of the movement: New York community gardens built on vacant lots, dispossessed Honduran Chiquita workers who appropriated abandoned banana plantation land, and Gerrard Winstanley, founder of the short-lived but influential Diggers who, in the tumultuous year of 1649, planted beans and barley on public land in Surry, England, "that every one that is born in the land, may be fed by the Earth his Mother that brought him forth, according to the Reason that rules in the Creation." He borrows techniques from more infamous guerrillas such as Che Guevera and Mao Tse Tung ("the guerrilla 'must move with the fluidity of water and the ease of the blowing wind'"). Both a manifesto and a manual (tips include how to build seed bombs and deal with pests unique to the guerrilla form of gardening: authorities and landowners), the book delights with tales of exploits from the anarchic, artistic community of guerrilla gardeners.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

    From Booklist 

  Calling up images of Mao Tse-tung and Che Guevara, Reynolds advocates for the guerrilla       gardening movement with a handbook exhibiting an inquisitive nature, social concern, and an international perspective. The focus is on illicit activities, as Reynolds dismisses any gardening taking place with consent. He sets the tone with examples of his own efforts in London, and similar endeavors reaching from Milan to Chicago to Singapore, where individuals are inspired to enhance their communities by reclaiming garbage-strewn vacant lots, empty flower boxes, and neglected street-side strips of dirt. In tracing the history of the guerrilla gardening movement, be it for beautification or to grow food, Reynolds’ voice is ardent as he writes about Johnny Appleseed and the Digger colonies that provided sustenance in seventeenth-century England. Reynolds is most assured when advising readers on choosing specimens for planting their own guerrilla gardens and when expressing love for gardening. --Alice Joyce

A quick watering section and a wonderful conversation with an old man with his dog.

Yesterday, May 4, after my volunteering session at 4 pm, I went back to the garden in downtown, the one that we got ask to leave last night by a security guard. I want to check on the garden and maybe even quick go in and water it with my all to bright red gasoline containers that will capture bystanders attention without any difficulties.

No one was around, not even the security guard in his patrol car, I wonder maybe there is no security guard on duty in the day. If that is the case, that would be very beneficial to our gardening project. With one last look around for the security guard, I grabbed one of my 5 gallons gasoline container full of water and i ran inside the lot as fast as I can, which is not that fast since a 5 gallon water container full of water is quite heavy. I cannot help but look suspicious as I ran with a gasoline contain into a empty lot at a busy intersection in downtown. I also cannot help but have a smile on my face. I watered as fast as i can and got myself all wet due to my hurrying. I ran out and what a successful story.

Then I headed for my carrot seeds and squash seeds as I thought I would plant some of them on these 3 empty flower bed just outside of that empty lot on the sidewalk. Then I saw an old man and a beatiful dog in the empty lot next to my garden. I want to ask him had he ever got in troubles with the security guard for walking in the lot. he said its his first time so he really don't know how to answer the question.

His name is john Person and his dog, rusty. we chat for awhile. I told him about my garden as he told me about a neighborhood garden that his neighborhood had put up last year. He loves my idea of gardening. It is so nice and encouraging to know that gardens are shooting up everywhere. he said he lived by the Godwin High School. The community garden is at the conner of Division and Jefferson! I should check it out sometime. You should too!

Then we chat more. He told me about how he once lost his dog in lansing for 2 weeks and lucky they reunited later. he loves his dog, Rusty.

We said our goodbye and I was going to plant over at those 3 flower beds but then I realize it probally was not a good idea sine it is in the afternoon with so many eyes watching. So i ran in and out of the empty lot again to water... another o successful story!!!

Those are my water container... I truly wonder what people thought when they saw me with those bright red containers. 

They look so good!!!

The pumpkins look so good too!!!

After a full day, I treated myself to a treat from a local bakery. It is my favorite, chocolate orange scone. 

It was so good!!! I sat there with my journal. What a good relaxing time!

I hope all these will inspirit you to go out and garden yourself too... guerrilla gardening or not. Just go out and get close to the dirt, feel it in your hands, more it to form and grow and appreciate it with all your heart.    keep tune!!

We find a new empty lot that is fill with possibility!!!

Last night, After we got send away by the security guard, we decided we will just call it a night and come back another time to plant and water. It was a bit disappointed but it was also exciting in a sense that now it force us to be smarter and force us to find out more hidden empty lots to plant.

What happen next as we drove home was surely a beautiful thing. Andrew suggested that we will stop at this what use-to-be-a-fast-food-restaurant to see if there is any good land to garden. There wasn't much good dirt patch to garden on around the abandon building. suddenly, we realized that there is this totally empty lots next to us. It is fenced in with chain tied around the gate door. It seem as it is meant for a house to be build on. Andrew tried to squeeze in between the post and the gate door but then the chain that surround them broke and we got into the lot. We touch, dig and feel the soil. It felt right!!! We are planning to come back and plant a garden here. I think we are going to try to ask around the neighborhood and see who own the land and maybe we can even get permission for that piece of land.

Here is that chained gate door that Andrew broke... haha... We got in!!!

Andrew surveying our next potential garden!!! 

Another night out with Andrew, guerilla gardening... but...

After all day battling my Environmental Studies paper, it was so nice to get out with Andrew to do some gardening. I put on my sweatshirt, picked up my camera and headed out to my car to drive to Sparrow (a local coffee shop) to pick up Andrew.

We needed to quick go to Meijier (a local department store) to pick up a shovel and a fork since the one that I was using was borrowed from a friend of mine and returned. On our way, we expressed why we guerilla garden. Andrew expressed because he want to brings awareness to people the importances of knowing where our food come from and how they are made from the soil. He wants to protest against the industrial agriculture of our time with this communal gardens that brings so much more both communal and personal experiences. I do guerilla gardening to take back what should have be our public spaces where we can come and go freely from private ownership. I believe that there should be no wasted private spaces. If one's private space is not being utilize fully or utilize at all, I think that the masses should have the right to utilize such would-be-wasted resource for the benefit of the masses. It was a great communication and I am grateful for it.

We got the shovel and fork in the car and parked it by our garden in downtown in a parking lot... some old spot. But I could not believe it: right when we got out the car, a car with a siren light on top of its roof stopped by us. A policeman like, uniformed man rolled down his passenger window and informed us that this is a private lot. He asked us what was our purpose to be here and asked us nicely to leave. We told him we were only taking pictures around here and that we will leave as he wished. He again lets us know that we should leave and take pictures from the side walk, then he left with his vehicle. He was a security guard for the St. Mary Hospital just across the street and we think our guerilla gardening actions in the past had been noticed with the help of surveillance cameras and that the security guard might had been waiting for us...... WE GOT CAUGHT!!!

What a bummer!!! Our 4 rows of potato and 5 circles of pumpkins is in a private land that we were not suppose to be (like we did not know... we were just hoping no one would stop us...). We think we will just have to come later in the night on another night to avoid the security guard. We will not give up!!! We will take back the space and make it public, make it useful, make it available to all people and their creativity.

After the security guard incident, Andrew quick journal the experience outside of the prohibited public parking lot as I act out what I make the security guard to believe as my purpose to be here: taking pictures. Oh... where is the pen that Andrew was writing with... look more carefully... it is on the roof of the car... it was a four seconds exposure shot... so the pen was on the roof of the car at the beginning of the shot and then during the 4 seconds shot, Andrew picked it up to write... pretty neat... i just discovered it.