New Haven Independent

Guerilla Gardeners Strike

by Ben Johnson | May 26, 2009 11:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (16)

The three urban guerrillas scouted their targets. They made their bombs from an online recipe. As they propped their bicycles against the fence of an overgrown city lot, they were ready to strike.

Bam! A dozen balls of moist clay and flower seeds flew through the air over the barbed wire and found their mark.

The eco-friendly attack took place Sunday in vacant lots in the Dixwell and Newhallville neighborhoods.

They were carried out by three ‘guerrilla gardeners’”: ‘Freed Seeds’ group founder Lisa Anamasi and friends Kim Mikenis and Kevin Van Aelst.

They lobbed a total of over 100 “seed bombs” into vacant lots, including lots near the intersections of Dixwell and Lake, Henry, Munson and Goodrich Streets. Anamasi said this was the group’s first mission, with more to come, though she said participation in the planning phases had not been as strong has she had hoped.

“I did a scouting,” she said. “My intention is to go around the whole city eventually,. But I started with just Newhallville. I waited for a half hour at the meeting place, but nobody showed up so I just headed out by myself. Then two friends of mine who knew about it came out and met me and rode along the rest of the way.”

Anamasi said she picking spots where she thinks the seeds will have the greatest chance of sprouting and growing undisturbed.

“What I did the other night,” she said, “was I made little blue routes of streets and areas that I thought we should visit without actually going there yet, but just knowing the city, and then when I went out on the ride I took the red marker to mark off little lots that I noticed are fenced-in and weedy, but they seemed like nobody’s taking care of them. Fenced in lots that seemed kind of trashy but someone seemed to be mowing I didn’t count, because anything that came up was just going to get mowed down.”

The recipe for the seed bombs themselves, she said, came from an online video. The materials came from friends.

“It’s a mixture of clay that I got from a potter friend of mine and compost and seeds and water,” she said.

The seeds came pre-mixed from a friend who listed over 30 varieties, to which she added giant sunflowers and marigolds.

Though the first mission went according to plan, Anamasi said she is not a veteran guerilla gardening leader. She said she hopes future seed bombings will draw more participants.

“This is the first time that I’ll be a part of anything like this,” she said.

For now, Anamasi said, she was hoping to recruit more guerrilla gardeners through the Freed Seeds Facebook group.

Then it will be a matter of watching and waiting to see whether the seed bombs explode as planned, or fizzle.

As they went home for the day, Van Aelst and Mikenis placed one remaining seed bomb on a patch of open ground visible from their front porch. They plan to watch it for signs that some of the dozens of seeds inside it — and, hopefully, the other seed bombs as well — were taking root

“We’ll just hope for the best, hope for some rain,” Van Aelst said.

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Comments

Posted by: Townie | May 26, 2009 11:26 AM

These people have too much time on their hands.

Posted by: Streever | May 26, 2009 11:43 AM

Nice work anamasi :)

Posted by: juli | May 26, 2009 12:31 PM

i was sad to miss this! count me in for next time!

ps: "what's a sesame seed grow into? i don't know, we never give them a chance..."
-mitch hedburg

Posted by: Moira | May 26, 2009 1:15 PM

I am all for guerrilla gardening! If more citizens became caretakers of vacant, neglected, and even designated open space, the city would ideally be able to put their resources into other issues worth addressing.

This is a great book: http://www.amazon.com/Guerrilla-Gardening-Handbook-Without-Boundaries/dp/1596914491/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1243357942&sr=8-1

I'm reading it now and I love it. I've got my eye on a few spots around town, too. Kudos to Anamasi and co.!

Posted by: abg | May 26, 2009 1:21 PM

may i suggest a motto: "seed bombs not bombs"

Posted by: norton street | May 26, 2009 2:25 PM

these lots need homes, not flowers.

Posted by: TS | May 26, 2009 2:34 PM

It can be argued that someone taking the time to comment post comments like "These people have too much time on their hands" have too much time on their hands.

That being said, I now have no spare time to make my own seed bombs.

Posted by: Streever | May 26, 2009 4:21 PM

Norton Street:
Go build the homes, then? there must be something more productive you can do than post negative comments on every NHI story, right?

The polite thing to do would be to at least acknolwedge that these people are doing the best they can with their time, resources, & energy to improve the city.

Posted by: Bruce | May 26, 2009 4:35 PM

Nice work! My neighbor could use a few of these bombs in his grown-over lot. I find it hilarious that people actually criticize others for using their spare time to do something good for the community.

Posted by: anon | May 26, 2009 5:56 PM

How is pointing out the tragedy of empty lots a "negative" comment? Seems positive to me -- just like the people biking around and getting the NHI to do a story on weed-strewn lots and seed bombs, someone posting on the NHI is just trying to raise awareness of urban disinvestment.

They share the same goal -- and both are likely to have a long-term impact.

Criticizing other posters for their posts is the only thing that is completely useless and ineffective. Let's talk about ideas here instead.

Posted by: 245539912 | May 26, 2009 7:34 PM

These people remind me of the smug couple who built an eco-friendly house using American chestnut from my grandparents' foreclosed home. If the class war breaks out, fortunately the proletariat should have little trouble routing a bourgeoisie armed with these seed bombs.

Posted by: Streever | May 26, 2009 8:03 PM

Anon,
Criticizing people DOING THINGS in the community is the completely useless and ineffective thing.

Hey, by the way, I won our bet. Gas isn't 18/gallon. Where are my new bike tires at?

Posted by: Wicked Lester | May 27, 2009 8:06 AM

I once grew pumpkins by tossing an old one in my garden from the third floor. Just sayin'

Posted by: jack | May 27, 2009 9:55 AM

way cool! wish I had gone

Posted by: William Kurtz | May 27, 2009 10:41 AM

A comment could be considered 'negative' when it does little else than minimize someone's sincere effort to add a little beauty to the world, or make a concrete contribution, no matter how small. And for what it's worth, is it the 'tragedy of empty lots' or the 'beauty of open space?'

Posted by: norton street | May 27, 2009 12:22 PM

i landscape yards in edgewood, west river, beaver hills, east rock, westville, newhallville and fair haven heights. i turn grass into gardens with brick and stone walkways that only need occasional mulching and weeding instead of weekly mowing. ive planted 13 trees (4 from school-based activities) in the city. i helped turned vacant lots in the hill and newhallville into homes with habitat for humanity. i dont throw seed bombs, i get on my hand and knees and change the landscape. there are designated places for open space that were already laid out by the city planners of the past who have an infinitely better understanding of urban design than anybody nowadays. west rock park, east rock park, beaver hills park, and fairmont park need dedicated people to make these places destinations for city dwellers looking for refuge from the city environment. turning building lots into anything other than buildings gets us further from a dense, populated, and cohesive city that needs large open spaces like parks and gets us closer to being a separated, suburban, and backwards town. why this group does what it does is good, how and where they do it is where i have a problem.

Guerilla Gardeners Strike

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