Tea at Trianon: Crisis Gardening

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 5, 2020

Crisis Gardening

From Permaculture Apprentice:

You would be surprised how little space and plants it takes to produce an overabundance of nutrient crops such as fresh greens. The image below is a photo of my silverbeet bed in my mini-greenhouse, the bed is some 60 cm x 120 cm ( 2 ft x 4 ft). Currently, it feeds three families; my own, my parents, and my cousin’s. So some 9-12 plants in this small raised bed are enough to supply us + others with fresh silverbeet throughout the growing season. We would need another bed like this to get us through the winter months as there is no regrowth, but the point is we don’t need to grow much silverbeet to fulfill our needs.

It’s good to know this when you’re setting up your garden and thinking about how many seeds/plants/transplants you’ll need and how much space you’ll need to dedicate to each crop. Getting this right saves you money on seeds, time, and labor on growing, and you get to use your gardening space more effectively. So let me outline the steps to take if you want to plan your crisis garden the right way from the outset. I’ll describe each step in detail and, where applicable, link to various web resources to help you with your planning. (Read more.)