VOA英语2010年-'Guerrilla Gardeners' Tackle Urban Eyesores

In major cities across the globe there's a new kind of urban guerilla. They're not handling rifles and guns. They're planting flowers. It's called "Guerrilla Gardening" and it's a new kind of urban graffiti, environmental style.

It's Saturday night and Theresa Blaner is out with her partner Doug and their pet parrot Gandalf. They're trying to salvage¹ this forgotten corner of their Washington neighborhood.

Theresa and Doug are "guerilla gardeners" - citizen activists² who transform urban landscapes by gardening in public spaces without permission. Call it graffiti with Sunflowers and Petunias³.

"I guess they chose the term 'guerillas' because you kind of get in and out quickly," said Blaner. "We pick a spot and we come in without permission. We do what we have to do and we get out."

Guerilla gardening communities are popping up in major urban areas - London, Paris, Los Angeles. Gardeners blog about their garden graffiti - often done in stealth and under the cover of night. They often use the internet to vote for the location of their next 'hit'.

Theresa says tonight's location may have been a garage once, but it's appeared abandoned for more than a year.

"It's an ugly spot, but it has a lot of potential," added Blaner.

Kenneth Moore writes a home gardening blog in Washington. He says in guerilla gardening situations it's important to work with plants that can deal well with neglect.

MOORE: "The purpose behind guerilla gardening is plant where it's not being maintained. Plant where beauty would not otherwise occur."
REPORTER: "Is this beauty?"
MOORE: "Oh, this is totally beauty. It's also vandalism."

Guerilla gardeners often choose high-profile locations to make an environmental statement, a sewer⁴ hole or an abandoned newspaper box. But Theresa says her guerillas prefer to create permanent urban gardens which people - and municipal⁵ workers - cannot later destroy.

"I don't like it when plants die," said Blaner. "I'd like there to be a chance for those plants to make it. For the plants we planted to give birth to little plants hopefully. I want to give them that opportunity."

Guerilla gardens are designed to engage with the community in which they grow.
Theresa's hideaway garden patch doesn't escape the attention of this 62-year-old Vietnam veteran who wants to know what's going on.

"Oh that's a beautiful gesture. Yes indeed. That would be most beneficial," said Thomas Crenshaw.

It may not look like much now. But come spring, there will be tulips here where once there was broken concrete.

Theresa and Doug hope their latest illegal urban garden will have a real chance to grow. They've probably broken city trespassing⁶ laws tonight, but they're not worried about the police coming after them.

1 salvage   

v.救助，营救，援救；n.救助，营救

参考例句：

• All attempts to salvage the wrecked ship failed.抢救失事船只的一切努力都失败了。
• The salvage was piled upon the pier.抢救出的财产被堆放在码头上。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 petunias   

n.矮牵牛（花）( petunia的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The petunias were already wilting in the hot sun. 在烈日下矮牵牛花已经开始枯萎了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. 那里有我的前廊我的枕头，我漂亮的紫色矮牵牛。 来自互联网

4 sewer   

n.排水沟，下水道

参考例句：

• They are tearing up the street to repair a sewer. 他们正挖开马路修下水道。
• The boy kicked a stone into the sewer. 那个男孩把一石子踢进了下水道。

5 municipal   

adj.市的，市政的；n.政府证券

参考例句：

• The municipal authorities have kept the roads up well.市政当局把道路保养得不错。
• The city is planning to build a municipal library.该市正计划建一座市立图书馆。

6 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。