A new sculpture and garden have sprung up near where I live, on a little triangle of land carved out by two roads and under some train tracks. It suddenly appeared on the weekend, so I walked down today to have a closer look. It is so cool - the garden has been done properly, with stones and edging and trees and plants, and then the sculpture is of a big fibreglass troll with a sign that looks like the official RTA signs except it says "Have you paid your troll?" - very apt, since it sits under the bridge and Sydney has been taken over by toll roads in recent years.
I met some baffled contractors who had arrived to put posters up on the walls, which are now obscured by the troll and brick-printed paper. They knew nothing about the garden, and the troll had "Guerilla Gardeners" written on one side, so it didn't seem to be a council-sanctioned project... but I wondered who could afford to pay for such a big garden on a guerilla budget. I was very excited by the thought of independent guerilla artist / gardeners operating undercover in my suburb, and slightly deflated when a bit of googling revealed that Guerilla Gardeners is a new show that will be on Channel Ten in the new year. I can't quite imagine what this show will be like (Will it involve Jamie Durie? Will the least popular garden be eliminated each week?) - but I was very impressed with the garden. I hope that it stays, and that the plants survive.
