Meet the guerrilla gardeners transforming Vancouver’s urban landscape

Keegan Morrison is working to transform Vancouver's urban streets with projects of both the professional and guerrilla variety.

“Oh, so you’re the flower guy,” a shopkeeper exclaimed after finding Keegan Morrison tending to the blooms in front of his Vancouver store, a site once barren and boring.

Morrison, like a criminal returning to the scene of a crime, was busted.

Just weeks prior, the self-professed nature fanatic had taken to the streets armed with a spice jar crammed with native wildflower seeds. He is one of a growing group of renegade gardeners revamping Vancouver’s urban landscape through guerrilla gardening, a grassroots movement planting flowers, greenery and edible plants in neglected or abandoned areas throughout the city.

“I’m kind of obsessed with flowers and native vegetation,” says Morrison.

“For me, it just makes a lot of sense to go around and add some color and some ecological function to the areas that I think are being underutilized.”

Morrison, who runs Vancouver landscape company Wild Spaces Land Care, was looking for ways to repurpose leftover seeds when the thought to start guerrilla gardening first arose.

“As I was driving around from project to project, I’d see all these areas that were abandoned or not being used. I just started sprinkling seeds as I was travelling around, and it wasn’t long before I started seeing the results,” he says.

His covert endeavours might yield charming results, but Morrison says the beautification of the neighbourhood is more of a byproduct of actions than their end goal. Morrison’s primary objective is to provide a safe space for pollinators, local birds, and the wildlife that would have once thrived undisturbed on Vancouver’s land, he says.

“We’ve taken so much away from nature. We’ve taken the native plants, and with it so much beauty and ecological function, and we’ve just replaced what was once there with ecologically useless vegetation spaces,” he says.

When Morrison filled shakers with rice husks and flower seeds and listed them on his website as a “weapon for transforming urban landscapes,” he was surprised by the interest that was piqued. One eager buyer, a local florist and friend of Morrison’s, even bought some in bulk to sell on to her own guerrilla gardening-curious clientele.

He realized he had joined a community that was already thriving with people who were taking it upon themselves to beautify derelict spaces not just in Vancouver, but in other major cities across the world. Sometimes legally, oftentimes not.

Vancouver author David Tracy published a book on the matter, titled Guerrilla Gardening: A Manualfesto, almost 10 years ago.

Like Morrison, his exploits had stemmed from having a surplus of seeds that simply needed getting rid of. Tracy had been volunteering at a community garden in the Strathcona neighbourhood when an organic nursery, due to go out of business, generously donated over 50 heritage apple tree saplings.

“We had no room for all these apple trees, and so somehow it began a discussion within the community of whether or not we should just put them onto the street,” he says, describing how the mission had begun with Hawks Avenue, a “problem street” that had needed some TLC for quite some time.

Tracy says the guerilla gardening community is typically split into two camps.

There are the people who prefer to rally as an army so knowledge, tips and tricks can be shared, and for the social aspect of it. Hobbies are typically enjoyed more when embarked on with others, Tracy says, especially operations such as this one.

“You’re doing something clandestine. Something that’s a little bit subversive, maybe even illegal. It’s good to have allies in that.”

Then there are the others, he explains, the lone operative types.

“They see that little patch that used to be barren or garbage strewn, and now it’s got sunflowers and daisies growing in it. That’s just one small bit of appreciation for a job well done that they don’t share with anybody, which somehow makes it even more … appealing,” he says.

As far as legalities go, the City of Vancouver has assured it is on board with the community pruning public land, providing the gardener follows the city’s bylaws and the planting meets its requirements.

Unauthorized gardening can be considered encroachment for a number of reasons. If it alters city land without approval, for example, or if it creates safety risks or conflicts with upcoming development plans.

The additions also shouldn’t harm the ecosystem, or interfere with the current landscaping taking place in parks and natural areas.

“The City of Vancouver appreciates the creativity and community spirit behind guerrilla gardening,” said spokesperson Doug Thomas.

“We share residents’ interest in greening urban spaces and encourage safe, sustainable ways to do so.”

Morrison says the shopkeepers who gathered around him that summer afternoon were “super excited” to see and meet him, because they had long wondered about the mysterious man behind the flourishing secret garden.

They wanted to thank him, he says, for beautifying a spot that few had had the patience, wherewithal, guts or knowledge to tackle before.

For anyone who has the urge to get involved themselves, Morrison recommends conducting research to better understand the plants that will grow best together and will sprout up successfully even with little care. The next step is simple, he says.

“Just get out there, and start dropping seeds.”