Calling Guerilla Gardeners--Experienced and New!

At one time the City installed large, beautiful rugosa rose and daylily gardens across from the St. Mary's Basilica and in the green spaces along Loring Park Business strip going towards Loring Park. For those familiar with the City of Minneapolis, this area is truly one of the gateways to to Downtown. Near the Walker Art Museum, the Sculpture Garden, 3 historic and architecturally beautiful churches, and 2 schools of higher education, this is arguably one of the primary culture centers of the City if not the region.

Following a cut water line during a construction project and a diminished budget, the City stopped maintaining these gardens. Even though the plants here would typically be tough enough to withstand the climate and well-trafficked environment, without any care or attention provided for some period of time...well, look at the result. In addition to the dead plants and weeds depicted in the photos, what can't be seen is the litter captured by these dead gardens.

Two Minneapolis guerilla gardeners and green space advocates have been working with the City for the past eight months to gain cooperation and permission in cleaning up these gardens. It has been slow-going process. We have decided that this project is worthy enough that we will go ahead and start the clean-up this spring, even if the City isn't quite ready for us. It will be a big job and we need help!

We know the help is out there! Guerilla Gardeners, experienced and new, far and near--leave a comment letting us know how to contact you. We will notify you when we schedule dates to cut, pull and clean. Good times will be had!

MFD Station 11

One of my favorite guerrilla gardens is at MFD Station 11. There is a large container on the lawn there which was originally a handwash station like those found in grade schools in years past. I speculate that it came from the old Marcy Open School one block away at the time the old school was demolished...but that is just speculation.

When I first discovered this site it was being gardened by a neighbor lady named Florence. Gardening this container was Florence's way of giving back the the firemen from Station 11 who were the first responders when Florence's husband suffered a fatal heart attack at home.

This is such a fabulous site for public space gardening and I kept an eye on it for two years waiting for a time when it might become available for a new gardener. I took it over two seasons ago after I realized that Florence didn't come and one of the captains was plunking in marigolds around the edges to keep it looking somewhat presentable.

The one thing that makes this the ideal location is there is access to a water right on the side of the building! No lugging water jugs or hoses here.

I also love the size of it. I'm guessing it is 48" across...so much room for creativity. The firemen and neighbors don't engage too much with this garden, but I know they do appreciate it. In this photo you can see a small flag at the front right side of the container. One of the firemen tucked it in there for the 4th of July a couple summers ago.

Containers are great for practicing design skills and for experimenting with the habits of annuals.

Last year my intention was to create a garden that was a conceptual representation of a fire. I was kinda-sorta successful...

Soon I will be working on a design for this space for this spring. It will be the first stop on my guerrilla circuit...gotta get there before anybody else beats me to it!

When the snow is on the roses...

Recently I came across this photo of a snow-dusted guerrilla garden in London. The hope and anticipation that lies beneath! What would the gardener of this lush space think of Foreclosure Park in its present state:


Every rose bush at Foreclosure Park is under this pile of snow. The Ole, the Lena, my special Cary Grant Hybrid Tea, and the random additions whose names I've forgotten or never knew. They were carefully mulched with marsh hay before being tucked in for the winter, and I know they are cozy and warm under all of this. But what other damage might have they endured?

Foreclosure Park, as you will recall, is positioned between three streets. In addition there is public sidewalk down two sides of the park and a public housing apartment building across the street with sidewalks that also need to be cleared...all that snow. It has to go somewhere.


Even with that understanding, it is at times discouraging to see the damage wrought upon the park; not by vandals or careless neighbors, but by city employees doing their jobs. Note the
frozen snake of hose coiled on this mountain of snow. That's the 3/4" industrial grade hose purchased only last year. The extra investment was made with the intent that the hose would be in place for many years to come, running from the fire hydrant, down the storm drain on one side of the street, underneath , then coming out the storm drain on the other side.


Alas! Duration of the hose was short. Last fall, a week before the water permit expired, I suspect it was an overzealous water works person who cut the hose from the hydrant. There was, afterall, a certain professionalism about the cut, and the claimed calls of reports from 9-1-1 and 3-1-1 announcing the watery demise of the hose could not be verified. In my discouragement, I will admit I did not run the hose back down the drain for protection from further winter damage, and merely left it coiled on the boulevard. It was then caught by the tines of the machine used to clear the walk...slashed, punctured and tossed aside.


Guerrilla gardens are subject to more harsh treatment than private gardens. Because of the damage they incur, they take more effort to maintain. But they bring, in equal measure, more joy and delight than any private garden I've ever maintained. And for that reason, when spring does come, I will buy another hose--3/4" industrial yes!--and hoping for the best, I will uncover the Cary Grant Hybrid Tea, and reveal all that is enduring and new beneath those warming mountains of frozen snow.

In the beginning...

Once upon a time there was a garden in a little park tucked away between three streets and two little neighborhoods in Northeast Minneapolis. There were neighbors who installed a lovely winding path through the park using granite blocks. They built a raised bed bordered with the same granite blocks. There was a man who provided water from his home in order to help the garden grow. Neighbors who were gardeners came and took care of the gardens in the park. Then the man who provided the water from his house died. Without water, it was difficult for the neighbors to care for the garden and after awhile the gardens died, too. Over time, the garden went to weeds and wild flowers.Difficult economic times came and some people in the city began to lose their homes to foreclosure. One woman in the neighborhood was losing her home and needed a place to move her perennials to places they could be cared for. She found the raised bed in the park. It looked like this:
Across the street from the park was a fire hydrant, and with permission from the Park Board to take care of the Park, and $80 to pay for a water permit, the woman was set to move plants into the Park. The Park Board has a rule that no chemicals to kill weeds or bugs may be used on Park property, so all the weeds had to be removed by hand. After years of neglect, this took many, many hours. Finally, after two growing seasons, the Park looks like this:

There are many, many different types of plants in the Park. Alot of them came from the woman's gardens at the home she lost. Others were rescued from properties on which the houses were going to be demolished. That is why the woman sometimes calls this place Foreclosure Park.