There are a couple of options for you, it kind of depends on where you live.
As far as I know, there are three community gardens in this town. One is near 6th and Mississippi (across the alley from Cork and Barrel). One is near the corner of 6th and Pennsylvania and is run by the East Lawrence Neighborhood Association, and the third is a new one (poorly located, though, in a very shady lot with horrible drainage) near the corner of 12th and Brook in far east Lawrence, and is run by the Brook Creek Neighborhood association.
All of these would be an option for you, I don't think you have to be a member of the neighborhood association to plant stuff there.
Another option is if you are a member of a church. At least St. John's downtown has a community garden; I'm sure there are other churches that would be open to it.
We have plenty of garden space, but personally, I like your idea of rogue gardening, and have done this many times. I mainly just throw extra, hardy flower seeds in vacant lots--cosmos, sunflower, zinnias and marigolds (the big ones). My husband planted some okra in a vacant space near our house, but the rainfall wasn't good for it this year. You almost need a space where you can quietly water them as you are walking by, if you want to actually get some fruit off of it.
Your landlord would probably be open to allowing a garden. Even a small one can produce big. I plan all my herbs and some of my veggies in my flower beds--so if there are flowerbeds around your complex, especially ones that aren't terribly well maintained, I'd jump on those and put some plants in there. Anything you can grow up the wall would be good, and you could make a trelles--squash, pole beans, cukes. You could put in basil and tomatoes for constant summer yumminess, they dont' take up much room. A couple of pepper plants space among the flowers will provide you with good spicing.
A small row of soybean plants will produce quite a bang for the buck--omigod, edemame (however you spell it) is a favorite at our house.
A small row of snap peas among the flowers will provide you with a week or more worth of delicious, sweet peas for your salads, for snacking on raw, or for stirfry.
For herbs to plant among the flowers I do--
Annuals--basil, stevia, parsley (plant a lot, it'll get eaten by caterpillars), cilantro, rosemary, dill (these will likely reseed--they are so tall and pretty when they are in bloom).
Perennials--sage--MUST HAVE SAGE! Oregano and mint--but beware--these are VERY INVASIVE and will choke out everything else around them. Plant them somewhere relatively sunny where you don't care if they grow over everything else--a patchy place in the yard where nothing grows is good.
Also lavendar, thyme.
Edible flowers like nasturtium are nice, I think. They really brighten up a salad. You can also plant salad greens in a nice sunny spot in a flower bed--plant them soon and they'll come up early, before alot of the flowers will.
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