but you’ll never take the garden out of Brits. I’ve known this in my heart for years — being as my people come from Kent, otherwise known as “The Garden of England” — and even over here in Yankee territory you can’t keep most of us from tending to roses, planting vegetables, and generally growing anything we can find. However, CNN has now confirmed this little truthfor me with an article called:

Guerrilla gardeners green their city on secret moonlit missions

The story is basically about Londoners who tend to abandoned, un-loved spaces in their city by gardening under threat of police action. They often sneak in at night to plant, weed, water…whatever. This is FANTASTIC! And it’s a little reminiscent of Bette Midler’s New York Restoration Project a truly wonderful organization if ever there was one. Ms. Midler and her pals go around greening abandoned, neglected patches of New York. In fact, in its early days NYRP got a little boost from one of Britain’s most beloved gardening shows, “Ground Force.”

Living in CT, through months and months of gray, I always have a special appreciation for the first flowers of the year. (I’m particularly attached to tulips, though daffodils and crocuses make earlier appearances.) These months of leafless trees and colorless landscapes make me love the British attitude toward flowers and plant life, even more than I already do (just the fact that they have “gardens” instead of “yards” makes me smile). This little bit of the article really solidifies what it is about their attitude that I love:

He then moved onto bigger beds (that also didn’t belong to him) down by the street, venturing out at 2 a.m. with fistfuls of flowers for residents to find afresh in the morning. “I felt like Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy,” he said.

So, this spring when I start getting the itch to plant I may just try a little guerilla gardening, and hope that CT’s authorities don’t frown on the unauthorized gardening of other people’s property.