Convivial Greenstreets

EDIBLE WILD PLANTS FROM THE FIELD

a mash-up of ecology, horticulture and street counter-culture

Altstadt neighborhood, Bonn, Germany

I've been intrigued by verdant European streetscapes since the 1990s. After years of scouting, rambling and reflection (flânerie!), I chose 'convivial greenstreet' as an umbrella term for the informal and improvisational streetside gardening that was emerging in dense, yardless urban cores.

In certain precincts, it is apparent that plants and their accoutrements—nestled fortuitously and intentionally in spaces between facade and street—are serving multiples purposes: creative, re-creative, productive, discursive, ecological. But most essentially, our research suggests that this gardening mode engages along the street as lingua franca: a prelude to, and context for, an inclusive conviviality that builds communities of planterly practice.

These plants and their containers mostly squat on public rights-of-way. Such transgressions are usually tolerated by civic authorities. In fact, most larger Dutch cities support residents' removal of streetfront paving tiles to create geveltuinen ('facade gardens') and boomspiegels ('tree mirrors').

The convivial greenstreet may trace its lineage to contested urban spaces of the past. New York City's Green Guerrillas of the early 1970s and anti-war street activism in 1960s come to mind. In fact, Hensel & Hensel (2010) make a case for ancient settlement patterns defined by 'smooth spaces' that defy conventional figure-ground theory and rigid modernist ideas on who owns what in the city. The movement certainly seems consistent with broader trends in makeshift urbanism (as distinct from the formal civic streetscape).

The mingling of plants, soils, gardener, passersby, street canyon and persistent ecological processes all coalesce as mini socio-ecological systems that may be antidotal to problems in the urban realm. We invite further research on the roles that convivial greenstreets may be playing, from the socio-psychological to offsetting climate change impacts.

Cities studied thus far

Belgium: Brussels | Ghent | Bruges

Denmark and Sweden: Copenhagen | Roskilde | Lund

France: Paris

Spain: Barcelona | Madrid | Tarragona | Toledo | Olot

Czech Republic: Prague | Karlštejn

Hungary: Budapest | Szentendre

Portugal: Lisbon | Cascais | Sintra

Puerto Rico: San Juan | Ponce

Ireland: Dublin | Limerick | Galway

Scotland: Edinburgh | Dundee

Iceland: Reykjavik