Guerilla Gardener // Steven Wheen's Pot Hole Gardens

All photos by Steven WheenGuerilla gardener Steven Wheen calls his Pot Hole Gardener Project "part art, part labor of love, part experiment, part mission to highlight how shit our roads are." As he currently lives in East London, we feel compelled to ask him: "Steven, have you ever been to Brooklyn?? We could really use you over here."

Wheen doesn't claim to be the first guerilla gardener around, but his pot hole miniatures are so charming that he's one of the first to catch our attention. (Note the image above, which, unless you have magical eyes, truly does appear life-size when photgraphed at the right angle.) Meanwhile, each mini-garden is planted in a pot hole, gigantic crack or gaping space between bricks, and each has its own theme; Wimbledon, William and Kate's wedding, a wine 'n' cheese picnic, usually accompanied by one of Wheen's recurring icons; a simple red telephone box.

While there's the underlying motive of pointing out how badly paved the streets in East London are, the real point of all of this is to bring some color to the gloom, and we love that. Walking around Brooklyn we're hardly starved for street art, but very rarely do we get the feeling an artist is trying to get us to literally stop and smell the roses--or in this case, the daisies, daffodils and kangaroo paw. 

Below are a couple more of Wheen's tableauxs--now please, let's get this man to Morgan Avenue.

 -- Perrin Drumm