Give it three weeks of good sun and enough rain, and all those plants will be very happy, twice the size, and unruly as it comes. Much more “anarchy” than these neat rows.
I didn’t mean to upset the very serious anarchist.
but anarchy is the freedom to break out of neat prescribed rows if they don’t fit us
Aye, but that’s not what they were saying. They were using the word as a synonym for chaos. A conflation of words that needs to be broken if anybody is to even begin to understand anarchism.
Anarchy = chaos has been used as a thought termination device since time immemorial, to shut up and confuse debate, to instill fear, and keep the rulers ruling.
So what part of anarchy is stopping passersby from ripping up the veg and taking them home just before they’re fully ready to be harvested? Wait no, I’ll grant you that’s more of a GOP narcissist move, so what about the ones who just rip apart the still-growing garden for the hell of it? If you asked them they would consider themselves anarchists.
“If there weren’t laws and God, what’s to keep me from rapin all day long?”
Wild to me that Americans aren’t allowed to do this
It can get overly complicated. there’s so many random laws that basically you give up. Like I have a tiny garden in the back yard, which won’t give you issues; but the front yard can result in a $250 daily fine if it’s not to their liking. I had to cut off part of my driveway, which everyone else has, so my lot can be more “herbaceous” because someone (neighbor that has a tree cutting company, salty cunt) across the street called the city about me trimming a tree so a branch so it didn’t fall on my roof. I made sure to get the shittiest invasive grass you can get.
In Massachusetts near Boston I do not have to deal with any of that shit so my front yard looks exactly like this.
I’m pretty sure that this mostly comes down to whether or not you have an HOA. HOAs are the literal devil.
HOAs are probably okay for condos where the property is shared. Other than that I agree. Also they are rooted in racism so I harshly judge people in single family suburbs defending them.
As Sam wrote, HOAs are terrible. I thought I escaped by moving only to have the city do the same, sigh. Bonus points: I have a old oak tree that’s half dead, can’t be cut down because it’s “protected” and it’s destroying my foundation and driveway. But the next hurricane will likely topple the tree on the road and it’s their problem then since the area it’s on is “city property” so yeah you’re luck you can have a garden. I really wanted to put one in the front yard then again the tree will kill it all anyway.
I am only lucky in my front yard. My back yard has 3 very large trees shading it. I would never cut them down but did find out pawpaws love shade and started down a rabbit hole of what else can I do back here.
The US is a big place. Whether or not you’re allowed to do this depends on where you live.
I went to Portland, OR about a year ago, and wandered aimlessly for a couple hours before concluding that Portland is the world capital of front-yard gardening.
And our average house price is only $550,000!
Yeah, but I’ve been told America is the Land of the Free, not Land of the Free, some conditions apply. Not applicable in certain jurisdictions. Check with your doctor if you are in an area free enough to grow a garden.
It’s land of the fee
“Land of the free” has only ever been propaganda. Free to sell your body and soul to a capitalist or starve to death under a bridge. Wow, what freedom.
It’s the land of the free for the specific class, race, and ideology that phrase was implicitly intended to cover.
Yeah, for example, Earthships are more difficult to build here in Europe (regulations…) than in, for example, New Mexico where they originated.
They are, just depends if you’re in an HOA or what the laws are if you’re within city limits. If you’re in unincorporated land then it’s pretty free and wild. Earth ships are a thing and started in New Mexico.
lol I just noticed that comment after i did post a very similar comment…
But for example suburbs are indeed a little bit well… badly regulated…
Is it normal in suburbs / cities?
Normal? Probably not normal anywhere. The money and effort in farming usually isn’t offset by the production of such a small plot. It would be more of a hobby. What is more common is a dedicated space for farming within a suburban area. Typically they have a shared area and you pay monthly for your plot. Either that or some people with a green thumb in urban areas can turn their high-rise apartment into quite the greenhouse.
When it comes to feeding the masses efficiently farmland is still the dominant and most efficient method in most countries.
