Photos de la rue Haute, Bruxelles - Mai 2012

A bit late, but here's some photos of the sunflower taken in May, rue Haute, Brussels. It's an invitation to you to go pass that street about now. They should be blooming.

They are coming out

Spotted this morning, the first sunflower sprouts showed up in places where we planted. Thanks to the rains from the last couple days, the seeds have finally had their share of water and can start their journey to a beautiful flower.

Have a look around your plantations and keep us informed with your results.

Using Villo bike-sharing to spread sunflower seeds

We've told you that we distributed 400 homemade seed bags on 1 May. Well, Soft, one of our longtime sunflower guerrilla planter had the idea to stick some of those on the community bicycles you see in Brussels, so they would spread randomly across the city.

So if you are a Villo user, you might have seen this. And if so, we would like to hear from you. Did you take it? Did you plant it?



Well, anyway, since those bike-sharing initiatives tend to spread to every major city in the world, maybe Guerrilla Gardeners could start using it to spread their message. There is a chance the crowd using those might be a bit more receptive to our message and actions than random people, don't you think?

Sunflower Guerrilla in Opont, Belgium

Never heard of Opont, Belgium before seeing this message on Facebook:



So I asked Le Renard Dormant if he would be willing to share some of his pictures with us. And here's what he sent:





As you can see, you don't need to be living in a crowded urban area to be guerrilla gardening. There is also places that can get some love wherever you are. And as it's been proven also before, it's a great activity to do with kids.

If you read this and want to share your contribution, please send any material (text, pictures or video) to brusselsfarmer@gmail.com. We 'd be happy to post it.

400 sachets de graines de trounesol distribués ce 1er Mai

Si vous êtes venu au rendez-vous Place Poelaert, vous savez de quoi je parle. Peut-être en avez vous reçu dans votre boîte au lettre ou bien un groupe d'inconnu vous en a remis au hasard des rues Bruxelloises.

Si vous ne savez pas quoi en faire, c'est simple. ;)
1. Prenez un petit outil, genre vieux clou ou vieux tournevis.
2. Descendez dans votre rue.
3. Trouvez un petit coin de terre et faites y quelques trous.
4. Déposez une graine dans chaque trou.
5. Allez au coin de terre suivant et recommencez jusqu'à ce que vous n'ayez plus de graine dans votre sachet.

Merci à tous ceux qui ont participé et n'oubliez pas d'envoyer vos photos ou compte rendu à brusselsfarmer@gmail.com

Tournesols à Woluwé-Saint-Pierre

Roser nous a envoyé cette photo il y a quelques temps. Voici un extrait de son mail:

« Voici les tournesols que j'ai planté a Woluwé Saint Pierre, ils ont créé une ambiance très sympa. J'en ai planté d'autres à l'hôpital Bordet mais ils les ont arraché. »

1st blooming sunflower from Brussels in 2009

and waiting for the others. ;)
Send your pictures at brusselsfarmer@gmail.com

Report from Laeken

Kaybxl sends us this: « Unfortunately a lot of the growing sunflowers where ripped or cut off, especially the ones under the trees and the ones I planted in the grass. Amazingly most of the seeds I planted in cracks in the pavement near buildings have survived. Maybe it's because of the "special" manure you can see on the last pic. »




Thanks kay :)

It's growing...

Tof called me the other day and said: « I'm around Louise and lots of sunflowers are growing here. Come and have a look ».

Then I saw this message from Richard:


So this afternoon, I had to go take some photos of the Brussels' sunflowers growing.

Have any photos of your plantation? Send it to us. We'll post it here.

Giant sunflowers defying heavy traffic

Sunflowers are amazing plants. Since more than two years, we've planted seeds in different areas. Many of us would never have guessed that it would actually work. Some of the areas we plant don't even have weeds on it. But sunflowers are strong and can obviously go through a lot of shit. Here's another example of it, sent by our friend Richard from Guerrilla Gardening. I wouldn't feel comfortable standing there with those trucks flying by. But, as Richard told me, without any care or watering, those sunflowers did almost reached the same height as the London double decker. Impressive.

London sunflowers are beautiful

Yes. That's it. London did get a better summer than we did. As a proof, look at their sunflowers. Giant, colorful and healthy. Or is it the soil? Or is it the seeds? Anyway, this should encourage all of us to do our best next spring. Prepare for the 1 May 2009 International Sunflower Guerrilla Day 3. Any farmer would donate some great sunflower seeds? That would be so welcome. ;-)

All photos are copyrighted to Richard Reynolds from Guerrilla Gardening

Photos from ISGD2 - Brussels

© Photo by Olivier VIN

Photos of the International Sunflower Guerrilla Day 2008 are coming in. Here is a little set from what happened in Brussels. Thanks to Angel and Heymana for sharing this. Your photos are awesome.

View all Angel photos here.
And Heymana set is here.

A little report of ISGD2

[ISGD2 = International Sunflower Guerrilla Day 2]
Here is a little a bit of news from the front outside Belgium.

Dave, from Osagegroup, Illinoy, USA, has posted some pictures on his blog.

"The dancing butterlfly" has written a nice little story about her sunflower plantation with her children. Read the full story here.

And Ben, from London, has been planting on New Kent road. He wrote and posted pictures about it on the Guerrilla Gardening forum.

More news from London will be coming soon, since I had the chance to be there on 1 May and see Richard's guerrilla gardening group in action.

If you want to share your experience of the International Sunflower Guerrilla Day 2, please, use the Guerrilla Gardening forum or mail us at brussels.farmer@gmail.com

On récolte ce que l'on sème

Froufrou nous envoie ces belles photos. Ses tournesols sont arrivés à maturité. Elle en a récolté les fruits et invite tous ceux qui le désirent à faire de même. Pourquoi pas une petite action "récoltons" dans Bruxelles (et ailleurs)? Avis aux amateurs.
Gardez bien les graines pour le 1er Mai 2008. ;-)





PS: Paraît qu'elle n'a pas récolté que ça, la froufrou. Mais Chhhhtttt. ;-)

Plantation à Evere

Un petit mail est arrivé dans la boîte comme suis:
"Bonjour,

Je vois que t'as un blog sur les tournesols. Ben justement cet été on a planté des graines de tournesols dans notre jardin a Evere et a notre grande surprise elles ont pris. Mais il y pousse un tournesol a fleurs multiples et mesurant bien plus de 3m de haut. J'ai ajouté quelques photos. La veranda mesure au moins 2m40 et le tournesol s'il est bien droit dépasse d'un mètre la veranda. La couronne de la plus grande fleur fait +-25cm de diametre. La derniere photo est un 2e tournesol qu'on a planté dans l'autre coin du jardin. Tu peux en faire un article sur ton blog si tu le souhaites.

Salutations,
Frederic"

Inutile de dire qu'on adore ce genre de mail (Tant pis, je le dis).
Merci Fred. Les photos sont super. Ce modèle de tournesol à plusieurs fleurs me surprendra toujours. Ca va faire un joli paquet de graines à récolter pour la plantation de l'année prochaine. Pourquoi pas faire toute la rue cette fois-ci. ;-)