Monday, May 24, 2010

Guerrilla Gardening

Cup of Joe introduced me to Pete Dungey late last week. He's a design student in London who's taken it upon himself to fill potholes in Britain with these lovely gardens. As so much art is, this is not just lovely it's also a social commentary. In this case it's meant to highlight the problem of surface imperfections on the roads.
Pete Dungey: pothole gardens
Aren't they cheery? On his site he's encouraged people to plant their own pothole gardens as a sort of group art project. There are some monster potholes in the parking lot at my work that would benefit greatly from a pansy or two.
As I began to research Mr. Dungey, I was introduced to the topic of "guerrilla gardening". Throughout the world there are groups of people taking it upon themselves to plant flowers or produce in mostly public spaces. Wikipedia has a great explanation of it with links to a handful of other sites where you can familiarize yourself with the different groups. The Los Angeles Guerrilla Gardeners had some great before and after shots of their projects.
Guerrilla Gardening in LA
Isn't that great? What a cool idea.

4 comments:

  1. Wow. Guerrilla Gardening is such a great idea! What a fantastic way to make a statement. I wonder if cars would just run over the beautiful pothole gardens in our work parking lot if we made them.

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  2. Yes. They most definitely would. Oh Rockford.

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  3. Have you guys seen the people who are spreading around the seed bomb vending machines? Supposedly you can request one in a densely populated area.

    http://yovia.com/blogs/customlosangelesvending/2010/04/27/seed-bomb-vending-machine/?gcid=yovia59

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  4. Wow David! That's awesome! Thanks for sharing that link.

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