The Anarchist Gardener

I do not believe in government, religion, or any hierarchy outside of a family unit (with the adult partners being equal). But this is not a political blog (mostly). This blog is a reflection of my belief that anarchists need to learn self reliance more than they need to learn how to make protest signs. I don't really expect people to read this, but if anyone does I will be posting the various ways I repurpose items, grow my own food, save seeds, and hope that it helps you gain some control over your life.

[biggest-gaudiest-poltergeist]

recently learned about a horticultural technique called Espalier, it’s the funniest goddamn thing i’ve ever seen.

Espalier allows trees to be trained into 2-dimensions, by tying the branches to a flat surface as the tree grows. They literally flatten the tree. They make the tree flat. Flat tree!!!

Look at this. This is objectively hilarious:

And people get fancy about it. Look at this nonsense:

(the first one’s called a Belgian Fence, and can be used as an actual fence)

Espalier is actually a very useful technique for

increasing fruit yield

gardening is small spaces

maximizing or minimizing sunlight (since the branches all face the same direction) and therefore extending the growing season

Like. this is a legitimately practical gardening method. but it looks like they squished a tree between the pages of a book. just squashed it flat like a sad little dried flower! i could use these trees as a bookmark!!!

But yes, it is also a healthy and clever way to grow lots of fruit in small spaces, in climates they might not otherwise be suited for. I’m still going to make fun of it, but it honestly looks delightful and delicious.

Espalier!

[callmebliss-got-swamped]

Flat tree/flattery puns GO GO GO

[anarchistgardener]

How can I convince my neighbors to all do this to replace our fences?

[gael-garcia]

Salt of the Earth (1954), dir. Herbert J. Biberman

[thecringeandwincefactory-deacti]

Damn, son.

[kommunistika]

EVERYONE SHOULD WATCH SALT OF THE EARTH

[em578]

Salt of the Earth actually has a crazy interesting history- OP already said it was made in 1954, but that was in the middle of the Red Scare (communism scary cold war hysteria)

Congress’s anti-communism target fell hard on Hollywood, and those in the industry who were suspected of communism at all were blacklisted from all jobs, because studio’s didn’t want to face backlash from Congress

Salt of the Earth was made nearly 100% with blacklisted crew members from Hollywood, and had such difficulty finding actors that they hired local citizens and miners from the actual strike the plot is based on. There were only 5 trained actors involved, and one of them (Rosaura Revueltas, the woman in the gif) was deported to Mexico before they finished filming on accusations of communism, with no proof and no substance. The filming was plagued with police harassment and threats (according to my professor they were shot at more than once), and the local union hall was burned down.

The movie itself not only covers a real 1950′s labor strike demanding safer and more equal labor conditions for Mexican-American employees, but after the miners were facing arrest, their wives and children took up the strike in their place. The movie’s combination of blacklisted crew, civil rights and feminist message, and pro-union plot (during the red scare) got the movie blacklisted and only 12 theaters in the entire United States would show the movie- it was successful in Europe, but didn’t actually achieve viewership in the US until the 60′s

[gael-garcia]

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/mar/10/salt-of-the-earth-labour-workers-blacklisted-filmmakers

[beabaseball]

It is available on YouTube for free

[anarchistgardener]

Remember what today is about, union workers who stood against big business and the police to earn the rights that all working people in the US now benefit from. Don’t let those same people who support corporate, military, and police supremacy take away those rights. Fight “right to work” laws that strip working-class people of their power and lower wages. Support unions and support worker’s rights even if you aren’t in a union. Their struggles are all of ours and we all benefit when unions are strong.

Also, don’t forget sex workers in that. They are the ones often targeted first because of religious groups’ concerted efforts against them. As we saw last month with onlyfans reversing their decision to ban sex workers from their platform, workers and the public can work against big business and religious zealots.

https://youtu.be/6FnX-nwBDbI

Today I’m making some food in my solar ovens again. Chicken wings in the big one and bagel bites in the small one, because we know how to party. For the people who asked last time: The ovens are made by a company named Gosun. These aren’t made by union workers, unfortunately, but it’s difficult to find many things that are anymore.

