Warfare Not Wallflowers: Guerrilla Gardeners Go to Westminster

Alongside the 'Stop Shopping Choir' who kick start the occupation on May 1, a guerrilla gardening flashmob aims to "reclaim the commons" in what's been described by Occupy Democracy as an event "exposing the corporate capture of our political system." 

"This is where the political conversations that matter will take place this May. This is where we build alternatives for change. This is what democracy looks like."

Throwing Seed Bombs

Professor Peter Larkham from Birmingham City University has studied how and why people choose to plant flowers on unused and neglected urban land — often when they don't have the legal right to do so.

Larkham's book, co-written with Mike Hardmen, and titled 'The Secret Lives of Guerrilla Gardeners', is based on a collection of interviews and observations of a group of guerrilla gardeners from the Midlands. According to Larkham, "Guerrilla gardening is an international phenomenon.

Those involved take part for a number of reasons, from brightening up their neighborhoods to using gardening as a form of political protest."

And while the idea that brightening up disused and derelict spaces with flowers to enhance the community might be construed as a pretty and pleasant one, according to Martin Allen, a botanical surveyor and artist:

"Guerrilla gardening in the UK is a sign of failure; a sign that the local community is not functioning properly; that citizens are not talking to elected local councilors; that local people feel isolated. It's not a solution."

Meanwhile, the guerrilla gardeners taking root on Parliament Square, carrying their seeds from common land to the House of Commons, suggests they are no wallflower.