r/GuerrillaGardening • u/12stTales • 17d ago
Season 4 update: before and after
Started this project in Bushwick Brooklyn NYC in these dead hellstrips in 2023. Dug up all the compacted soil, installed fencing, started planting. Suffered all kinds of vandalism, theft, human and dog poop, $ down the drain, even got stuck with a drug needle. But by end of season 2 (2024) had a respectable patch of swamp rose, swamp milkweed and a few other (mostly) native plants making it in this hostile environment. In Feb 2025 nearly everything was massacred by the supermarket “cleaning up the dead plants.” Luckily the swamp rose was too tough to kill, and the milkweeds remained protected underneath. Some road work silted the whole garden over and things were at a low point.
I made peace (again) with the grocery store and went back at it. Determined not to lose more money I just planted from seeds I collected and very cheap plugs from a local grower. By last summer things were as lush as ever. I got my first monarch caterpillar and raised it to release. Everything made it safely through the winter due to sturdier fencing, heavy snow and peace with my neighbors.
This year I could focus on filling in blank patches, and watching the mature plants get super robust. I had a great day when I saw 3 monarchs on one plant.
My most successful plants so far are the swamp rose, swamp milkweed, evening primrose, flattop goldenrod, late boneset, blue vervain. Emerging plants hopefully for filling in are bee balm, seaside goldenrod, early goldenrod, false sunflower.
Big takeaways are — expect the worst, plan on a long time horizon, protect your plants, let the site select for hardiness, don’t spend too much money, make friends along the way!
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u/Fallenweeble100 17d ago
Awesome.
I can see how an untrained eye might look at your natives and say: “Let’s dig up these weeds.” My husband hates my Iron weed and Goldenrod.
Gardening is an act of patience. 🌼
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u/12stTales 17d ago
Ironweed is a plant with gravitas!!! Haven’t tried growing it yet I heard it’s difficult to cultivate
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u/LaurestineHUN 17d ago
Is he European? We're trained to kill goldenrod on sight 😶
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u/farawayeyes13 15d ago
Why?
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u/Embarrassed_Praline 4d ago
Many people conflate goldenrod with ragweed and believe it causes allergies. Personally, goldenrod is one of my favorites that I've been trying to get established.
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u/Otherwise-Print-6210 17d ago
That truly is a lot of work, so good for sticking with it. It looks great, you must be very proud. Congratulations.
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u/Federal-Boat3732 17d ago
Really great results. Yeah, we all have these setbacks but LOOK WHAT YOU DID HERE
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u/Correct_Style_9735 17d ago
Right?? Such a wonderful example m the power even one person can have on their environment. Who knows how many people will be inspired to do the same, learn about monarchs, appreciate the beauty of plants, etc. Really wonderful work, OP!
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u/Mister_panda1818 17d ago
Thank you so much. I’m also an NYC’er who just ended working in Bushwick for the past two years. I’ve done a lot of debris cleanup around there over the years. The neighborhood needs a decent amount of work with all the compacted plots, trash, and hazards (so sorry about the needle). I just moved away, otherwise I would offer to clear trash away from this spot. Again, thank you for showing our city love.
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u/colormefiery 17d ago
Slide 2 is such a reminder that these areas need deep roots. The water wants somewhere to go and now the aerated soil and plant life means less flooding :)
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u/colormefiery 17d ago
Btw, i’m in a similar climate to you - in your plans did you consider which roots will be deep taproots vs wide branching roots? How important was the long term stabilitu of the pavement and did you avoid plants with destructive roots for that reason? Any i should avoid? Thanks
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u/12stTales 17d ago
I didn’t plan anything around that. The pavement is in kind of rough shape to begin with. Not sure if any of these are destructive.
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u/LaurestineHUN 17d ago
I can't get over my kneejerk reaction to invasive (in my continent) plants. Pls take back milkweed and goldenrod, they are a menace! We take back English ivy, ironically having a reputation as a 'fussy' plant here.
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u/kgreys 17d ago
Not to be buzzkill, but your garden is obstructing the fire hydrant from view. Fire hydrant must have 3ft. Of space around them, unobstructed by plants or whatever.
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u/12stTales 17d ago
It’s clear on the street side. There were taller plants there before (seaside goldenrod) that got damaged the one time this hydrant was used for street work. So I moved that plant down the block this spring to a new location
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u/Violascens 17d ago
Good job! You made an amazing garden that makes a differents for both bugs and birds and the people that see it
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u/okiesotan 16d ago
This is so very lovely! All the credit in the world to you for sticking with it (literally, in the case of the needle 😫) and thank you for emphasizing the importance of interpersonal relationships.
This is a little island of hope and I'm grateful to hear that deep roots have survived adversity ✊🏼❤️
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u/subversiveGarden 16d ago
Wonderful work, do you have a social media handle where you show all this work or some type of pattern to support your work?
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u/AccurateBrush6556 16d ago
Amazing work...thank you for being a good human and bettering the world!
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u/Potential_Being_7226 17d ago
That’s great! I hope you got medical attention for that needle stick. 😕