Guerilla stuns green lungs into growth
FRANK Edwards has been a guerilla since 2009.
For his first operation, he invaded a municipal green lung next door to his Berea home to plant a food garden.
“Law enforcers happened to be driving past and told me they would have to tell the authorities,” he recalled.
But the law was on the guerilla’s side, removing him from the wanted list as quickly as a growing weed.
The “authority” who received word of his guerilla gardening had just complained there was too much grass cover in green lungs like the one his army of spades had taken over illegally, he said.
“It made this the shortest-lived guerilla garden ever heard of,” he said, standing in 600m2 of paw paws, bananas, pumpkins, macadamias, cassava, chillies, bastard lemons with leaves used in Thai cooking, and other edibles.
The idea of guerilla gardening is to grow food-bearing plants in public space so passers-by can help themselves.
In this imperfect world, it also means folks go on gathering expeditions to fill their bags with fresh produce which they then sell on.
They are perhaps not that different in attitude from betterheeled people with access to land who could produce yields such as 2kg of sweet potatoes a square metre, but don’t.
“It’s easier to go to a supermarket and buy washed spring onions than to grow them yourself. That’s the problem. That’s why people don’t grow their own,” he said, while confessing that he, too, finds supermarkets convenient.
However, supermarkets can be seasonal, or find their shelves emptying in tough economic times, such as the one consumers face after the country’s junk status rating.
Edwards follows the permaculture model – the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient – which he says is “common sense and fun”. Fallen trees become beds of compost, weeds become manure. “It’s about seeing how to keep as much water on site and using organic material from the site.”
Using permaculture’s “stun” system – sheer, total, utter neglect – he says he increases biodiversity. “Then you plant things like perennials and they just keep on going. All you need to do is nothing.”
Adding to the diversity is a mobile chicken coop, which he moves from spot to spot giving the job of “digging and pooing” to its two occupants. The coop can house five birds.
Durban’s ubiquitous monkeys also have their place. “I’ve beaten them by growing more food than they can eat.”
That said, Edwards sometimes needs to spray them using a hosepipe and protects some beds with shade cloth.
“They are part of the biodiversity and you are allowed to get cross with them,” he said, drawing a distinction between that and being nasty.
Edwards is no fan of lawns, which he calls “green deserts”.
Standing in the guerilla garden that was once a “green desert”, he mused: “If they were all over the place there would be sufficient food in case of an emergency”.
For more info, call Edwards at 083 555 3552.