UK: Fruit, wildflowers, insects: the people transforming disused land in England
From community allotments to wildlife havens, guerilla gardeners are taking it upon themselves to create meaningful spaces
By Mattha Busby
Guardian
Oct 11, 2023
Excerpt:
There was once an overgrown strip of unclaimed land on the coast of Kent by the side of a road, festooned with nondescript shrubs and peppered with brambles and nettles. It was not likely to have brought cheer to passersby.
Then a group of local women got together and planted fruit trees, strawberries, rhubarb, vegetables and lavender, as well as self-seeding flowers and bushes. When they ran out of space, they started planting on the other side of the road.
“It has had a big impact,” says Vicky Knight, a council officer who effectively became a guerrilla gardener when she led the efforts to transform the unclaimed 50 sq-metre area that runs down the side of her home in a Whitstable village into a community garden.
“So many people tell me how much they love it and how much it has inspired them to do something themselves.”
Knight says she has raised hundreds of pounds for a local food bank by selling some of the plants, which she uproots before planting and nurturing others.
