Guerrilla Gardener

Like the narrators commentary. Erm, is this for real? If it is, how is it funded again? I missed that bit!

this is patronising middle-class pretentious rubbish of the worst kind. i didn''t hear a single hackney accent among these so-called "guerillas" - "i think we need colour, shrubs" - how about decent health care, jobs? and the oh-so-witty narrator''s references to drugs and crime - not clever in a borough which suffers from drug-fueled gun violence. awful.

Great to see this film go live on the website now. There''s been a good response in my inbox (richard@guerrillagardening.org). But I was sorry to see the response from Deekdeekster below here. It made me realise that in this short film there are a few loose ends. These need clearing up. First the accusation that this is middle class pretentious rubbish... well there are no "Hackney accents" (I take it Deek means a working class voice) amongst these local people beacuse this dig is in the heart of a rapidly gentrifying area of Old Street with lots of posh sounding middle class types buying up tiny flats and itching to have space to garden. Regan Way borders a depressed council estate. The people who turned up to a dig are just the people who hear about it on the website and are happy to come and help. Virtually all of them came from the local area, walking or cycling, and David and Kate (who spotted it and asked for help) live less than a minute away. I''m not that far away just south of the river. Yes we''re middle class, but that needn''t stop us gardening in our local public space. I''ve spoken to a dozen or so strongly accented residents of the council estate and they are delighted about the flowers but were sadly not interested in helping out because they couldn''t see the point of it, they were convinced it would be destroyed in less than a day. So, when I returned yesterday (more than two weeks after the event) I was glad to see it was just as it appears at the end of the film (better actually, because things have been growing). I met again one of the sceptical residents and he positively glowed from seeing evidence that his street was not as bad as he feared! As for funding health care instead of plants, well I like you do my bit for decent health care by paying taxes. Councils best focus on stuff like that too, doing things that individuals can''t really do well like providing public transport etc. In other areas of traditional civic responsibility I think individuals can do more to help - that''s where guerrilla gardeners come in - sorting out neglected urban space because we like gardening and councils make it a very low priority. The gardening here was paid for by donations from local people like David - who filmed the event - he put in #150 and fund raising. Not a single penny of tax payers money went into it. So Deekdeekster cheer up, please don''t sneer and go and do some guerrilla gardening yourself if you''re not already up to it in your own way. Thank you for reading this far.

Great comments! I''m the producer of this film and it''s good to get feedback. We felt that a classless struggle to make the world a better place was something worth filming. This kind of ''grassroots'' campaigning is definitely where it''s at, and thanks to Richard the Guerrilla Gardener there is now a small part of Hackney that is brighter and more colourful than it was two weeks ago. All the local residents love it.
As for one of the comments below - I''m horrified at being called ''middle class''. As everyone who knows me will tell you, I''m about as upper class as they come, as we all are here at Green Lions (greenlions.com).
Many thanks, ''tally-ho'', and please keep an eye out for our next film - coming soon to Current TV!
Baron von Ashley de la Green Lions
xx

I have been gardening with this man and he deserves a medal.

Great video , Can we have some more please. How do i join this fun group? We need to brighten up our surroundings, This seems like the right way. Well done Keep it up.

In response to deekdeekster....

I think you''ve missed the whole point of this one. Whlie the narrator might not have been local to Hackney, this particular site was nominated by someone who lived close by and wanted to do something for her local area. She might not have led the dig, but she''s taken on responsibility for looking after this new garden.

Guerrilla gardening is about everyone looking after their local space. Its a volunteer activity that isn''t funded by the council (who is busy dealing with education and health, as you mention).

As well as the benefits of the garden itself, guerrilla gardening a great way to meet new people, and is more interesting than sitting at home watching telly and cheaper and better for you than going out drinking.

Take a friend along - I bet you''ll have a great time.

cheers

Even the Washington Post is hip to the Guerrilla Gardening movement.

This woman took over a public elevator for a day...pretty awesome.