Brenda Dyck went rogue for the first time about 40 years ago.

She remembers how she grabbed her gardening tools, marched into a grassy field beyond her rental home, dug a small hole in the ground and planted her first apple tree.

鈥淚t was like a dopamine hit for me,鈥� says the 61-year-old from her home in British Columbia鈥檚 remote Cariboo Mountains.

鈥淚鈥檝e always been a hard-core gardener. I eat, sleep and breathe gardening.鈥�

She says she now regularly treks to a community shed near her home to drop off hundreds of seeds she has cultivated over decades to encourage more people to do what she had done 鈥� guerrilla gardening.

鈥淕uerrilla gardening is the act of gardening on land that does not belong to you without permission,鈥� Dyck says.

鈥淚t鈥檚 revolutionary. Especially in today鈥檚 climate, there鈥檚 so many people that don鈥檛 (own) land or can鈥檛 afford groceries. It鈥檚 better for the planet. It鈥檚 better for communities. It鈥檚 better for everybody.鈥�

Laura Taylor, an urban planning professor at York University in Toronto, says the term was coined in the 1970s in Brooklyn, N.Y.

鈥淭he community took over a place where buildings had been taken down because they were unsafe, and then the vacant lot was just left,鈥� Taylor says.

The area 鈥渨ent from a place that was an eyesore to a place where people were growing vegetables and getting food from it.鈥�

Taylor says it鈥檚 difficult to track how big the movement is, but it has been persistent since then, mostly in urban areas.

The act comes with risks, she says, as those who garden without permission on land they don鈥檛 own may be charged with trespassing, especially if the area has a sign that says No Trespassing, or if a gardener has been given a verbal warning to not enter.

Some zoning bylaws, which regulate how a property can be developed, used and maintained, may get rogue gardeners in trouble with the law.

Dyck agrees guerrilla gardening is difficult to track.

鈥淚t鈥檚 such an underground thing, because nobody wants to admit to it.鈥�

She says several gentle rebels who don鈥檛 own land and can鈥檛 afford groceries but have an itch for gardeninghave asked her for her seeds.

鈥淚f you can鈥檛 afford potatoes, you can have like three different kinds with my seeds,鈥� Dyck says.

She also doesn鈥檛 have an exact count of how many rogue gardens have sprouted because of her. But she receives hundreds of messages from people every month asking about her seeds, how to plant them and when she will be dropping them off next.

Dyck says she has never got into trouble.

The closest she got was when she went rogue that first time. After the apple tree expanded into a full-blown garden, some growing pots that Dyck had made out of old, broken household items including a vintage radio caught her landlord鈥檚 attention.

She says she received a letter from the developer asking her to remove her 鈥渇airy garden.鈥� After she gave him some of her vegetables and promised not to let the plants get in anyone鈥檚 way, Dyck says the developer was willing to look the other way.

Neighbours who watched her garden grow over the years also appreciated the seeds and fruits she gave out.

Megan Lewchuk, a horticulture technician in Alberta, says she learned about guerrilla gardening last year from a colleague who plants in areas owned by the City of Edmonton.

The 25-year-old says she fell in love with the concept, because she doesn鈥檛 know whether she鈥檒l ever own a home and have her own backyard.

鈥淥pportunities to plant more permanent things in areas I can come back to later is appealing,鈥� she says.

Lewchuk says she also deeply cares about the climate. She has planted willows, whose deep roots prevent erosion, without getting permission in Edmonton鈥檚 ravines.

She has also thrown 鈥渟eed bombs,鈥� which are seeds wrapped in compost and concrete, in urban areas in an attempt to fight the heat island effect. That鈥檚 when urban areas become several degrees hotter than the average daytime temperature because vegetation has been replaced with concrete.

鈥淎ny little difference is still a difference, you know?鈥� she says.

Eric Boyd, a Toronto-based semi-retired investor, says he guerrilla gardens to beautify places around his city with like-minded people.

鈥淚t is very gratifying to put something in the ground and then turn it into something beautiful as opposed to the infested space that it was previously,鈥� says Boyd.

He isn鈥檛 worried about getting caught, he says.

鈥淒on鈥檛 let some fear of the law stop you, OK?

鈥淣eighbours walk by and thank us 鈥� is by far the most common outcome.鈥�

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Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press