Guerilla Gardening or just caring for the lane?

It has been ten years like it. A mass of brambles, ivy and wild rose, growing from the land bordering the lane and over our wooden fence. Our fence had broken and, in repairing it, I discovered a beautiful old stone wall. It was then I decided something had to be done. The only problem was, it was not our land.

Clearing away the brambles took some time. As people passed up and down the lane, almost everyone stopped and talked. ‘The council should have done it’, they would say or ‘You’ve got quite a job there.’ And I was thinking what can we do with this piece of land? We were doing a permaculture course at the time and had begun to think about stacking and succession. So first off we planted some fruit trees, then in front and between some redcurrant bushes, and artichokes, beans, peas, even a few cabbages, sunflowers and then we spread a few packets of wild flower seeds.

The effect has been amazing. not just in terms of its looks but its effect on our neighbours. As each different thing has come into flower it has been like a silent firework display. Everyone comments positively. One said, ‘You don’t know how much pleasure this gives me every time I walk past’.

And for us it has been just magic.

One guy stopped and said, ‘Are those fruit trees?’ Hearing that they were, he went on, ‘But I could just take the fruit.’
‘Yes you could’, we said, and smiled.

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