[hopephd]

Seizure First Aid. 

Learn it. Share it. Know it. Use it. 

[king-in-yellow]

100% correct medical information on tumblr for once; also consider calling 911 if you don’t know how often the person has seizures and ESPECIALLY if the seizure has lasted 5 minutes or more (which is why the watch is critical)

[lukesvalentine-blog1]

I have epilepsy so making sure the word is out on how to help people who do have seizures means a lot to me.

[anarchistgardener]

For those of us with loved ones who have seizures, please remember these so you know what to do and what not to do if you encounter someone having one.

[anarchistgardener]

Pest control: the best defense is a good offense. So as the area we live in has increasing numbers of invasive mosquito species we’re trying to find ways to keep their numbers at bay. Some have been working, while others we hope will work in the long-run, and one is a complete accident.

First, we implemented a “no kill” policy with native spiders. So basically the only spiders we kill in our yard are the invasive Brown Widow species. It might creep me out a bit to come across so many of them but they’re doing a damn good job of pest controlling.

Next, we bought a bat box to try and attract some bats to help out with the mosquitoes and other insects, but we don’t seem to have any yet. Hoping that our suburban soundscape isn’t too loud for them and eventually some will find their way here.

The pest control measure I’ve been enjoying the most, and has been completely accidental, was attracting hummingbirds to our yard. I see them out the window of my office everyday eating large numbers of gnats, mosquitos, and other flying insects. To be honest, I felt rather dumb because I never thought about hummingbirds eating anything other than nectar before. But I’ve been loving the action because they are like little attack helicopters. Plus they sit right outside the window and groom themselves which is pretty funny.

[anarchistgardener]

Pest control: the best defense is a good offense. So as the area we live in has increasing numbers of invasive mosquito species we’re trying to find ways to keep their numbers at bay. Some have been working, while others we hope will work in the long-run, and one is a complete accident.

First, we implemented a “no kill” policy with native spiders. So basically the only spiders we kill in our yard are the invasive Brown Widow species. It might creep me out a bit to come across so many of them but they’re doing a damn good job of pest controlling.

Next, we bought a bat box to try and attract some bats to help out with the mosquitoes and other insects, but we don’t seem to have any yet. Hoping that our suburban soundscape isn’t too loud for them and eventually some will find their way here.

The pest control measure I’ve been enjoying the most, and has been completely accidental, was attracting hummingbirds to our yard. I see them out the window of my office everyday eating large numbers of gnats, mosquitos, and other flying insects. To be honest, I felt rather dumb because I never thought about hummingbirds eating anything other than nectar before. But I’ve been loving the action because they are like little attack helicopters. Plus they sit right outside the window and groom themselves which is pretty funny.

[anarchistgardener]

Skill building. I need to replace these tires, but since one of them already had a self tapping screw stuck in it I wanted to use this as a chance to practice patching/plugging a hole for when we’re out in the middle of nowhere. Guess I need to add needle-nose pliers to my emergency roadside kit because the normal pliers were not cutting it. This screw went into the tire diagonally and had been worn down flat, making it difficult to grab. The pictures here have text to them describing what was done, but this will not be a permanent fix. This is just something I wanted to get better at because it seems we end up picking up nails, screws, or other hardware in the tires every year. Largely because lots of people seem to burn scrap wood in primitive camping locations, which leaves behind all the meta crap in them. Please don’t do that, it’s shitty for the environment and causes shit like this to happen to other people.

[anarchistgardener]

Another thing I worked on: converting an old SUV into a kind of camper-van. The reasons why:

- because we already had this car, it was a hand-me-down, so we didn’t need to pay for it and newer SUV’s have not gotten much better in terms of efficiency.

- It is able to carry all of us and anything we need to camp, including acting as our sleeping area.

