While rogue knitters may be “vandalizing” statues around town, all that “knit graffiti” doesn’t really reduce carbon dioxide levels, now does it? What about using shadowy forces to green the city instead?

As Washington City Paper reported in 2008, guerrilla gardening is not a new concept in the District:

Unlike celebrity guerrilla gardener [Richard] Reynolds, who, in his recently published book—as the Times mag reports—makes “references to horticultural ‘sleeper cells’ and ‘shock and awe’ plantings,'” [Columbia Heights resident Marcus] Popetz doesn’t act as if he’s involved in environmentally responsible espionage. There’s been no night-time gardening or “seed bombs” at the plot on Columbia Road. Popetz and crew (made up of the garden’s co-leader Sara Eigenberg and at any given time six to eight other gardeners) have never really tried to hide their work.

Though technically, the community-oriented green thumbers are trespassing, no one seems to mind, especially not the neighborhood kids who help weed or the senior citizens who get handed surplus veggies. And the city, which is still trying to locate the owners of the abandoned lot the guerrillas commandeered, has not only failed to give the gardeners any grief but erected a gate to help protect the project.

Maybe the knitters and the gardeners can join forces?