Guerrilla with flowers | Gaby | TEDxParisSalon

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by a local community.

Filmed at Gaîté Lyrique for TEDxParisSalon on 12 September 2012. For further presentations see http://tedxparis.com/

Good evening, my name is Gab,
and I live in Paris.

I'm a gardener, I do
a specific type of gardening.

I have a garden on the rooftops of Paris.

Maybe I'm lucky to have
this small shared garden.

In fact I discovered how to create them

from six square meters
of green space in Paris.

I take part in guerrilla gardening.

The idea is to create new gardens
where they don't exist today.

It's considered illegal,
since we garden and grow

on land that doesn't belong to us.

I'm going to explain
the history of the movement

to show you that it is part
of something global,

international, and not just
something we're doing ourselves.

In the 17th century, Gerrard Stanley
defended farmers' land,

and fought against the idea
of land privatisation

and large agricultural farms

that had already started
to establish themselves

and had really restricted
farmers' independence,

and their ability
to provide their own food.

Stanley asked them to farm illegally
on land nearby their homes.

This movement continues today
under the name The Landless Movement

where many people fight
to have a few square meters

and to defend their territory as well as
their society and way of living.

The term 'guerrilla gardening'
dates from the 70s.

Green Guerrilla was invented
by Liz Christie in New York.

They decided to tackle
all the derelict urban areas,

the wastelands, and create
the first community gardens

that we have today.

The equivalent in France
are called the shared gardens.

Nowadays, the guerrilla is often
represented like this:

a street art image by Banksy,

that shows a young man,
a militant, an activist,

who is about to throw stones,
but instead throws flowers.

Our principles are a bit like this;
the idea is to use plants

in every way possible
to give both a message

on ecology, politics, the environment,

and society too,

but there are lots of forms
of guerilla gardening.

Some are anti commercial,
and would rather work for free,

some are against this type of neglect

and would prefer to see a garden instead.

This is what guerrilla gardeners do :
before, just the bottom of a fence

and after the gardener's work.

Guerrilla gardening is also very much
about vegetable gardening.

The aim is to plant vegetables in towns,

for local food and to challenge
the supply into our towns.

We know, for example, that
Paris supermarkets import food each week,

yet if the lorries weren't able
to return to Paris,

there wouldn't be any more food.

It's also a case of us sharing the land,

we grow, and make
a real effort in the garden

while others plant vegetables,
for example leeks, here near to Nantes,

where they were fighting
against a dual carriageway project

that was planned near their community.

They said, we are going to take action
through guerilla gardening

and show them we prefer
to keep our fields, our leeks ...

They used vegetables to contest
the ongoing project.

This is a more artistic effect,
a design represented using moss,

and flower petals at Perpignan.

Other artists, for example,
Helmut Smith, took this action

to contest the use of advertisements
in our public spaces

and the privatisation of our visual space,

the fact that no one has authorisation

to do just what they want
in a public space.

He planted a tree right in front
of the advertisement.

It's been in front of this
publicity board for several years.

It's grown rather well.

Others do it because gardening
can be hard work,

they say "I go all the time to run
for nothing at a sports centre,

under the bright lights, etc.,
I prefer to be out in the fresh air,

doing something that is useful
for everybody, I'm going to come

and give you a hand gardening."

Others simply do it

to be able to teach their children
what's a plant, what's a seed,

to know it takes time to grow,
to know how to dig,

these things are more important
than anything else that you learn,

and it's just that: to relearn
the fundamentals of gardening.

Here's our workshop in Paris,
it's a little disorganised,

it's a place where we experiment
on lots of things

to simply bring vegetables to the town.

Here you can see the benches
made from recycled palettes

filled with plants that have been
grown from recovered seeds,

it's our meeting point.

Some experiments to grow tomatoes
are carried out in toilets,

here's a few pieces of glued timber,
arranged around a post,

an initiative like that
can grow several plants.

Here at the edge of a road, we've
transformed barriers into flower tubs.

Here, someone has planted a flower
on the road to question locally

what place cars have in the town.
They occupy 80% of our public space :

that leaves 20% for walking,
20% for vegetation

which is a farce by comparison.

It's also to be able to say that we can
put vegetables all over the town.

We always have the means
of planting vegetables anywhere,

of finding a little gap,

with this seed bomb "bombe de graine",

a mixture of clay, compost,
and little seeds.

It's one of our tools to be able to
reach less accessible places,

to put it in gaps,
like these types of places.

I would like to invite you

to the International Tulip
guerilla gardening,

an international movement,
all over the world,

where people plant tulips,

but in Paris we usually plant vegetables.

It takes place on the 9th October
and I'm inviting you to take part.

If you're not able to go,

I'm asking you to find a place near to
your home with soil just like this,

there are a few of them everywhere,
look for some plants,

then set a date,

see if your neighbours
are interested, ask your friends,

and do it.

In a few months, you'll maybe
see your tulips grow,

you're first attempt at guerrilla
gardening all around a roundabout.

So what was guerrilla gardening?

It's lots of different ideas of sharing
a message using plants,

they can be ecological, political,
social, environmental,

I don't believe there is any other
movement or action

that allows you to do
such things with just plants.

So for that, I am inviting you to choose
your weapons and take action.

Thank you.

(Applause)