How many laws are you breaking in bonsai?

[BillsBayou]

Two spots have caught my eye. One is a vacant fast food restaurant. Out front, in a large planter, are two MASSIVE black pines. Each is only 4 feet tall due to constant trimming. I want these very very much.

Another spot is close to the airport right in the flight path. A large neighborhood was razed as some mandated airport buyout to protect people's homes in the event of a plane crash. The demolition crews left it as some sort of vacant park with trees and shrubs where gardens used to be. We can't actually use it as a park, but it looks nice. I was asked by the police to stop looking at the azaleas.

[centaura]

Sometimes stores or owners don't have a problem with you collecting, if you ask. There was a road expansion in front of a garden center near me, and as I was visiting the center I noticed a huge juniper that had been dug up and was just sitting there. I asked the management of the store, and they said that I could have it. Took me a while to wrangle the thing into my car and get it home - unfortunately, it didn't make it. I assume due to it getting too damaged when it was dug up, and I don't know how long it had sat on the roadside before I hauled it home.

The moral is, if you can find the owner, permission can often be had.

-Cat

[bschanding]

I've also wanted not to illegally collect, but illegally plant. With such little space on my property, it frustrates me to see owners of vacant lots just let them go wild. I'd like to put some raised beds in these spaces and thicken some trees by planting them out. Guerilla gardening! I just worry the owners would suddenly decide they wanted to do something with the space and dig them up as weeds.

[lewisjk]

I've also wanted not to illegally collect, but illegally plant. With such little space on my property, it frustrates me to see owners of vacant lots just let them go wild. I'd like to put some raised beds in these spaces and thicken some trees by planting them out. Guerilla gardening! I just worry the owners would suddenly decide they wanted to do something with the space and dig them up as weeds.

Good thought, and I know in my area some vacant lots have been loaned out as community gardens. The general idea is, of course, for vegetables, but I see no reason why you couldn't plant some bonsai-to-be in there, too. All this has to be worked out with the property owner, though. Most are more than willing to escape the need to periodically mow the lot, and clear litter from it -- so it wouldn't hurt to ask.

[centaura]

Some vacant lot owners don't mind "loaning" their land, or making a deal - it can help them out. My neighbor used up his backyard with a mother-in-law's apartment and garage, so has little growing space, and with my house & the trees - no full sun. He grows vegetables and other things in the yard of the vacant house across the alley from our backyards in exchange for mowing the lawn there (he has a deal with the owner). Win-win for both - the house looks slightly less vacant with a mown lawn and garden, and he gets a nice plot of full-sun land to grow in.

-Cat