On the evening of August 20th 2009, I took my 20 minute walk, laden with water for my garden. It was the night of the black moon but I was happy loping down the hill the my little bit of greenspace. When I arrived and realized the garden had been mowed to the ground I was in such a state of shock, I went ahead and watered it and headed back home, feeling rather conflicted.

The day before I had actually nourished the thriving plants with organic worm tea (you can see the jugs in one of the photos) and it had rained for a couple days before that, so the garden was doing really well. What I realized when I returned the next day to view the destruction in daylight, was that the poor fellow mowing the area was probably bored and stoned and mindlessly doing his job, when he suddenly realized he had mowed down tomato plants and managed to stop before he took out all of the beans. There are about three plants still valiantly growing.

The images in the slideshow show the garden the day before it got mowed as well as graphic images of the massacre so please be careful showing this slideshow to children, as it may be very traumatizing.

When I planted this garden I realized that there was risk involved. The first time this area was mowed whoever mowed it carefully avoided my plot, so I had thought the risk was over. In fact, I was even bringing some more plants down to add to the garden when I discovered it shredded and massacred. I liked this spot because the garden was in a sense hidden in plain sight and I thought that was a good thing. Now I realize that I should have just put up a sign or notice, as the city of Vancouver is really doing it’s best to encourage community gardens.

When I got home I took out my I Ching yarrow stalks and counted out a reading. Surprisingly it was very positive and encouraging, basically saying to persevere, but that the destruction of the garden would actually bring about positive things. I read my rune stones and they gave the same consolation. I set about looking up some websites to find out what I could do to make my garden legitimate, or if there was another garden I could join. Both seem to be possible, so I have some work to do, but as the I Ching said, this is a positive change, and will help me to get more involved with various communities.

The other aspect of this garden is that the soil here needs to be regenerated before vegetables will really grow very well. Reading the book The One-Straw Revolution, has given me some ideas on how to get this going. Planting white clover is a start and I hope that I can find ways to help heal this little patch of earth.

More information and resources, links and whatnot to the worldwide guerrilla gardening movement are posted here.