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When Richard Reynolds began planting flowers secretly at night outside his tower block in South London, he had no idea that he was part of a growing global movement committed to combating the forces of neglect, land shortage and apathy towards public spaces. But before long, his blog had attracted other guerrillas from around the world to share their experiences of the horticultural frontline, and is now a focal point for guerrilla gardeners everywhere, with over 4,000 people enlisted as recruits. "On Guerrilla Gardening" is Reynolds' lively, colourful treatise on why people illicitly cultivate land and how to do it yourself. From discreetly beautifying corners of Montreal to striving for green communal space in Berlin and sustainable food production in San Francisco, from Christmas trees on London roundabouts to the political agitations of landless workers in Brazil, Reynolds charts a battle that people worldwide are fighting on many different fronts.Along the way he unearths the movement's notable historic advances by seventeenth-century English radicals, a nineteenth-century American entrepreneur and public-spirited artists in 1970s New York.
Reynolds has researched the subject with guerrilla gardeners from thirty different countries, and compiles their advice on what to grow where, how to cope with adverse environmental conditions, how to seed-bomb effectively, how to harness propaganda to win support and even how to handle anti-terror police. "On Guerrilla Gardening" informs, entertains and inspires. Packed with photographs, anecdotes and sound horticultural advice, it is an irresistible invitation to shoulder your shovel and join the revolution that is blooming in the world's shared spaces.
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