Here’s some material from workshops I’ve been teaching. I thought at first that I was teaching about gardening, then realized that I was teaching about gardening as politics.

“ We have to begin the process of reclaiming control over all of the processes that are most important to our existence.” - Silvia Federici, in the film, What is Democracy?

Here are some of the workshop topics:

GROUND: Why plant in the ground instead of in a container or a pot?

ENERGY: What it takes to grow even a small amount of food.

RADICAL VIEWS OF GARDENING: Both right and left.

MANURE: Do you need animals? Composting as an activity that creates spaces for bacteria and fungi.

POLLINATORS: A palette of flowering fruits and vegetables to attract and support insects.

LAZINESS: Care time is almost always uncompensated. Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, Masanobu Fukuoka.

ALTERNATIVE FUTURES: Donna Haraway. Linked communities. Communities at all.

SOLAR GREENHOUSES: All plants need three inputs: light, living soil and water. If you are a designer, or if you’re designing a system that you have to depend on, you need all three.

MUSHROOMS: Even if you can’t grow anything else.