Damn, wish I'd thought of this

Guerrilla Gardeners Attack Empty Flyer Boxes With Minty Goodness

by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 06. 3.09

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Buzz up!

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It makes me crazy to learn about great things in the city where I live from Inhabitat,, but here is is: Posterchild, a Toronto guerrilla gardener and street artist, who occupies empty flyer boxes. The weapon of choice is mint: “Mint is maybe the Guerrilla plant. It is hardy, aggressive, and grows quickly. It spreads like crazy.”

Previous attacks involved Thai Basil:

decorative AND delicious. I know that the Internet is bad at conveying odours but you’ll have to trust me when I say that this box smelled amazing. A quick brush of your hand would impart a powerful fragrance. A nice thing to find on the stinky street! This is the first time that I’ve used a herb in my guerrilla gardening, and I really think I should use more. I like the potential functionality of herbs.

Posterchild notes an interesting phenomenon:

It’s sad, but as of yesterday, all of the planters that I’ve featured on the site so far have been removed. Why? I can’t say. I suspect that the box-owners are enforcing their territory, making rounds or complaints, maybe claims of safety issues. Who knows? But I hope that they were taken by garden-loving individuals who were excited for the possibility of free planters, soil, or plants. Maybe they couldn’t afford the luxury of plants? The planters may just have been so lovely, so unexpected, so enchanting, that someone HAD to take one home where they could enjoy the magic of green things everyday. That’s a much nicer thought than the whole thing being pitched on principle.

Were flyers put in the empty boxes after the planters were removed? No. Was the trash also taken away when this planter was removed? Of course not.

It is a typical polite Toronto intervention; real guerrillas would have filled the whole box with soil instead of installing a neat and tidy insert. But it makes the point.

These boxes are blights and obstacles on the sidewalks, and never go away; there is one from a company that has been bankrupt for four years at a corner near me, yet the empty box is still sitting there. Like billboards, they are a commercial occupation of public space. If they are not maintained, they should be removed. Or planted.

More boxes at Blade Diary.