Guerrilla in the city: Monkeys in the car park

Guerrilla gardening. There's something inherently edgy to it. Something appropriately urban about it.

And yet - I won't lie - it doesn't sit naturally with me. For me, the act of being forced underground, to garden on the sly, is a must rather than want.

After all, I've always loved gardening, and was lucky to grow up having free reign over the garden. But living the life of a city slicker, the reality is that the only outside space I have is a few square metres of quality tarmac in an outdoor car park.

So - and here's my excuse - whatever I did re plants in the city, it was inevitably going to lead to some guerrilla gardening.

It was inevitable, too, that when me and my partner noticed that a shrubby border in the car park, only planted last summer, had been neglected and choked out by weeds, we were forced to take matters into our own hands.

The first time we worked on the border, we took out a bag full of weeds - mostly couch grass - picked up a huge amount of litter, and tended the shrubs. It's surprisingly hard to garden by the glow of the car's headlights...

After our first forays into guerrilla gardening, we've braved the border during the day - and got the green light from the caretaker. Daylight, as opposed to dipped headlights, has the bonus of making fingertip weeding easier and means we get to enjoy the fruits of our labour, including the rosy blooms of our camellia and lily-pad lushness of early nasturtium leaves.

We're not planning to go wild - after all, it's an area that is communal, albeit forgotten. But so far, our work has totally paid off.

We planted delicate aubretia and trailing ivy in some existing concrete planters and created a loose framework for the honeysuckle that was already there. It's brought form and a little bit of colour to an otherwise hard and functional landscape - and hopefully a bit of light to our unwitting car park buddies.

However, what's best about our guerrilla efforts is that, in a small way, we've made a real impact. Without us, the border would be forgotten, the shrubs choked out by weeds - at best, a wilderness, and at worst a valid argument to extend the car park and harden the landscape.

It's a small step, but it feels great to foster nature and beauty in a little patch of the city, and help turn grey to green.