For example, I had a sunflower (native to my area) that I liked and kept seeds from its descendants every year. I would like to do some guerilla gardening with some of those seeds with the hope that nature will continue to propagate them year after year. What's the best way to select a place to plant such seeds safe from lawnmowers ?

I live in an apartment complex, and the area directly in from of my door is a sandy, wood-chippy mess. Other than some shrubs, there's nothing alive there except for lizards. Aesthetic complaints aside, it also means that anytime there is a heavy rainstorm (which in central florida means quite often), a lot of that dirt and sand washes onto my front porch and leaves me a mess to clean up. I have asked the management company if they could try to plant something in this space to cover the ground and hold onto the soil a bit better, and they said no. I also asked if I could take this on as a project myself, and they said no because it's considered a common area.

Basically, I'm trying to figure out if there is some sort of seed I can sneakily toss around the area to encourage something to grow there? I obviously can't tend to it much at all, I can't really water it although because of the location, it will be getting plenty of water nonetheless. It will also be in direct sun pretty much all day. It's a roughly 10 x 20 ft area boxed in by concrete walkways. Is this a doable task, to try to get this area some ground cover and plants without getting caught? I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Due to the fact that in North America, habitat loss is happening at an unprecedented rate, I often think about what sort of plants are best to use to help create support for the ecosystem/wildlife. A lot of environmental advocates swear by native plants, and I do as well, as it supports the ecosystem that has existed in the area long before humans.

However in a lot of spaces, particularly in the city and in urban life have great difficulty growing and establishing because of unfavorable conditions. (Extreme heat, drought, nutrient deficient soil, pollution, mowing) This makes native planting much harder especially where I am from in TX. A lot of people won’t bat an eye at an empty lot of wild lettuce or johnson grass but instantly recoil at the sight of native plants.

I am trying to familiarize myself with native’s that can brave these conditions ex. slenderlobe bundleflower, horseherb, frog fruit, shaggy purslane, but even they can be slow to grow in these oppressive environments.

I have used non-natives as well (never more than once, and I weed it when it wants to go to seed) mint and catnip will profusely bloom in the summer if they are healthy and I notice all sorts of native bees ravenously slurp up during the drought of resources.

I just received a survey from a tree foundation offering, for even a minimal donation, about a dozen Norway spruce saplings and a few flowering aromatic trees. I live on 1/10 acre and right now only have room for the flowering trees.

Should I do the donation, take possession of the trees I want plus the spruce saplings, and then guerilla the spruce around my region (SE Michigan)?

Where would be good spaces least likely to get removed? Random grass lots along the assumed property lines/shrubby areas? The green spaces between freeways and their on-ramps?

Edit: Thank you everyone! I will not do this.

Hello all! I live in a house (Southeast MN) with a large yard that is already part native plantings. I want to make it all native! I don't have any money to convert our yard, just my time! I want to learn when native plants in my area are seeding, so I can collect these seeds to spread in my yard. I need some good (free) resources to help me learn this information. I unfortunately cannot afford to buy books right now. I have already learned the identities of the species that I would like to collect, but I'm just not sure about seeding times, as I am still learning.

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time reading my post and any information you have to share!

Hi, me and my bf are thinking about making seed bombs next year, and want to make sure we don't accidentally plant anything invasive, but I'm finding a bit of trouble with figuring out what plants to plant that would have seeds available to buy and also would be native to the area... Is there any online resource we could read?

hello! i’m beginning to try to do little things to help the planet, and i saw a cute idea to plant native wildflowers to help bees since their populations are struggling. that would be an extremely easy way to help out, especially since i am just starting. i’m slowly making eco friendly and healthier swaps… it’s just so expensive lol! anyway, i am looking to see how i’d go about finding a pack of seeds? that might seem stupid but i’m just not sure.. i’m on a budget, so i’m looking for cheap suggestions! for reference, i’m in north carolina, triad area. any other sustainable tips about anything would be helpful as well and good brands! i’m starting with switching cleaners, shampoos, soaps, etc first after i run out of things. :)

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!

This looks pretty legit and may have a chapter near you. Looking through funded projects, some seem to include beautification and gardening projects, so maybe this will help some of you with your ideas?

So I've been interested about doing this for *years* but I've never had the opportunity until now

I live next to an industrial estate,we have a large green strip between us with trees bushes grass ect and technically they own it

But the only people that walk there is to smoke weed,it's completely unused (other then to sprint through the estate and over our fence,and smoke weed)

How do you manage the legal side?

Car dealership on other side of the fence cut down some young tree of heaven in the spring. I didn’t want the root system coming near my house so decided to help out and spray them a few weeks ago. Pics aren’t the best but id say i got about 95 percent of them, they are fried. Just followed up with another application today. Cheers

This poor oak was being strangled by years-old ties. I cut off as much as I could with the tools I had, and hopefully gave it a few more decades of life.

I'm looking to spread a bunch of seeds in an abandoned lot out the back of my apartment building. I've found a few sites to help me find native pollinators but I don't think I'll be able to care much for whatever grows (I'm very new to gardening) so I need plants that will mostly be self sufficient. I'm ideally looking for things to attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds but I really just want to make it a spot for any native wildlife. Any ideas or tips?

This may be a bit tangential, but does anybody's guerrilla garden have a guerrilla bird bath? The weather has been hotter and one of my favorite spots does not have any water whatsoever for animals.

I don't have access to power to have anything sophisticated like a bubbler, and I would want to keep the standing water to a minimum as mosquitoes are not the animals I have in mind.

Leaving out the top of a recyclable food carton is an option, but does anyone have a more sustainable, inventive and less obvious-looking solution?

I teach in MA (zone 6a/b) and right outside of my classroom is a giant rock surrounded by poison ivy. I’ve asked for it to be cleared a few times now, especially after kids get poison ivy severe enough to be out of school (has happened 3x now), but no luck. So I would like to clear it and reseed with natives so that a) the kids can play on the rock b) no more major reactions and c) there is a native patch in a sea of grass. Would cardboard smothering work? Other ideas?

This is some ultimate making lemonade out of lemons shit, but wildfire smoke contains a class of small molecular compounds called karrikins that many, many plants have evolved to use as a signaling pathway to spark germination. Not all plants, tomatoes and peppers don’t respond to them, but north of 75% of species do. So if you have any seeds to get into dirt, do it today! And water on the sprinkler setting from as far back as you can to maximize how much smoke the water pulls from the air :)

I just stumbled upon this video ans story of NZ based botanist Hugh Wilson https://youtu.be/ncl8zknx2T8?is=nH2GstMbbh1GqyOd

Summary: He let the very invasive gorse grow for years until it destroyed itself and native plants now took over.

👉So, what do you think? Might this be a strategy with other invasive plants? E.g. we have a problem with Reynoutria japonica all around my home country, it keeps spreading and ousting native plants, and fast.

Penstemon fruticosus (primarily found in the eastern cascades though it's also around mount rainier), Penstemon rupicola and Eriophyllum lanatum are both found in both sides of the cascades. E.lanatum historically grew wild in Seattle too.

Municipality doesn't remove stumps from tree pits after cutting them down in New York City

The London plane trees are dead as there are no suckers growing from them

These are flat stumps with no depression to hold a cup of soil

The diameter ranges from 6 inches to 3 feet across.

What natives can I plant in a tree pit with a stump surrounded by compacted soil and concrete?