As I live in an apartment in a city and do not have access to a land to farm, I started the idea of “distributed farming”. I grew over 200 seedlings, which is way too much for my balcony. I started to ask friends who can foster few of them in their balconies and gardens.
And, I also tried guerilla farming. as far as I could read on internet, it is allowed to plant on the green/soil spaces next to the streets as long as it does not have young trees growing there. Some of them are already hosting someone’s urban gardening projects. I found few of them near my house that was just occupied by grass and has no trees on it.
This action happened around the first weekend of June. In the beginning, we were clearing out the weed/grass first and planting indigo babies. But they it felt like they are exposed to sun too much. So we changed the strategy and planted indigo between the plants that are already growing there. Let’s see which works better. It was a very nice sunny and warm week. Normally I am happy with this but now I was wishing for the rain for the plants. I understand how farmers feels about nice weather now.
June 8 2024
One week after the guerilla farming action. It also rained this week. Some are doing better than the other… but they are still surviving the Berlin street life! It looks like it was a better choice to leave the existing grass there and plant in between them. It seems to also hold moisture better.
This is from the sport in front of my friend’s studio. This used to be a dog toilette but now they are not messing with it. we also planted some flower seeds (the flower confetti is actually a seed bomb!) as well. The studio is located in Wedding, where guerilla gardening is more encouraged. It was nice to hear the comment from the neighbors appreciating that we are gardening in this plot. The tree on this plot is big enough that it should not get disturbed by sharing the soil with other plants. (should be better than dogs peeing on it all the time!)
28 June 2024
I was away for few weeks and did not check it for a while… the ones planted between the other plants by the streets are doing ok. it did not rain a lot in Berlin and overall it looks like they struggle to survive compare to the ones on my balcony…
12 July 2024
I had a chance to pass by friend’s studio and checked how the indigo there is doing. The nice fence we made is all destroyed.. full of trash and someone parked a bike…. but still indigo is surviving! it is not very big but hopefully they keep growing here.
But a week later new fancy fences are made and all the trash are cleaned up thanks to Emma. the Indigo looks already happier!
24 July 2024
I went around to check the street side plants we guerilla planted. one part that looked almost empty few weeks ago is overgrown with Distel. Under the big leaf of Distel is sill the indigo plants. One sport we planted with other weeds on shadowy side of the street ( in front of house number 30) is doing very well. it is not getting very tall but the leaves looks very healthy.
14 August 2024
It is surprising to see how weeds grows fast in these street sides spots. Just a month ago, some of these places looked empty, and now it is filled with plants! Some of our indigo plants are almost completely gone under other bigger plants, some found a way to live with them. The spot next to building 30, on the shady side of the road is the best spot so far.
Indigo plants near the train track, where more plants and trees are, did not do well. I guess they could not compete with the others and also there are constantly a lot of trash and traffic that maybe also disturbing them… I leave the plants as they are for now.
September 3. 2024
The indigo plants in front of the building 30 are doing the best among all the guerilla farming experiments so far. As we saw the city gardeners are trimming grass on the next block, I decided to harvest them before the city worker takes them away. It is not super lot but got some nice indigo harvest. They are much greener and have bigger leaves compare to the ones I have on my balcony.
September 20. 2024
Xavier and Eva has kept some indigo plants in their studio’s back yard garden. He said it was maybe a bit less water, but some of them grew well. I harvested today and it is a nice bouquet of Indigo.
September 21. 2024
We visited Anton to harvest the plants he has been growing for us. The photo on the left is from August that he sent us, and the photo on the right was just before I cut the plants.
Harvest from Xavier and Anton are now drying at my living room on a laundry hanger.
October 20: I went around the neighborhood to check on my guerilla farms. Someone pulled out all the Stichapfel (poisoness weed, invasive plant) from one of the space we planted indigo. Since then, Indigo is growing back again and hopefully it makes some flowers there. The indigo in front of No30 is doing well. Even we harvested there once, it is recovering and getting taller again. The one next to the train track did not do good. I guess other plants are too strong and it can not compete with them.
November 1: It is getting cold, but still doing well.
Nov 12: I passed by the friend’s studio in Wedding and checked the plants. Despite they made a nice fence for this little garden, people threw a lot of trash and plants are not doing very well. It is a bit of a shame…
November 15: I was not hopeful about the plants at the Universities garden corner as it looked very dry in summer and indigo seemed to be suffering there… but now, I saw some of them doing very well there. I do not plan to harvest from this one, but maybe we can get some seeds.