Planting food crops in wild or unfarmed places spreads your sources of food at almost no cost, but treat the yield as a bonus, not a supply: weeds, browsing animals and seed-eaters take much of it. The harder problems are safety, since roadsides and abandoned lots can carry polluted soil and wild-planted food can be mistaken for toxic lookalikes, and ownership, since planting on someone else’s land or spreading an invasive plant causes conflict and lasting damage.
Part of Defensive Agriculture
Wild planting, or guerrilla gardening, is the sowing or planting of food plants in places nobody cultivates, so that they grow with little or no care.
What The Parent Article Suggests, And What To Check
The parent article lists planting along waterways (jerusalem artichoke, watercress, wild rice), in forest margins (ramps, “ginger”, mushroom logs), on disturbed ground (squash, sunflower and bean seeds), and seed balls thrown into inaccessible places. Each carries a catch.
Along waterways.
- Jerusalem artichoke spreads by its tubers and is hard to remove once it has taken hold. A stream bank can wash tubers downstream and start new stands where you did not intend them.
- Watercress should be harvested only from clean water. Where sheep or cattle graze upstream it can carry the liver fluke parasite (a widely documented risk; recalled, not sourced in this corpus), and water that has received sewage is contaminated. If in doubt, cook it, and do not gather it below pasture.
- Wild rice needs shallow, slow water and is sown from fresh seed that has not been allowed to dry out (recalled). It is native to parts of North America and East Asia: plant it only where it already grows. It is not a quick crop.
In forest margins.
- Ramps are slow to establish from seed (years; recalled) and are easily over-harvested. Take a few leaves from each plant and leave the bulb.
- “Ginger” needs correcting. The ginger sold as a spice (Zingiber officinale) is tropical and will not survive a temperate forest winter. The forest plant called wild ginger (Asarum) is a different genus and contains aristolochic acids, which damage the kidneys and cause cancer (recalled). Do not eat it.
- Mushroom logs are an established practice with hardwood logs inoculated with a known species. They give results after a year or more, and they are safe only if you can identify what you grow.
On disturbed ground.
- “Nutrient-rich.” The parent article calls roadsides, abandoned lots and construction sites nutrient-rich. They are also the places most likely to carry lead, hydrocarbons and other pollutants in the soil (recalled), which crops, especially roots and leafy vegetables, can take up. Do not use such ground for food without knowing what was there.
- “Will produce even without care.” Seeds scattered without care face weeds, browsing animals and seed-eating birds and rodents. Squash from saved seed can produce bitter fruit, caused by cucurbitacins, which can poison you; if a squash or gourd tastes bitter, spit it out and do not eat it (recalled).
Seed balls. They cost almost nothing, but seeds on the surface are eaten, and this corpus gives no evidence of high survival (unsourced). Use them as a long shot, not a plan.
The Identification Problem
A wild planting is meant to be found by you, but it can be found by anyone. A stranger who recognises an edible plant may eat a toxic lookalike nearby; water hemlock, a deadly lookalike of several edible plants, grows on stream banks (recalled). You cannot label it without revealing it. Keep a written list at the base of what is planted, where, when and what the lookalikes are, in two places, so the knowledge outlives one person (see Knowledge Preservation).
Method: Plant Wild With Fewer Surprises
Step 1: Choose species already present or native. Do not plant anything that spreads aggressively into a place where it did not grow.
Step 2: Check the ground. Avoid roadsides, old industrial sites and lots of unknown use. Prefer ground you know the history of.
Step 3: Check ownership and neighbours. Plant where you have the right to, or have asked. A planting that provokes a landholder is a quarrel you start yourself.
Step 4: Plant in the right season and give each planting a chance: water once, protect seedlings if you can.
Step 5: Record and revisit. Note the location and date, and look once or twice a season. Harvest sparingly.
Common Mistakes
- Planting on polluted ground. The crop carries the pollutant.
- Spreading an invasive. It cannot be called back.
- Treating the yield as supply. Plan for what you can count on; see Seed Saving for keeping the seed that works.
- Eating a “wild ginger” or a bitter squash.
- No record. The planting is lost when the planter is.
Toxic plants, polluted soil and contaminated water
Wild ginger, bitter squash and lookalikes of edible plants can poison people, and you should not wait for symptoms: stop eating it, rinse the mouth and seek help. Food grown in polluted soil or gathered from fouled water carries what is in it. Never plant a toxic species in a place where children or livestock go.
What’s Next
- Learn next: Camouflaged Crop Selection — which crops are safe to leave unattended
- Combine with: Fruits and Berries — identification rules for wild fruit