The Guardian in the UK have recently started up a new topical gardening podcast series with hosts Alys Fowler and Jane Perrone called, “Sow, Grow, Repeat.” Last week I was a guest on their second episode on the topic of Gardening Without a Garden.
Until recently, I did not have a “proper” space in which to garden. My first “successful” food garden was grown over 20 years ago when I was a University student living in a house with a bunch of other students. That summer we dug up the small, neglected backyard and managed to grow food without the benefit of experience or having picked up a single book! Obviously there were some serious flops, but there were also unexpected successes. I had absolutely no income for the month before school started up that fall and somehow managed to survive by eating almost exclusively from that garden!
From there I moved into an apartment building with a very hot and unforgiving rooftop deck. Over the 16 years that I lived there I was able, through a series of failures and successes, to get a handle on growing primarily edible crops in pots without the benefit of an outdoor water source. During that time I expanded my tiny urban garden empire by digging up the gnarled and abused patch of dirt that sat between the wall of the building and the street. For want of a better term, this was my Guerilla Garden, and the one we spoke of most in the podcast. I also found space in a small and hidden local community garden, and in my last year there was able to grow in an unused portion of a nearby backyard aka yardshare.
Since then I have moved into a house with a small, bowling alley yard. It is, for the most part a “proper” gardening space, and I will admit that it feels luxurious to be growing in terra firma without worrying about Saturday night partygoers peeing on the plants or tearing out the roses. These days the most damage I can expect when I step out into the garden each morning are a few cat poops and a handful of fruit lost to the urban critters that live here too.
Like many urban dwellers, I don’t own the house or the yard. It is a rental, and for that reason it shares a looming sense of transience and insecurity with my previous gardens. I think this is a quality that is lost to the Garden World, especially here in North America where so much of the media is still very focussed on gardeners of a certain, definable class or marketable demographic. That someone could put so much into a space that may be pulled out from underneath them at any moment seems improbable. And yet here we are, growing where we’re not supposed to and doing it in what seems (at least from the outside) on an illogical scale. My reasoning is this: I only have this one life to live and I may never own land. I simply must grow plants. As I described in the podcast, it is an impulse. I don’t think about it. It is as basic as breathing and eating. I need to do it. As my maturity as a gardener evolves, there are experiences that I want to have. So I go all in, hoping that the rug won’t be pulled out from underneath me and that I can handle the heartbreak if it does. And if it does, that I am resourceful enough to eke out a growing space wherever it is that I may land, and that I have the tenacity of spirit to start over again knowing that it too may end in heartbreak.
I think this is, in part, what the Guerilla Garden prepared me for. I experienced countless heartbreaks over the years there, yet whenever I thought I’d had enough and couldn’t continue on… I did. I had to get out there again, despite knowing firsthand that anything could happen. I suppose you could say this is preparation for life, isn’t it?
Beautifully written. Just what I needed to read today. I will refer to this post often. My yard appears to be bigger than yours (though I do have to dedicate some space for kid’s playthings), and I find myself complaining way too often about my lack of space. I love how you emphasize the simple need: I must grow plants. Wherever I land. I feel the same way.
Wonderful article. As a gardener, I have experienced many of the situations that you described. I found that at an early age I simply had to play in the soil and grow plants. It seemed basic, natural and therapeutic. I found challenges, surprises, peace, my inner child, solitude, answers to difficult situations and many other situations that paralleled life.
Very well written. I will be sharing
Judy-May Roberts
It wasn’t until 3 years ago that I had my own ‘real’ space to garden, but before that I spent from 2002-2010 gardening in on apartment balconies and other rental homes via a pot ghetto, and then 2011 & 2012 via community gardens. A little piece of me was left with each place I gardened and I miss many of the plants I gave away or sold when we moved from Florida to Texas.
Looking forward to listening to the podcast, I really miss the one you started last summer.
Beautiful piece! I’m so glad you talked about those of us who rent and move around and still manage to grow plants (and ourselves!). A few years ago I put a lot of effort into building a trellis of reclaimed wood and converting large plastic bins into self-watering containers for my deck and had a great harvest only to have to move the following year. I still have those containers and am bringing them with me in yet another move. Hopefully I’ll be able to stay put for a while and make good use of the lovely new deck and expand to the grounds below where other tenants seem to growing things.
And thank goodness for community gardens!
Growing plants = hope.
Well written. So fundamental – I must grow plants!! You are so right.
This writing resonates with me because I tend to be the kind of person who postpones doing what I really want because time/money/you-name-it aren’t perfectly in order.
I wish I have a little garden. I grow tomatoes and flowers where I can. This year I used my friends garden and my windowsill. My tomatoes and cucumbers are big enough now and they give me a lot of pleasure.
Thank you for this post. It gives me much comfort and hope for the future. Knowing other people have done similar things and that I am not alone in having such feelings is a relief to say the least.
I became a gardener when I realized that cooking with herbs (rosemary, thyme, parsley, oregano, fennel…etc) made the food so much better. I started growing herbs. I was new to gardening and didn’t have much space. I also wasn’t as successful as I imagined I would be.
I then moved, and had even less space to garden. During that time, I started reading about gardening, educating myself, so when the time came I would know how. Even though I didn’t have the space I was still thinking and planning for a future garden.
And then something wonderful happened! The church right next to my apartment complex announced they were building a community garden! Now, I have a 5 by 10 raised bed in a community garden, growing herbs, veggies, and flowers. I believe gardening is possible even without a garden. Sometimes you just have to dream.
I love the idea of Guerilla Gardening, but my local council, ‘Not so much’. It’s the fear that someone will eat a poisoned apple and sue the council, which in reality is utterly ridiculous.
Recently a local street gardener had an awesome crop growing and was told to turn the patch into grass because occasionally the wind would carry the straw mulch onto the path. Surely this was no more a hazard than the cracked pavement only a few yards further on.
Sorry to make this comment about guerilla gardening but you touched a raw nerve. Fruit trees in street plantings, ‘yes’.
I hear we have a global food shortage, but in reality we don’t have enough gardeners making the decisions.