Good morning everyone,

I don't think I've told you this on Fem Fri yet, but I'm between jobs right now so have had plenty of time to read books, see art, and perhaps most importantly, cultivate weird habits. Including a weird habit that has been waiting in the wings of my life for years now; guerrilla gardening. Apparently this is at best semi legal, so please don't call the cops on me if you see any unauthorized cornflowers in South East London.

I've used two techniques, one which I like to believe I developed myself (kicking and scraping at the ground with my boots then adding seeds and kicking and stamping soil on them) and one which is seed bombs. You can buy these at Wilko like I did, Kabloom seems like a pretty good option too, or if you like to save money and are crafty here are many ways to make your own:

http://www.guerrillagardening.org/ggseedbombs.html

Here's an article by Vanessa Harden on how to get started. You'll notice that she's writing #content for Amex, so she says to ask for permission but I bet there are times when she has instead fixed to seek forgiveness. She also makes the point, not in the pullquote, that one could argue that property is theft anyway, which is punchy given the context:

A good guerrilla is always armed (with seedbombs) and ready (to drop them). The easiest, most cost-effective and sustainable way to prepare your own arsenal is to make seedbombs out of seeds from your own garden or from seed swaps, baked into a mix of soil and clay. Make sure the seeds – ideally from native plants – are suitable for the climate and soil prevalent on your chosen battleground. Store them in a dry place to prevent early sprouting, and always carry one or two with you on urban expeditions.

https://www.amexessentials.com/guerrilla-gardening-tips/

Of course this is something that is ideal for people without gardens, but if you have a garden - or, for example, 1,400 hectares of farmland - here's Isabella Tree of Knepp Farm with advice for rewilding at the small to medium scale:

“It goes back again to this theme that seems to be possessing us at the moment, which is connectivity. If you have a back garden, you can persuade your neighbours to cut a hole in the fence or hedgerow, and that becomes a hedgehog highway. If everyone in the street goes pesticide- and herbicide-free, and perhaps one person can have a pond, another a beetle bank, then suddenly you’ve got a chain of habitats that becomes really significant.”

https://www.resurgence.org/magazine/article5860-connecting-our-landscape.html

Much love,

Alex xx.