Hell, it even depends on the HOA. I live in an HOA and there are plenty of yards in the neighborhood like this. We have a pretty chill HOA. It doesn’t do much beyond taking care of a few communal spaces, organizing a couple of annual events like a community garage sale, and enforcing the most absolute basic of yard maintenance requirements. (A well-tended garden on the front yard is perfectly fine. Turning your yard into a junkyard or having three foot high grass in your front yard isn’t. You can do what you want with your property, it just needs to be clean and intentional. You could convert your whole yard over to zero-maintenance clover, and that would be perfectly fine.)
And that’s the kind of HOA I like. I do want my neighbors to maintain their properties. I want people to be free to mold their homes into whatever form they want, but no one intentionally sets out to have a yard filled with junk cars or three foot high grass. People plant grass with the intention of mowing it, it just gets away from them.
If you want grass, mow it. If you want a garden, plant it and tend it. If you want the lowest environmental impact and least effort, plant clover or other low-maintenance ground cover. Do whatever you want. I don’t care. Just keep it clean and intentional. Hell, one of my neighbors keeps a giant demon skeleton in their front yard year-round. It’s weird, but it’s intentional, so it’s fine.
I don’t want to live in a neighborhood where every house is the same. I want the freedom to express myself through my home, and I want my neighbors to have the same freedom. But at the same time, I want to live in a place where people maintain their homes. I don’t care what form you maintain your home to. But I do want it maintained. Grow as big of a garden as you want, just don’t neglect it and let it get overgrown. If you just don’t have the time and resources for a lot of yard maintenance, plant something like clover. It doesn’t take a lot of effort or resources to keep a yard neat and clean.
Americans entirely do this. It really just depends where you live
Tell me you are a politically illiterate “left”-lib without telling me you are a politically illiterate “left”-lib
I’m out of the loop, what’s a “left”-lib?
Anyone I disagree with. Look, I drew them as the virgin and I am the Chad.
Someone who grows food for their neighbors I guess
It’s all fun until you end up doing all the work and people come trample it trying to get food. Maybe that’s just a California problem…
This looks like an inexpensive hobby where labor cost is not factored in when you gift your neighbors extra food instead of preserving it. The neighbors might love you, but this is not really sustainable if you don’t get anything in return.
When I help People, I get something out of that. I feel GOOD. Try it. It works.
I enjoy that immensely myself when gardening. I’m just not suggesting this as a generalizable way to feed (or organize) society which the word anarchism suggests.
Meh, regardless of whether or not we can grow enough in home gardens to feed everyone (obviously we cannot), the benefits of having access to lots of fresh veggies nearby + the social aspect of finding solidarity with your neighbors in mutual aid seems to be more the point here, not that literally this garden is enough.
That and the fact that most people associate “anarchy” with something scary, but here is an example of one of the most radical things you can do and it’s something you’re granny probably does, thus “anarchy” is not scary seems to also be the point of this post
Food preservation is a lot of work, better to spread it on many shoulders. Usually what happens is that the neighbours return some glasses of jam etc. as a thank you.
O.O
I’ve seen how my neighbors park their cars and look after their kids. I would not trust them to make anything that requires precision and attention.
Botulism is no joke.
O.O
Are you for real?
I can assure you that botulism in self-made jams is an absolute freak event that is less likely than being struck by a meterorite 🙄
And you can easily see when a jam has turned bad otherwise and just discard it 🤷
Maybe not jams in particular, but canning in general is not something I would trust my neighbors to do.
I would probably turn it into alcohol
This is your brain on capitalism…
Indeed. I’m just criticizing OP suggesting this might be a way to structure society in general. I’m a fan of anarchism, but like many idealized political systems it doesn’t work as advertised. Same for communism and capitalism. That’s why sensible nations have long chosen social capitalism.
No one is suggesting this is a way to structure society. It’s an example of a small, radical action an individual can take.
Anarchism can look like seemingly small, community-focused acts. The point is that it is not scary or apocalyptic. It is also not a single defined system that either “works” or “doesn’t work”.
Ararchism works great so long and the entire group is committed to the plan, and retains the power to expell any person who tries to take advantage. To each as required, from each as able is more arnarchistic than communist. It’s the attempt of one in group to obtain and retain that power of expulsion that leads to a power structure.
