Oftentimes hiding something in plain sight is the simplest and easiest way to hide items. It’s the same way with your garden. The easiest place to hide edibles is in a garden that looks ornamental, but actually feeds our family – also known as a guerrilla garden. Last week, we discussed the start of a guerrilla garden. We discussed the difference between wants and needs in the garden, which perennials to include, and which annuals present beautifully, but will also feed our families.
Today, we’re going to get into the nitty-gritty of setting up a guerrilla garden.
1.) What did you decide to plant?
Take the paper that we discussed last week. The one with three columns One column is foods that you want or need to grow. The next column is the perennials that you like that grow well in your area. The last column is annuals that both feed your family and will look decorative.
Take a look at that list and see if there are foods that you can find in more than one column. These are the foods that will work in your garden. Circle the items that you plan to include in your garden.
2.) Start by printing out an outline of your property.
How do you do that?
You’ll want a basic outline of your property and, if you’re lucky, your existing structures. I found my property, driveway, house, and garage outline on my county’s GIS system. If you google your city and county name along with “gis” you will probably find your county’s Geographical Information System (GIS), if your county has one.
3.) Divide your property into sections.
The sections don’t have to be “front yard” and “back yard.” How are you going to divide up your yard? Sometimes, this is divided by the land itself. It’s more hilly in one area and more flat in another. Perhaps you have one part of your property which is flat above another part of your property which is flat. These areas help naturally divide the areas for your garden which you’ll hide in plain sight. Physical items can help define your sections – driveways, fences, porches, benches, trees, shrubs, hedgerows, etc. Draw these in on your map and color in each section a different color. This will give you a visual representation of each section.
Then ask yourself what other permanent items do you want to include in your garden – keeping in mind that you still have to harvest your garden. Do you need to add walkways into your garden so that you can walk amongst your produce? These walkways will also be natural dividers.
4.) Start Developing one section at a time.
From your map, start developing one section at a time. What works well together? Which tall bushes or other items will hide smaller things that might be recognized for food? Which colors look good together, like perhaps an ornamental cabbage and echinacea near each other? Grab your list of plants that you want to include in your guerrilla garden and look at pictures. Which ones would complement each other well? Major on the perennials, but find places for your annuals. Can you hide plants that are very obviously food plants (like tomatoes or pumpkins) in among other taller plants?
Draw each section out on the map of your property before you go ahead and plant. A great way to go about doing this is by drawing out a landscape plan. Here’s a great page on drawing out a landscape plan.
5.) Plant and Assess
So once you have your landscape plan set, carry it out! Plant the section that you want to start with. Let it grow for the year, then take time to step back after it’s started growing and ask yourself a couple of questions. (1) What is working really well? (2) What do I really like about this section of my yard? (3) Are there things about my guerrilla garden that just aren’t working? (4) What do I need to change or revamp?
Want to see a guerrilla garden in action?
Check out the picture adjacent to this section. Do you see the arrows? If you click on the picture to enlarge it, you’ll see the names of the foods which Amy Stross from Tenth Acre Garden planted. Consider this, if someone were to walk by that property, they wouldn’t be able to tell by a cursory glance all the food she has on her property. If you want to see more, Tenth Acre Farm has the perfect post! Check out what a guerrilla garden can look like here!
What About You?
Have you wondered how you are going to hide your produce if someone wanted to steal it? Have you been concerned with growing enough food to feed your family? Are you considering a guerrilla garden? What types of foods would you include? I’d love to hear. Leave a comment below so that we can learn from each other and everyone can be better prepared!
Together let’s Love, Learn, Practice, and Overcome
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a couple of things to think about, are what plants give you more than just food. take wild rose bushes and blackberry and black raspberry bushes. not only do you get food but the prickers can be used as a natural barbed wire, wild rose bushes produce rose hips a deers natural supply of vitamin “C”. apple trees will draw deer as well as provide shade and block the view, concealing your property.
Great points, Tim! Thanks for sharing.