- We can travel and camp for relatively little money, and not need to interact with many people, which during a pandemic is really good.

- so now we can, on a whim, decide to go camping and in a few minutes be on the road to the middle of nowhere with everything we need.

Again, I had to buy a lot of stuff for this, which sucks, but honestly the total cost of this was about the same as staying for a week in a nice-ish hotel.

Starting with the SUV as it normally was I removed the third row of seats and made 2 pallets out of plywood and 2x6 boards. The bottom of the pallets are 1/4” plywood and the tops are 3/4”. This gave us room for storage and an even surface to sleep on. We initially put a 4” memory foam topper on the pallets but it ended up being not comfortable and was really hot to sleep on during the spring and summer. So we’ve replaced it with thin camping pads and a small air mattress.

Next I made some boards for the back Windows, which act as storage for camping/hiking equipment, insulate the sleeping area a bit more, and give some privacy/blocking light if you want to sleep in. On the passenger side board we have cubbies for everyone to put toothbrushes and other personal toiletries, there are also hooks to hang camelbacks on, and a pack I mounted on the board to hold sunblock and bug repellent.

The passenger side board has hooks for our walking sticks, and first aide kit. The back window has been blocked out with shiny bubble wrap for insulation and privacy. Now that made things difficult because I couldn’t use the rear view mirror anymore, so I got a front and rear drive cam that has a live rear view display.

Next I got a rooftop tent because having 4 people in the back of the SUV is possible, but not comfortable. I researched them online and found the one I wanted on eBay for about $500 less than you could find it through retailers. This is where I learned something about products that have pricing set by the manufacturer.

Companies like Sony, Apple, and even off-road product manufacturers like SmittyBilt will dictate the sale price to their retailers so that no one can use coupons or sell them for less than a competitor. But, these same retailers who agree to those terms on their websites will also sell products on eBay to circumvent those agreements. So, this rooftop tent cost $800, with free shipping, vs the $1,200ish at the normal retail price. So…if there’s something ridiculous you want, check eBay as well because these companies will backstab one another if they can.

I also got one of these new E-coolers, basically a portable mini fridge on wheels. So we could bring food from home rather than relying on fast food or normal “camping” food staples. The cooler runs off the cigarette lighter while driving and off portable battery pack I made in my previous posts when we’re at camp. The battery back is charged by the solar panel you see in the pictures.

We so far we have taken this to the Colorado river for a few days, as well as a few days in Joshua Tree and it was great on both trips. Setup and breakdown of camp was quick and easy, everyone slept and ate well, and had a great time.

BUT, we found that the rooftop tent killed our gas mileage, because it’s really not aerodynamic. So taking a few tips from commercial trucks I made a fairing out of some plexiglass I had and some pieces of aluminum and steel. This should cut down on wind resistance from the tent dramatically, which will hopefully restore some of the former fuel economy. Our next planned trips in the summer and fall are to: Lake Tahoe, Kings Canyon, Great Basin, Death Valley, and Saguaro national parks.

Eventually I would like to get rid of the gas powered SUV, but until we get better battery technology or get viable super-capacitors to power cars the environments costs of getting a new vehicle outweigh using this one, because of how infrequently it is used.

[antifainternational]

THROWBACK THURSDAY: MLK weekend 1989: anti-racist skinheads from all over the midwest U.S. converge in Minneapolis' Uptown library for the first-ever meeting of The Syndicate - a network of anti-racist skinhead crews that later formed the foundations of the Anti-Racist Action network.

[anarchistgardener]

I hate to say “here’s a thing I bought” but I have bought some cool solar powered items recently, things I could not build myself, and one I really like is this solar oven. The only problem I had with it was that it sat on the ground, which limited the places I could use it and how it could be oriented. Horizontally it can be used as a solar oven to bake or cook things, I made lemon poppy seed muffins yesterday, vertically it can heat up water. So to make using it vertically easier and to make it useful horizontally on uneven ground I decided to put in a tripod mount from an old camera. The base of the oven is aluminum so it was easy to drill a hole short enough to fit a jack nut into the base. Then it was just a matter of tightening the nut, which crushes the sides of the nut out and seals it in place. Now I can use this on uneven ground, vertically, and not need to crouch down to check on it or clean dust off it as much.