And as long as the group is small and does not need to sustain itself without an external exchange of capital and goods. Like a commune, but working in the real world.
The group can be any size so long as everyone involved is against structured social power. How much digression from the ethos is allowed is up to the community at large
what about the people you expell? what happens to them?
If they cannot play nicely, it’s not my prerogative to care. Imo anarchy is for people who can get along, those who cannot can go bar bar where ever they want, somewhere else.
your ideal society has a mechanism for depersoning a certain group of people to the point that they can be sent to die in the wilderness?
I’m open to alternatives, that’s the whole point. I don’t think imprisonment is right, and it doesn’t work regardless. Obviously this isn’t a first transgression punishment, but how would you deal with a person that refuses to contribute and only takes, despite being fully able to? This is a good discussion
Yeah… Why would I want to share a few bottles of plum mead I made with friends, nothing in return!
Much better to sit inside on your own without any friends and never speaking to anyone. Makes it easier to blame minorities for all of the problems in society too.
Except the blame minorities part, I don’t mind the sit inside on my own bit, as a hermit by nature. I’d still grow stuff to share with the community as much as I’m able though. Just because I don’t want to interact with people face to face doesn’t mean I don’t care that they are fed
But you’re expecting of a return. That’s not what it’s about
Such a rotten mindset. “Neighbors might love you” but “you don’t get anything in return”.
Love is not nothing man! Even if you can’t quantify it into moneys.
Feed your neighbours?
That amount of land is unlikely to feed a single person, let alone their neighbours.
https://fincatierra.com/journal/how-much-land-to-feed-a-person
solarpunk tends to be more about vibes than viability
Who’s to say that they’re only gardening on this single plot of land? Why not plant a food forest in your front and back yard, and coordinate with your neighbors to have the whole neighborhood build a food coop?
Also, how do you get “feed your neighbor every single calorie they will ever need” out of this meme? You’re literally just loading a whole bunch of extra baggage onto a simple point that we should be growing and sharing food for our community. There’s no reason to make perfect the enemy of good.
I live in a town that is experiencing significant growth. The plot of land across the street from me had one house on it, it was torn down and they’re building four in its place. My own house sits on two lots, so I have an above average amount of land for this suburban town. My yard, all told, is 8-10 times the size of what is pictured above.
I couldn’t grow a year’s worth of side dishes for myself on my land, if I knocked down every tree and shrub and replaced them with something productive. I do some backyard gardening, I can a year’s worth of jelly (in fact that’s a project for this coming week) and I raise a summer’s worth of peppers and tomatoes.
Feed your neighbours the occasional veggie during summertime.
I miss giant zucchinis. The groundhogs have defeated everyone in my neighborhood.
I think it’s assumed that we are to imagine we’re looking at a small part of a whole.
anarchy looks like that yard being paved over and 5 hobo’s crowding around a flaming barrel. Captialism is what this looks like since that garden is clearly a hobby.
“Anarchy under the umbrella of a very authoritarian system.”
Arguably, “Socialism under the umbrella of a very authoritarian barely-socialist system.”
A scientist would tell you this is bad data. Arguably good propaganda, but bad science.
Y’all’s interpretation of anarchy is not good in this thread. Has anybody read the theory!?
You will all eat VERY VERY well for about 2 weeks out of the year.
Ya gotta pickle and dehydrate. Last time I had room for a garden I got the preservation and storage down in my last season.
Buy a dehydrator, never make jerky in it, you’ll never get the smell out. Works great for beans, onions and carrots.
There’s not much besides lettuce and tomatoes you can’t pickle out of a temperate zone type garden.
I was eating well well into winter.
I have a 12-tray Cabellas dehydrator and have made loads of jerky. I even bought a slicer.
I’ve pickeled, I’ve helped my mother can back in the day.
I love my neighbors, but fuck no, that’s WAY too much work.
At my last house I did hydroponic swiss shard. I’m thinking about cranking that up inside this winter.
I tried lettuce, but could never get it to harden off. as soon as I plucked the leaves they just went limp, it was like they were inflated by the water.
You will have 1 month where you struggle to consume way too much of one single vegetable every week and you will dread having to find different recipes to use ot all up.
