Gardening in a crisis

A talk for my local Extinction Rebellion group

Jake Rayson
August 19, 2023

Greetings and welcome. I’m having a bit of a summer break to recharge my batteries, so no more newsletters until early September.

I am giving a talk called Gardening in a Crisis for my local Extinction Rebellion group, as part of a Climate Matters/Her Yr Hinsawdd day at the Small World Theatre in Cardigan/Aberteifi on Saturday 9th September. There are some great talks, about climate justice, the river Teifi estuary in a time of climate change, and climate science and activism, plus a whole load of activities including block-printing and e-bike display.

You can see my name from here

For full details, have a look at the website xraberteifi.uk

Hope Garden

In other news, work progresses slowly with the Hope Garden. This is a show garden for the climate emergency, a wildlife forest garden with a Community Assembly at its heart 💚🌳🤲. We’re aiming to get into an RHS show in 2025. For more information about Community Assemblies, see this PDF here by Trust The People.

Once we’ve moved house, we’ll be applying for funding. I have set up a Ko-fi funding page! This is where I’ll be posting updates, at least until I have the website up and running, so do follow me there.

In my downtime, I’ve been playing with a prototype 10 metre by 15 metre space. I’ve used bamboo & string to create the assembly area, about 6m diameter, and it shows the 3 sections for the seating plus 1 section for the facilitator and note taker. I’ve used upturned supermarket crates in lieu of benches.

Crates for benches!

The final size will be more like 8 metres diameter, catering for about 25-30 people. The assembly area will be covered. I was thinking about a tipi, or a yurt. But I saw a simple canvas roof by our friends at BlueGreenCymru, and it works really well (and cheaply!) This is my comedy sketch: