It’s now March and bare earth appears in scattered points along the sidewalk in my neighborhood. One year around I decided to turn the soil and put seeds in, I had specifically chosen because they balance the nutrients of the soil. The plants struggled to grow the first year but they started to actually bear fruit the second year. A few neighbors just started helping the plants stay healthy too. It seemed to be a spark that was inspiring community around me. The city tore it up the second year and life pulled me away from my plot.

All that’s to say, what is the best way to garden in protest? I keep staring at the lawn in front of city hall, with it’s bright green unproductive militant grass and I just want to tear it up. It could be used to grow tomatoes, peas, and squash instead of monument to defense. We the people could take care of it if the city would let us. I’d probably better off starting with a small traffic island that is completely barren. City used to have some flowers there, but I don’t know if it has the funds for it anymore. If I can start a garden on the traffic island, how do I make sure everyone who cares knows that it’s a protest against the land enclosures? That it’s a protest against the manufactured hunger imposed on us to keep the war machine running?