Guerrilla gardeners breathe life into ghost estates

Sneaking onto derelict housing estates to plant trees and commit other crimes of beauty may sound a little odd, but mounting frustration with the eyesores left over from the building boom has finally reached a tipping point.

Ghost estates — empty shopping centres, abandoned hotels, unfinished housing projects, skeletal office buildings and half-completed golf courses — are a vivid reminder of the profligacy of a property rush which imploded more than four years ago, bringing down the rest of the economy.

Guerrilla gardening, a phenomenon born in the US which involves planting trees, flowers and other forms of beautification on public or private land without permission, is part of the next wave of community-led initiatives seeking to tidy up the blighted landscape.