Maybe that’s when to feed your neighbours.
Ours just gave us a load of tomatoes and aubergine. Lovely.
If we’d had more than 6 strawberries we’d probably have shared too lol.
Yeah our neighbours have ven bigger gardens so not really
Everyone in your neighbourhood has a bigger vegetable garden than you, and grows the same vegetables as you (if they were different vegetables, they might want those)?
Also they also harvest in the same two week window as you?
Because if it’s outside that window, then everyone can spread the love on their own harvest week.
Right now I have about 16 very large cucumbers. I don’t even like pickles that much.
My 15 yo daughter eats cucumbers like apples, she would mow through those 16 in one week.
I think you gave birth to a rabbit.
Do they stomp their feet too when angry?
Who? Daughters or rabbits? Nevermind, the answer is yes!
i wish. neighbor down road has a garden like that.
and trump flags in his yard.
Go start a conversation
You can’t have a conversation with someone who is unwilling to change their stance, no matter the evidence provided in front of them.
I drive a blue car. I refuse to have a conversation with someone who tells me it’s yellow. Or that I don’t actually drive a car, but it’s actually a horse.
My Maga neighbor will tell you how much he hates all the Black people in the neighborhood.
I don’t think it’s a good idea to tell people to waste their time and energy on people that are not going to be saved. You can use that energy to help your own people and it is a much better use of it.
And you know I’m going to take this a step further and ask you why the fuck you assume we’re not having conversations with those people? It’s them refusing the conversation. What rock have you crawled out from under?
Remember: don’t argue with people that John Brown would’ve shot
i tried. he then walked up to my house when i was not home and asked my wife, who also complimented his garden, “what position are you in when thinking about me and my garden?”
so … trump flag + sex pest. = he can fuck off.
Lmfao oh my God that is classic boomer trump supporters, I’m sorry that happened but shit is kinda funny. They have no fucking filter.
lol. dont disagree. he almost got pepper sprayed but yesh. he’d not learn either way.
“Damn libs turn aggressive just because you ask a simple question”
hahah right?! “can i put it in you?” “no?” “fucking libs, always ruining my boners.”
One thing you’ll find out about a lot of MAGA-heads is that a lot of them just despise Democrats to their core and think Owning The Libs is more important than whatever the fuck Trump is actually up to.
Very common to see this kind of guy up in New York or Massachusetts or out in California, where its barely more than a protest vote against whatever D-branded ghouls - your Newsoms and Cuomos and Katherine Clarks - are currently ruling their state. My dad was a staunch environmentalist, a shameless outspoken anti-racist, and a die-hard Reaganite. I still don’t understand it to this day, but he made the math work in his own head somehow.
Reagan Democrats George Lakoff: Moral Politics https://youtu.be/5f9R9MtkpqM?t=1821
One thing you’ll find out about a lot of MAGA-heads is that a lot of them just despise Democrats to their core and think Owning The Libs is more important than whatever the fuck Trump is actually up to.
Owning the Libs by… checks notes creating a neighbourhood garden for friends to have free access to fresh fruits and veggies and… Wait a minute…
anarchism never required not hating your neighbor
No, this is some middle class bullshit.
Not on the side of the road and then I’d be perfect.
Hey now - you’re great no matter where you are!
No need to worry about a sidewalk, there are no pedestrians in this car centric neighborhood.
Imagine living in america and having laws about your garden.
Buy a house not in a HOA. Problem solved. I grow stuff in my front yard every year
There are municipalities and counties that have classist lawn laws, too. In some places you either have to fight them and win or leave.
That didn’t come to mind. Where I’ve lived that’s never been a thing, the state even gave us tax credits to not have a lawn
Some places even make it illegal to collect rainwater. It’s ridiculous.
No state currently does. Very few have limits on the amount of catchment, the only one I know is Utah and the limit is 2500 gallons. Other states just say it can’t be used for potable water
I assume rainwater collection problems usually occur on the municipal or county level.
I have never heard of one. I lived in one for a while that actually encouraged rainwater collection because it helps keep stormwater systems from overflowing during storms.
Right, I had a friend who had a cop show up to their house because… their grass was too long. Absolutely unhinged.
