One last illicit addition from a recent walk. I picked a few prickly pears off of cacti in the city landscaping, slipped them into my pockets (prickles and all—ouch), and brought them home to bury. I might have a problem. Time was, I vaguely enjoyed people’s flowers and xeriscaping. Now everywhere I look on our morning walks I’m hungrily inspecting what’s in bloom, what’s going to seed, what’s ripe for the taking at each yard’s edge.
All this theft of cuttings and seeds might be considered a form of guerrilla gardening—maybe in reverse? Instead of descending upon neglected patches of land and revitalizing them with unauthorized plantings, which is the mission of the original guerrilla gardeners, I’m taking up neglected bits of potential plant life and giving them a home.