Lifetecture

This is the site of one of Chicago’s invisible boundary lines. Neglected land on 15th St. between Blue Island and Throop St provides an ideal opportunity for Guerrilla Gardening. N. told me a while ago that she had planted sunflower seeds in Pilsen on neglected sites she had found around the neighborhood. She called it Guerrilla Gardening and I loved the idea.

I’ve been thinking about the site next to where I live; the ambiguous boundary zone on 15th St where I get off the bus to go home; as a site with the potential to become a community garden. In the meantime, we decided to do some renegade planting after breakfast on Sunday. My brother J. sent me the NY Times magazine architecture special and there was an article about a guerrilla gardener in England. The guy has a blog, but doesn’t claim to have invented this phenomenon which has earlier roots in the activist gardens planted in the Sixties. I’ve experienced the descendents of these gardens while staying in the East Village when J. lived in Manhattan. It’s hard to believe these lush green spaces filled with flowers and vegetables survived through the real estate explosion on that New York island.

It had rained hard earlier in the morning, the storm had blown the power on N. & A.’s end of Pilsen, near the station. As a result the soil was malleable and intermittently swampy. We used simple tools to dig out small holes and as I placed the seeds I was reminded of Johnny Appleseed and his wonderful dark-side described in Michael Pollan’s fabulous book “The Botany of Desire.” I’ve been away from this kind of activity for too long. It felt so good to turn over the earth, even though it was littered with debris, parts from an old factory, and trash. Neighbors from both sides eyed us with curiousity. The folks dwelling in the adjacent public housing low-rise projects looked over, but didn’t approach. A man walked by with a pedigreed dog. Worlds collide here and I hope this row of sunflowers thrives and becomes a site for conversation.