Guerrilla gardening

[Troppoz]

Is anyone a comrade??

Ive been quietly nurturing my local streetscape for years now and I know Im not the only one who enjoys the results. I have conversations with lots of people who comment about how green and shady the area is, so its not purely a selfish indulgence. This time of the year the yellow flame trees (Peltophorum pterocarpum) I planted along the street 15 years ago are in full bloom and feeding flocks of lorikeets and honeyeaters giving good shade as well. It would be a very different street without them...

My latest mission is to plant 5 banyans in my nearby park. Council havent been very proactive in re-planting trees that have been blown down in severe weather and the park has less than half the trees it did 15 years ago. Ive spoken to the council about replanting and got a non-committal indifferent response, so as always, its up to the citizen militia!

With the wet season ramping up nice and early tonight is the night to strike! Ive got tubestock of the Moreton Bay fig (Ficus macrophylla), Port Jackson fig (F. rubiginosa), small leafed fig (F. obliqua), nipple fig (F. watkinsiana) and the cedar fig (F. superba var. henneana), all large shady native banyan trees with buttressed aerial roots and lots of fruit for birds and possums. The park is so hot at the moment most of the day it is unusable with the temperatures around 34c daily, some dense cool shade will be welcomed by all. The weedy bloody grass that leaves seeds in your socks and blinds dogs will eventually be shaded out meaning council dont have to pay someone to mow the park, everyone wins!

Its 10.22pm, Ill wait until 1am before initiating the operation. Ive got the seedlings, the fertiliser tablets, mulch, watering can and mattock on standby. Weather looks good with possible morning showers and then solid rain all next week so they should settle in well...


Anyone else undertake their share of covert landscaping ops?

[Conifers]

I've put a fair few trees in my local park, some survive and do OK , others get hit by council monkeys on their mowers . . .

[Blairs]

I grow native UK trees from seed and plant them all over my local town. I have always grown natives...think it came from conquers germinating when I was young. When taking my kids to nursery it is nice to see the trees that I grew growing - all just me going out with wips/trees and planting them where I feel. Sometimes they get taken out but mostly they stay in place.

[redsquirrel]

theres thousands of tra chy seeds sewn by me in various places around sw uk

[GREVILLE]

Old habits die hard, Sean. I seem to remember you were doing this last year. You'll get that rain forest up and running yet

[fern Rob]

I would like to germinate some native tree seeds.

[jungle jas]

theres thousands of tra chy seeds sewn by me in various places around sw uk

Red I would like to do the same up here with waggies, i sourced some seed from Canada but failed to get them to germinate, I think the seed must have been old! Have you or any one else for that matter ever found a good sauce of UK waggie seeds? If so please let me know. I wating to get started.

[Panama Pete]

Why would you plant on land thats not your garden.

[redsquirrel]

easy,you get to see the plants without having to buy more land to grow them.
im not talking about other peoples front gardens mind,only ground that never gets any attention. if the plants get nicked,so what,i shouldnt have done it in the first place.
i was a bit naughty one night though,had the bright idea of covering tescos carpark beds with hundreds of them. thankfully i never to this day saw one seedling.
i have used some dunes in cornwall to see how they germinate in sand,not very well i might add but have about 6 plants i germinated down there.also a holiday complex i worked at could be blessed with hundreds of the palms if they sprouted there,cant see what harm it does in unattended areas so long as its not stuff like knotweed


one of my neighbours dug out a border full of acanthus mollis and dumped the waste on the banks of a foothpath next to his house,that looks great during the summer now but not one for my garden

[redsquirrel]

theres thousands of tra chy seeds sewn by me in various places around sw uk

Red I would like to do the same up here with waggies, i sourced some seed from Canada but failed to get them to germinate, I think the seed must have been old! Have you or any one else for that matter ever found a good sauce of UK waggie seeds? If so please let me know. I wating to get started.

i had a batch of waggie seeds too with very poor results.7 out of 200 maybe?
not all trachycarpus seeds are easy,princeps is a right pig.
perhaps source a good supplier together??

[jungle jas]

I admit to doing a bit this year, I live down a half mile private farm road and decided to make it a bit more exotic! Unfortunately not as easy as it sounds due to an excess of SHEEP ( they don't keep them in fields up here, they just let them roam). This means you can only plant things out of reach of sheep, such places are few and far between!!!! I did find one spot where someone had blasted the road through a small rock hill leaving unclimbable vertical sides with a few cracks and crevices. With the aid of a ladder I managed to find a few planting holes. I planted 11 palm seedlings of the following varieties. Trachys both fortunei and waggie, Chamearops, Jubaea, Phoenix, Livistona Chinensis, Brahea and Washie. It will be interesting to see if any survive the winter as they are only seedlings. I also wonder if they have the roots for the job,the oak trees do it successfully but I'm not shure palm roots have the strength to force their way through the cracks in the rocks, Time will tell. If it works I shall have a gorgeous gorge, or at least some one else will, which I have to drive through.

[stephenprudence]

I wouldn't plant Trachycarpus seedling around, simply because they take so long to grow into mature stage. Something a little more fast growing perhaps, that can develop into a worthwhile plant before it get weeded out by someone.

I do have the want to plant some small exotic succulents like Deloperma, Lamprantus etc, in people cracks in their walls (road side not garden side), in order to make it look prettier. Besides, Campanula isophylla is everywhere on walls, and that's not native.

[jungle jas]

theres thousands of tra chy seeds sewn by me in various places around sw uk

Red I would like to do the same up here with waggies, i sourced some seed from Canada but failed to get them to germinate, I think the seed must have been old! Have you or any one else for that matter ever found a good sauce of UK waggie seeds? If so please let me know. I wating to get started.

i had a batch of waggie seeds too with very poor results.7 out of 200 maybe?
not all trachycarpus seeds are easy,princeps is a right pig.
perhaps source a good supplier together??

Sounds good to me If I find a reliable source, you will be the first to know. I think it my be difficult to find pure seed as there are not many waggie stands about without fortunei being close by, and I don't want crossbreeds.

[miketropic]

how hardy are those figs? doubt there good over here in my areas since I've never seen any

[stephenprudence]

deciduous figs are pretty hardy.. down to -20C or even -25C? Im guessing like a lot of Mediterranean/Middle eastern plants that if frost hits the flowers though then the fruiting season won't be great, however even after an appauling March here, most figs in the area seems in good fruit this year.