These gardener-activists are sowing seeds all over cities and spreading the word on TikTok

Practitioners of guerrilla gardening note that it does not require money or expert plant knowledge. Photo: AFP

While gardening is increasingly popular, winning over more devotees throughout the pandemic, some citizens are taking up the activity not in their backyard, on their apartment balcony or rooftop or even in dedicated community gardens.

These gardener-activists sow seeds in the streets to grow plants; for them, this practice is a way to reappropriate urban common spaces, in order to create alert on the lack of biodiversity in the city centres.

On TikTok, a series of videos explain the guerrilla gardening process in a step-by-step breakdown. After a few seconds of one titled "How to guerrilla garden", its creator Ellen Miles (@octaviachill) from London reveals tips for practising this type of gardening and advises viewers who want to try it out to find a site you frequent often. The videos were posted Nov 2020.