![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Interesting tidbit from a book
"The prototypical formal "urban" garden was invented in ancient Rome. It featured paved terraces, geometrical and highly formal beds edged with clipped evergreen hedges, topiaries, and statuary. The Roman "Manicured" look screamed, "Look! I have slaves!" because it was so incredibly labor intensive. The manicured look is still very energy intensive, though these days a lot of the work is accomplished with machines and chemicals.
The cost of hands-off gardening are still at least as high as they were in Pliny's day, when he complained: "He whose fields are cultivated in his absence by slave labor, agitates his fields and cultivates his own future desperation.". The desperation Pliny was referring to included loss of topsoil, loss of fertility, and erosion induced by agriculture and logging. Modern agriculture still suffers from the old complaints, but has added chemically polluted soil, air, and water to the ancient list."
Excerpted from Eat More DIRT: Diverting and Instructive Tips for Growing an Organic Garden, by Ellen Sandbeck.
The cost of hands-off gardening are still at least as high as they were in Pliny's day, when he complained: "He whose fields are cultivated in his absence by slave labor, agitates his fields and cultivates his own future desperation.". The desperation Pliny was referring to included loss of topsoil, loss of fertility, and erosion induced by agriculture and logging. Modern agriculture still suffers from the old complaints, but has added chemically polluted soil, air, and water to the ancient list."
Excerpted from Eat More DIRT: Diverting and Instructive Tips for Growing an Organic Garden, by Ellen Sandbeck.