Bronx/Houston Guerrillas

Above: Moira demonstrates throwing a seed bomb on my roof, 2008

One summer, I saw a flowering wild red Columbine growing out of a tiny crack between an industrial building and a sidewalk, along a mostly barren section of 138th street in the Bronx. The sight was striking and memorable.

Guerrilla gardening (covertly planting in cracks found in pavement, in empty lots, and anywhere else soil collects) is a widespread underground/alternative practice in cities internationally.

Many people sow and plant in public places, under cover of darkness, to avoid confrontations with authorities and possible trespassing charges. Seed bombing fenced-off empty lots is now a widespread activity, and there are even several pre-made seed bombs commercially available.

However, it is criminalized in New York City to plant anything in the square tree pit spaces commonly inset in sidewalks (even those without trees) without first obtaining a forestry permit.

There are individuals already engaged in this practice in the South Bronx. One person has cultivated all the boxes and backyards up and down her block without permission, and is now eyeing the empty lot next door as another site for gardening. I’ve seen in previous summers corn growing in strange places, and wildflowers miraculously growing in an empty lot where there was trash before.

I am most interested in the temporary or extremely fragile “garden”— one that is somewhere unexpected, where plant survival is not guaranteed, such as in the cracks and pockets in sidewalks. These gardens are invisible to those who are not looking for them.

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Twenty-five years from now we must utilize all available space in the city to grow our own food. With less petroleum available to transport food from far away places, the South Bronx will be greener, and it will also be easier to breathe, as the nearby Hunts Point wholesale food markets will no longer bring diesel truck traffic into the area. Asthma will be eradicated as a preventable health problem, much like rickets was in post industrial revolution London. 

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