Underground growers secretly splice fruit-bearing branches onto city trees

Guerrilla Grafters are vandals with hearts of gold. For the past year, the renegade gardeners have been risking the wrath of city officials by secretly splicing fruit-bearing twigs onto barren public trees in the Bay Area.

Combining guerrilla gardening with urban farming, the group aims to use the city's trees to provide "delicious, nutritious fruit for urban residents." Passers-by are encouraged to pull off the forbidden fruit and chomp away.

Officials at San Francisco's Public Works Department are none too pleased with what the group's work. Back in January, Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru told the SF Examiner that "the City considers vandalism a serious offense," adding, "there would be fines for damage to city property."

Ummm, okayyyy. Apparently they're splicing sticks in the mud over at SF Public Works.

For more info check out the Guerrilla Grafters website and Facebook page.

(via NPR)

Photo: Guerrilla grafter Tara Hui splices a fruiting pear branch onto a decorative fruit tree somewhere in the Bay Area. (Lonny Shavelson / NPR)