[anarchistgardener]

This has become on of my favorite songs of the last few years. Ultimately it is pointing out how we, normal people, are largely not to blame for the state of the world, and that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up as much as we do for the marginal impact we have on the environment. That we shouldn’t torture ourselves mentally because we want to eat and live and be happy. And I think that’s a good thing to keep in mind.

https://youtu.be/M0tBgQxur3g

[anarchistgardener]

Another thing I’ve become interested in is blacksmithing. I’ve learned how to weld and do some basic metal work but thought this might be fun to learn as well, and would give me a bit of an upper body workout too. But, getting into something like that can be expensive, so I decided to give it a try before investing much into it, to make sure I actually liked it.

To get started I decided to build a forge that can run off of wood, charcoal, coal, or coke (a coal derived product where the impurities have been burned out of it in an oxygen free environment). Now none of these fuels are “green”, which I struggle with, but I bought some coke because it seems to be the most energy dense fuel and is at least somewhat cleaner than coal, but it still sucks.

To make the forge I used some extra metal I had sitting around from previous projects, including some old brake drums from an old car in rebuilding. The construction is simple and quick if you have the tools.

Parts listed from top to bottom:

Brake drum

2” pipe flange

8”x8”x1/8” steel plate with a hole cut in it for the pipes to go through

2” pipe nipple

2” pipe tee

2” pipe length 6” long

2” pipe cap

Square tubing for legs

3” bendable ducting from pipe tee to hairdryer

Cheap hairdryer

Now I need to find the time to put it to use and try to make some tools, like tongs, so I can start trying to make other things. Should be fun, although it’s about to start heating up for the summer so maybe I can do this at night. But I am going to widen the stance of the legs first for a little more stability.

[anarchistgardener]

So, I’ve been mostly dormant on here for a while, but I’ve been doing a lot of stuff lately and figured people might be interested in, or not. 🤷🏻‍♂️

This first project was making a relatively inexpensive portable battery “generator” for when we go camping. Now I did have to buy pretty much all of these pieces, but was able to put together a 420 watt-hour power station that I can charge with a solar panel and can run ac and dc powered items. The components I got were:

35 amp hour 12v deep cycle battery from harbor freight

Solar charging regulator from harbor freight

DC to AC power inverter from harbor freight

I got all of these pieces when they had a 25% off deal around Xmas, so I was able to get all 3 of them for $88ish

The remaining pieces I got from an RV store and they were a battery case and a battery charge reader...thingy.

The assembly was pretty straightforward. Put the battery in the box, wire everything to the battery, put the lid on, and glue the inverter and reader to the outside of the box. This has worked really well the last few trips we’ve been on and has been able to run our electric cooler (basically a horizontal mini fridge on wheels) while we’ve been to a few middle of nowhere trips. My 100w solar panel is also able to recharge this in about a day of normal sunlight, at least according to the reader thing.

It might not be as pretty as the ones you can find at retailers, but it’s a lot less expensive. And if something goes wrong I can replace that part rather than buy a whole new unit.

[anarchistgardener]

a new planting season begins... some chocolate ghost peppers sprouting in my garage. They’ll be here for several weeks as they grow and I start to harden them. They will likely be planted outside by mid March. Normally it would be earlier than that but I’ve been working on cars and some other things that put me behind.

[anarchistgardener]

Decided to buy one of these native pollinator houses and it seems we have our first tenant moving in. Thinking about making a bat box too so we can get some help with the mosquitoes that are moving into our area.

[sweetsurrender68-deactivated202]

[richardalexanderrr]

growth of a seed

[kingjaffejoffer]

nature is raw af

[anarchistgardener]

Some little invaders fighting in the side yard garden among the green beans.