Inside The Garden: The self-described ‘egalitarian, alternative, leaderless community’ that some have accused of being a CULT

The isolated community known as The Garden has come under fierce criticism as it continues to battle claims by some that it is a cult.

The off-grid group, formerly known as Shut Up And Grow It, is based on a 21.5-acre parcel in Lafayette, Tennessee.

It promotes a “low-impact lifestyle” and describes itself as “an egalitarian, alternative, leaderless community, promoting a culture of sharing, freedom and cooperation.”

But the company faced dozens of accusations that it was a cult after wild rumors began circulating online.

Here, FEMAIL delves into the reality of The Garden as a new Discovery docuseries explores whether it is ‘Commune or Cult’.

The Garden was founded in 2009 by Patrick Martion after he purchased a piece of land for $52,500. Business insider.

Describing his motivations in a previous YouTube video, he said: ‘This place specifically had a very clear purpose and that was to empower and enable as many people as possible as quickly as possible to no longer need money.

‘I don’t believe people have the right to own any part of the Earth, especially not to keep it away from other people. That doesn’t really seem logical to me.

‘I believe that the earth is for all people and all life to share and that if we try to keep it away from each other. There is no point.’

He continued, “I had a vision where we were going to get this land, I was going to put it on the Internet and let people know what we were going to do, and people would flock to it.

‘In reality, when we put it on the market, we attracted a lot of people who were addicted in various ways or were just looking for a place to stay for free – not a lot of people believed in the vision.”

Patrick nevertheless persevered and decided that the community would operate according to its own social rules.

The first rule ever imposed was ‘no violence’, to which Patrick added: ‘Basically we made the rules as the problems arose through consensus.’

Patrick said they had previously housed 60 people for two months, but this was a ‘tax’ on their water system and compost house – both of which have since been modernised.

He emphasized that it is a community with a specific mission to help spread self-sustainability practices on a larger scale, but admitted that: ‘There are some very deep in there psychological things we have to do breakthrough before it works.’

The garden has now been operational for almost 14 years and over time new buildings and activities are developed.

Newcomers must undergo a ten-day initiation period before voting on whether they can become permanent members.

Once permitted, accommodation options include a range of cabins or converted school buses.

Chores are shared equally among residents, including cleaning, construction and farming, with all food grown on site.

The group holds “councils” on Wednesdays and Sundays to discuss urgent topics that require “100 percent consensus.”

Members will make a proposal and if anyone objects, they will only have 10 seconds to speak out against it.

If the proposal is met with silence, it is passed.

No formal background checks are conducted for new participants, but anyone staying at The Garden for more than two weeks can ask a newcomer to leave.

The Garden made waves in January 2021 when the group collectively decided to start posting TikToks to promote their works.

In one of these clips, social media user TreeisAlive, who has more than 125,000 followers on the video sharing platform, says gave a tour of the facilities in an effort to attract like-minded people.

But the videos quickly blew up and conspiracy theories began to spread about the community being a cult rather than a commune, with many picking apart what they considered “unsavory behavior.”

Tree, who was born in Liverpool but grew up in Ireland, quickly responded to a comment under his first video: “It’s definitely a cult, dude. It looks exactly like the Manson family’s ‘commune’.

The content creator decided to hit back by going around members ask if it was a cult – where all the people filmed responded with a resounding no.

However, the biggest story to tarnish the community’s reputation was that of a feral cat that was shot and killed for attacking livestock.

But viewers took issue with the group then admitting to eating it and turning its skin into a hat.

The Garden members defended their actions because they don’t believe in waste, but it was an uphill battle to fight.

Similarly, another member of The Garden, Rel Gumson, who has since left the group, sparked strong backlash after making a TikTok video of herself passing around a wine-filled jug labeled Kool-Aid.

She claimed it was made in reference to controversial figure Ken Kesey’s 1960s movement, but most viewers felt it missed the point about the mass murder-suicide of Peoples Temple cult members by leader Jim Jones.

Rumors continued to spread and the wave of hate escalated, with several authorities being called to The Garden, including animal control and child protection.

In the immediate aftermath, The Garden closed its doors to all visitors, which it had previously encouraged.

Rel, who appears to have since deleted her TikTok account, said at the time: “No matter how many times we have proven time and time again that all accusations are just outright misinformation and lies, people harass us all the time. ‘

She concluded, “You guys have ruined it for everyone.”

DailyMail.com has contacted The Garden in Tennessee for comment.

But speaking to Vice in 2021, Patrick denied accusations that The Garden was a cult, joking: “Of course that’s what a cult would say.”

He continued: ‘We have no religious ideology, we don’t try to control people, people are free to come and go, we are free-thinking individuals.

“To some people, any intentional community will seem like a cult.”

Discovery’s series entitled TThe garden: commune or cult? focuses on the group’s ‘community land project’ in Emberfield.

It follows several potential newcomers as they try to prove themselves to the community at large.