Guerrilla gardeners 'bring joy' by planting in town

A community group has been "brightening up" a Berkshire town by turning a patch of grass next to a car parking into a garden.

Guerrilla Gardening Reading started in 2016 when Caroline Fletch, a retired gardener, kept passing the promising piece of land.

Her husband Nick said the volunteers have now used plants to transform the little patch of grass on Vastern Road.

And he said when the group went to maintain it, people would stop and tell them "how much joy it brings".

Speaking to BBC Radio Berkshire, Mr Fletch explained the name referred to "doing things under the radar".

"It's finding a piece of land that you think could do with a bit of brightening up and just doing it unofficially, without too many people noticing it until it's done."

He said the volunteers chose plants that were "relatively low maintenance" and "can be fairly tolerant to not being watered".

"We'd probably go there once a fortnight for an hour, there's four of us that tend to go and then we disappear," he said.

"We try and be unobtrusive, but whenever we go, people stop and say how much they like it, and how much joy it brings to them, which is really the whole purpose."

Mr Fletch said he had noticed other efforts of guerrilla gardening in the area coming to fruition.

He said: "I would say to anyone walks past a piece of land that they think looks a bit dreary and... could do with something nice in it, then do it.

"We are aware that guerrilla gardening is actually quite a thing... and I know it's something that happens in different countries of the world."

The roots of the practice could be traced back to New York in the 1970s.

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