Guerrilla gardeners are commandeering lands that don’t belong to them in their efforts to turn neglected city-owned asphalt jungles into greener spaces for their city-dwelling neighbors.

“The city wasn’t doing anything with it, and I had a bunch of extra plants,” says Scott, one guerrilla gardener who took over a traffic island in the middle of Loynes Drive in Los Angeles.

This growing movement of people who plant without permission on land that isn’t theirs can be found now in London, Berlin, Miami, San Francisco and Southern California, where evening planting parties or solo seed bombing runs are the norm in their mission to green public spaces that have been ignored by city officials.

“We can make much more out of the land than how it’s being used, whether it’s about creating food or beautifying it,” says the movement’s ringleader and GuerrillaGardening.org founder, Richard Reynolds. “I want to encourage more people to think about land in this way and just get out there and do it.”[LA Times]

Reynold’s just released a new handbook for 21st century Johnny Appleseeds titled Guerrilla Gardening. takepart and check out their eco-activism and gardening blogs on guerrillagardening.org, and view before and after photos of the latest spaces they’ve co-opted and beautified.

Related:

• Guerrilla gardener movement takes root in L.A. area
• Guerrilla gardeners: When push comes to shovel
• Stand by your beds