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
No need to worry about a sidewalk, there are no pedestrians in this car centric neighborhood.
Wild to me that Americans aren’t allowed to do this
More that they don’t want to, which is worse.
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.
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.
“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 land of the fee
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.
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.
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?
Depends on HOA I guess.
That’s a low fucking bar
Gotta start somewhere 🤷🏻
My initial thought too. Something will eventually have to happen to suburbs
No that’s how gardening looks like
Yeah that’s a no-go. The lawn extension must be kept less than 12" tall under city ordinance, and you need a license if you’re going to sell or give away those vegetables…
Hence the anarchy.
I was worried about this and called the city/township and turns out, as long as it’s cultivated, my plants can be as tall as I want!
I can’t make a fence with trelliseseses though. They were very adamant about that.
you need a license if you’re going to sell or give away those vegetables
Wait what?
Does come with a cost?
It’s because something something business activity.
Something something taking potential profits from major chain grocery stores, and we can’t have that.
Just remember that most microplastics come from tires so you kinda don’t want to have food you eat growing right next to the road
Wait til you hear what kind of wheel tractors have
Busy roads, yes. Typical suburban neighborhood? Not really an issue.
You know where and how they grow the food you buy (assuming you don’t always buy organic at the farmers market)?
(assuming you don’t always buy organic at the farmers market)?
you remember we’re a bunch of weirdos here on the fediverse, right? i live in a city, right on the edge of farm country, and i go bike out to farms and flirt/banter/barter BBQ with the farmers until they let me buy a couple logs of wood off their orchard so’s i can smoke with local apple and peach. the only time i get produce from the grocery store and not the fruit stand/farmer’s market is when (a) my mother drops by any extra she’s picked up, (b) they don’t have kumquats at the local fruit stands and i don’t want to drive out 45 minutes out to the good tree and pick 3 kumquats offa one of my favorite brunch spot’s kumquat trees, or © i forget c but I swear it exists. i gotta plant me a kumquat tree.
Are they absorbed into the plants? Or just wash off?
My understanding is that they get into the soil and can then get into the plants. Then into your body.
That is unless you make a post on Facebook stating you revoke their permission to get into your body
Repost immediately!!! TOS update incoming!!!
I don’t know anything about biology but that’s not how I imagined that would work.
Toxins concentrate as you climb trophic levels. It’s why tuna has so much mercury in it compared to other fish.
Depends, but most will wash off.
Could make everything within ~3ft of the road non-edible natives, either companion plants for the food or native cultivars to help pollinators (which in turn, will help the edibles closer to the house). So there’s still a way to make this work!
yeah tbf i would not wanna eat anything that close to sidewalk anyway. dogs pee and poop there
Do you know what dirt is? Do you know what a honey-wagon is? Do you know where birds shit?
Obligatory rinse your produce remider here.
People here are pretty delusional about how food gets to the table and being overly concerned with some micro possibility of them actually noticing because they saw a study online.
they do?
Topsoil is mostly shit.
The amount from traffic one residential street would be infinitesimal I imagine.
From low-speed, light vehicles? I can’t imagine it would be significant compared to farms on the interstate with 50,000+ lb 25,000 km) trucks going 70+ mph (110 km/h) nearby.
Doomers have to comment on every nice thing
Somewhere between 9 and 28%, depending on the source. Far from “most”, but I learned something new today
It’s going to vary a lot depending on the road, specifically traffic volume and speed. Or, a four way stop where loads of drivers slam their brakes right in front of your property would probably also be pretty detrimental. For a quiet neighborhood street it would be paranoid worrying about micro plastic in your cucumbers imo.
what about four way stops where loads of drivers drop their truckloads of, let’s say tomatoes
i saw a tomato spill on the interstate the other day and i been thinking about it
Gotcha, garden in sleepy neighborhood, good. Garden on pit road at Talledega, bad.
i wish. neighbor down road has a garden like that.
and trump flags in his yard.
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
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?
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.
Removed by mod
bigotry against marginalized normadic people is not exactly very solarpunk
i suggest building solidarity instead
I can’t build shit when they steal my stuff man.
Jokes aside, I live in Serbia. It’s not “bigotry” here, it’s just being aware of your surroundings. But you always welcome to come here and prove me wrong.
Upd. Considering amount of downvotes I assume answer to my comment would be something like “you right and I hate you for this, but have nothing to say in my defense, so here your downvote”. Fine by me.
Congrats! You’re literally the European version of those Americans who are like “I’m not racist, but you gotta watch out around black folks”
People downvoting you don’t have any experience with organized theivery purporting itself as a custom. Plenty of respectable Romani that don’t act like con artists and crooks, but there are also plenty still causing the stigma to remain. Especially in Eastern Europe.
Why not call it criminal gangs, when that is what it is? Making an entire ethnic group responsible for the actions of some is racism.
I feel like that distinction is made by using the words Romani or Gypsy.
It isn’t.
It’s not stealing if it’s free
The deer density throughout much of America would make that impossible without some serious fencing.
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.
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.
