UK Guerilla Gardener encourages local projects

Media Release

14th February 2013

UK Guerilla Gardener Richard Reynolds encourages local projects

Richard Reynolds, a British advocate on guerilla gardening will be speaking to local businesses and residents (Wednesday 3rd April) about the Guerilla Gardening movement which is changing public and political perception in the UK.

Reynolds’ trip to Auckland is in association with the British Council and Auckland City Council’s Edible Garden project which showcased examples of urban edible gardens amongst city concrete, using principles based on permaculture.

Reynolds began guerrilla gardening ten years ago in his Elephant and Castle neighbourhood in London. He has since created gardens throughout this area in London as well as in Beirut, Prague, Moscow and parts of Africa. He is the author of On Guerilla Gardening, which traces the history of guerilla gardening along with details on how to do it.

Guerilla gardening is about gardening in public places where neglected orphaned land is under-utilized, overgrown or just left to decay. The guerrilla approach is to garden without asking however Reynolds insists this is: “pragmatically appropriate albeit gently provocative.”

“I hope that as this way of gardening grows and the appreciation of space in which to garden increases the need to be guerrilla will fade as people, particularly those of the public realm, appreciate that a space can be maintained more effectively (both in cost and as a distinctive aesthetic or productive space) by local people,” says Reynolds.

In fact in the UK Reynolds has endorsements from HRH Camilla Duchess of Cornwall, and the Government’s Big Society Concept is also in tune with the guerrilla gardening approach where people are being involved hands on in their community rather than paying someone else to take care of it via their taxes.

Recently Reynolds’ activity was successful in changing perceptions about how to involve local people in the public realm with the Lambeth Council in the UK developing a scheme called Fresh View. Partly inspired by Reynolds’ work and discussions this scheme empowers local people to pimp their pavements.

Richard Reynolds will be speaking at BizDojo, Co Space on K Rd, Auckland on Wednesday April 3rd from 6-8pm. Event is free.

For more information: http://piyn.net/events/edible-gardens/

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