Showing posts with label planting flowers in potholes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label planting flowers in potholes. Show all posts

Thursday, August 23, 2012

The Pothole Gardener Writes a Book

All photos courtesy: the potholegardener

The Pothole Gardener is a success story: they are calling him the "Banksy of Guerrilla Gardening". He started out doing tiny-and ephemeral-installations in potholes on his street because he didn't have his own garden. Creating a miniature scene, photographing it and seeing what happened.

His renown grew: word of his creations was picked up by the press, his blog had 25,000 hits a month.

And then the movie starring Brad Pitt, no, first the book: The Little Book Of Little Gardens.



It's a sweet book that documents his works to date: a journey through London's streets and neighbourhoods via the pothole creations. And TreeHugger has a sneak preview.


The book is a series of delightful and cleverly staged pictures on different themes: golf, bicycles, snow, fashion, knitting; you name it, he has thought of a way to portray it.


The reasons for his success are obvious. The little gardens make people smile. They are witty, whimsical and a gift to harried passers-by. As explained in the foreword to the book:
He’s giving us something innocent and unsullied. And it’s because he wants nothing back from us in return. His simple creations are a reminder of the good in people and they make us present and appreciative of our world. And there in lies his genius.

As he explains: "I just want to create little moments of happiness and remind people to stop and smell the roses."

Monday, March 1, 2010

Pothole Gardening - A Creative Way to Complain


Photo courtesy: Pete Dungey

As I have repeatedly stated, I just adore creativity; and, Pete Dungey has proved himself to be a man of vision. His solution for bringing attention to the potholes in his home town of Oxford, England is nothing short of attention-grabbing while being totally non-aggressive. Everyone should protest in such a manner.

We have had match stick gardening, upside down plant holders; and, who can forget guerrilla gardening; but, this is unique - pothole gardening.

Pete Dungey has been patiently planting flowers in potholes to highlight "the problem of surface imperfections on Britain's roads." He says "If we planted one of those in every hole, it would be like a forest in the road". What a wonderfully environmentally-friendly to draw attention to a problem.


He relies heavily on common, every-day garden variety primulas. Despite the cold weather in Britain, primulas are out now. So far, Dungey is the only known pothole gardener; but, he hopes to have fellow gardeners join him in his protest.

With any luck, pothole gardening; and, the concept of creative, non-aggressive, environmentally-friendly protest will spread around the world.

Via TreeHugger