The "Guerrilla Gardeners" are growing in number. Armed with spades and rakes, these activists are on a mission to create green spaces in our city centres.

The "guerrilla gardening" concept was born in the United States in the late seventies after an abandoned area of Manhattan was transformed into a community garden by a group christened the "Green Guerrillas". Re-launched four years ago by Londoner Richard Reynolds, the aesthetically pleasing, eco-friendly rebel movement is now making waves across the world. In Rome, Dublin and Cape Town you'll find illegal gardeners planting the cities' abandoned urban spaces with ornate and wild greenery.

The most daring of these garden-activists do their work by night. While they prey on roadside flower displays, they are preyed upon themselves by the police. Those who are less brave, however, can do their bit by emptying packets of seeds into crevices on the pavement on their way to work.