“If there weren’t laws and God, what’s to keep me from rapin all day long?”
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.
I didn’t mean to upset the very serious anarchist.l in the meme comm.
McMansions in Background
This is what anarchy looks like
Where’s the sidewalk?
They mean like this:
But, a lot of neighborhoods don’t have them:
I specifically bought in a neighborhood with sidewalks, because kids. But, as GenX I didn’t anticipate that GenZ would be the first generation that didn’t play outside all summer like we used to.
I don’t know, My nieces are in VR or on their phones alot, but outside is still on equal footing. And they are meeting other kids out there.
I think for people that can sustain their social needs with indirect relationships, maybe. But anyone that needs in-person socializing, they are gonna go get it. They don’t go outside as much extra during the school year, but they spend the majority of summer break out there.
GenZ would be the first generation that didn’t play outside all summer like we used to.
Idk where you live but going outside in August is absolutely brutal down in Texas. All the kids go out in Fall and Winter, when the weather is much more bearable. You’ll have the running trails packed shoulder-to-shoulder for half a mile as soon as temperatures get under 90. But not a degree before.
This drives me nuts, I know sidewalks are an extra cost. But I’d happily pay a portion to get some put in around us.
I don’t live in an HOA, but I swear all the surrounding neighborhoods just don’t want them to keep the “riff raff” out. Still I ride bikes with my kid in the mega HOA neighborhood across the street, a lot flatter. Have to ride in the storm gutter if a car comes by.
They are building another mega HOA housing development next to the current one, houses at double the price. They certainly won’t have sidewalks because it’s targeting 60+. No restricted by age, but by money. They’ll probably put a gate on it too.
Didn’t even know that was a thing, where I live one side still requires a sidewalk.
We’ll need an after picture too, I assume they’re going to replace that concrete tightrope with one?
Respond to the wrong comment?
I think they’re commenting that the sidewalk is super skinny. I legit didn’t see it at first glance.
The sidewalk is 36” (1m actually) with a 12” curb.
It’s large enough for wheelchairs to get by. The road is also 40’ wide so two cars can pass with parking along each side. The vehicle in the back provides some scale.
Plus the bins in the back, they’re atleast 24” by 24”, clearly the sidewalk is wider.
So like, technically a sidewalk but that sidewalk is gonna be embarrassed af in gym class
I think they’re saying that sidewalk is too narrow, which it does look minimal compared to the street, like a wheelchair would have a hard time, especially with the edge curving down like that.
It’s a 40’ wide road with a 36” sidewalk and 12” curb. People can pass a wheelchair going down it fine. Look at the vehicle and the bins for scale context.
It think they’re trying to funny that there’s no shoulder, which would just waste space on a 40km/h residential road that is filled with parking after school and work.
a 36” sidewalk
So… About the minimum for a single person to walk with little leeway, normally in a safe indoor area with no car traffic?
36" is the absolute bare minimum required walkway space in the US by ADA to technically be wheelchair compliant in that a single wheelchair user might be able to use it, roughly half the minimum 1.8m clear width recommended by Australia’s Department of Transport, and less than half the 2m minimum unobstructed walkway space recommended for pedestrians in low-traffic areas by the UK’s department for transport. This is undeniably too narrow.
That road looks wide enough for about 4 cars, it’s not a “waste” to surrender some of that to make it slightly less hostile to pedestrians.
In the bottom right?
My city only requires sidewalks depending on how much vehicular traffic, how much foot traffic, and if kids are expected to navigate that street to get to school. And even then “one side” doesn’t mean “same side.” My house and the one next to my neighbor have the unfortunate yards missing sidewalks, meaning people have to use my next-for neighbor’s sidewalk, cross the street, use my neighbor’s sidewalk, and then can continue down until they have to cross the street again because the sidewalk is unusable at a certain point.
The reasons we have missing and broken sidewalks are that:
- The city won’t help pay for them
- The city has strict regulations on how they’re installed
- The 50-foot run of sidewalk would cost more than a car to install, and since they’re often seen as insurance liabilities, it’s practically impossible to get a reasonable loan to cover the up-front costs.
“My yard is the shitty impediment because I can’t afford to fund a public service” is not one of the sad realities of home ownership that I expected to encounter.
My city has a sidewalk renovation program, which is great.
I have a corner lot and practically triple the sidewalk my neighbors have. Cost me over 4 grand to have the city mandated sidewalk repairs done. Kind of a pain, but it was cheaper to get it bundled with them than to have a contractors come out and fix it.
The city has strict regulations on how they’re installed
Could you install a very narrow terrace at the front of your yard?
In many cases “the city has strict regulations on how they’re installed” should be read as “the city requires you to use one of their pre-approved contractors.”
If it’s for a sidewalk, yes. I’m wondering how strict their definition of sidewalk is.
Walk up the driveway, than under the wooden pergola at a 90 degree angle, than it turns to the house.
Driveways are parts of sidewalks, don’t need a seperate one if the driveway is wide enough to walk past the cars.
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.
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.
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.
what about the people you expell? what happens to them?
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
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
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
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…
