By Hazel White, Sunset contributor
Surreptitiously planting seeds, bulbs, vegetables, even trees, in public dirt is the new horticultural front-line. Some people do it by night, fearing police or private security might question them, or a neighbor might get mad. At the very least, there’s the risk of someone stealing the plants. Nothing like this has happened to Annie X, though she’s been awfully brazen. A 30-something web designer, horsewoman, daughter of a plant pathologist and a keen gardener, she wanted a garden of her own, so she marched across Pennsylvania St. in San Francisco and started making one, on a wide open stretch of land where traffic exits Hwy 280. That was in December, and what’s happening so far isn’t trouble but an outpouring of community support—with all the plants neighbors are dropping off at this site, the space will soon be lush come spring.
Several West Coast guerilla gardens are listed on the community board of the Guerilla Gardening website, where you can sign up—with a pseudonym of course—and learn how to deploy a seed-bomber.
Hazel White writes the monthly "What to do in Northern California" page for Sunset's Garden section.
