Subsistence Gardening

Subsistence gardening is the act of gardening with the purpose of surviving largely on the crops you grow yourself.

With world events of late putting more and more pressure on people everywhere, with economic uncertainty and unwavering inflation of late stage capitalism upon us, with supply chain disruptions becoming all the more frequent, most people are having difficulty saving money these days. Many people - largely millennials and zoomers - have been asked to make sacrifices of things their parents and grandparents took as basic necessities. Nonetheless, the throes and sorrows of uncontested infinite growth economics are no doubt upon us here in the West, and as such, we must look to new ways of saving ourselves from a cold neoliberal_[1] world that cares very little about us.

As with many things worth doing, subsistence gardening comes as a set of problems that you must solve for yourself. Every person’s situation and preferences are different, so keep your own capacities, finances, resources, and tastes in mind when reading through this guide. Very few of us, the young in the west, have the privilege of owning a home, so the first problem with Subsistence Gardening that you must solve for yourself will be space. I happen to have found success in a presently highly-valued profession and as such am privileged enough to “own” my small parcel of stolen Treaty 7 land. No doubt a number of you may also own or otherwise have at your disposal a small piece of land somewhere as well, and as such will find the task of acquiring space simple or completed already. For those among us without the immense privilege of already owning a space for which to turn productive, I have a pair of advices for you.

1. The first is to look anywhere you can for Community Garden space. Community Gardens have become more and more popular in recent years and have begun springing up in affluent communities across North America. I’m sure in other places as well you’ll be able to find community-run and financed space to grow in. Gardeners are often quiet folk and you may even have a community garden that’s been hiding just beyond your reach all along. Many are located near transit stations and are accessible from nearby neighbourhoods as well. Some may come with a small fee, so be prepared for that, but others may be free.

2. The second is to find underutilised land wherever it may be and colonise it for yourself. Guerrilla gardening, some may call it. Take your handfuls of seeds and spread them along walkways and paths you take in your day to day journeys and allow them to grow in places near and far in areas you’re likely to see them again come harvest time. You’ll be surprised what you can get away with when doing this. Look for space in areas that are overlooked - you’ll be surprised how much food you can grow in the gap between a public walkway and a private fence, and also how few people will notice or bother your plants. Beans are a great staple crop for planting in small patches of sparse soil and gravel between concrete and asphalt in the urban jungle. You may even get away with planting a small vegetable patch in the margins of a public park. Take these places and make them your own - your gardens.

Whatever the space you find for planting, the principles of a subsistence garden are roughly the same, though some considerations must be made. A subsistence garden is a garden that focuses on growing primarily staple food crops. A staple food crop is a crop that checks off most or all of these criteria:

1. Starchy and can be stored for long periods of time

2. A food that you will not tire of eating

3. Calorie dense enough to give you the bulk of your calories in a meal

4. Efficient enough that it takes very little input for large amounts of harvest

Think about what vegetables you eat on a daily or weekly basis, make a list - chances are there’s going to be a staple crop in there like potatoes, beans, peas or lentils, yams, squash, or corn. Any of which would be a welcome addition to your sustenance garden.

Gardening and producing your own food is just one of many different paths to food security - but it's one I wholly endorse and encourage anyone to do, regardless of economic condition.