Gardeners without borders

Working under the cover of night. Photograph: Helen Ives

I am a self-proclaimed guerrilla gardener, one of hundreds around the world who cultivate public space, illicitly, and often under cover of darkness, writes Richard Reynolds.

We do this because we cannot resist the satisfaction of turning a dilapidated patch of land into something more delightful. In place of compacted mud, rampant dandelions, and empty smoothie bottles we dig in manure, and plant hardy shrubs and luminous bedding.