6. Ivy McDermott - 3/9/2023 Guerilla Gardening (Free Choice)

    Guerilla gardening is a movement that's becoming increasingly more popular and controversially more frequent on social media. While technically illegal in most cases, guerilla gardening is the act of gardening in a neglected public space. The goal is to reclaim the public space that's pretty ecologically barren, also known as an urban "food desert", and grow something native in its place. It's been around since as early as the 60's and 70's and spurred a lot of communal gardening. It's good to know that our campus has garden plots for rent and there are more community gardens now, but there is still something unnerving about the fact that it is illegal to grow plants and food in some places.

    I once read about how it’s common in some European and Asian cultures to save your seeds and toss them as you go, either by tossing the core of an apple or storing the seeds and drying them in a little container then sprinkling them out the car window or on your walk. In Japan, they have a bean tossing festival for good luck and to scare away spirits. Many places have similar traditions of spreading seeds. While researching, I read about the Silk Road and how many of the fruits and plants that were traded were often enjoyed and discarded along the trail, which thus greatly influenced the landscape. Apple cores were tossed and the two native species crossbred and produced many different kinds of apples that we enjoy today. If you consider guerilla gardening, make sure to plant native; below is a list native to our area:

 https://www.plantvirginianatives.org/plant-southeast-virginia-natives

What Is Guerrilla Gardening? Definition, History, and Examples. (2022, April 4). Treehugger. https://www.treehugger.com/what-is-guerrilla-gardening-5196129

Did You Know? The Role of the Silk Roads in the Cultivation of the Modern Apple | Silk Roads Programme. (n.d.). Did You Know? The Role of the Silk Roads in the Cultivation of the Modern Apple | Silk Roads Programme. https://en.unesco.org/silkroad/content/did-you-know-role-silk-roads-cultivation-modern-apple


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