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permaculture - Re: Lawn Obsession...Ortho products

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  • From: "Ava Devenport" <essenheal@iname.com>
  • To: permaculture
  • Subject: Re: Lawn Obsession...Ortho products
  • Date: Wed, 31 May 2000 10:17:14


On 05/30/00, ""Claude Genest" <genest@together.net>" wrote:
> Oh Ava !
>
> Don't knbow wether to laugh or cry on that one !
> Cheez, I'd only heard good things about Indiana till now ( my brother went
> to Purdue).
> This lawn business is worse than I thought.
> Apparently there was an Oprah show recently devoted to the splendors of a
> manicured lawn.
> What madness.


Speaking of Purdue! Home of Dr. Jim Simons and his 'New Crop' program.
Wonderful ideas regarding sustainable living, new fiber and chemical crops
for agriculture. Supposed to help put the American Farmer back on the map
(other countries have discovered they can grow corn & wheat, also). The
only problem with this program is that they take most of the educational
programs out of the country. Mint is the only crop education/workshops
they have available for this state, which has only been producing mint
since my grandparents can remember!

They do nothing here to help support permaculture, sustainability, etc.
I've tried getting information, etc. from Dr. Simon and he won't even take
the time to respond. I thought that since he was on the board of United
Plant Savers, which I'm a charter member of, that I might have a little
pull with them and nothing! I had to write to other organizations to get
grants/seeds/roots to help with the Wetland Restoration Program we had
set-up at one of our local state parks.

I also do agri-research with fiber/chemical crops (latex for green-earth
building). I recieve the seeds (untreated) from the Agricultural Research
arm of the USDA. Purdue has trial crop research on two of the plants I'm
working with and they haven't sent copies of the research to me regardless
of many requests I've made.

> I changed the tilte of this email cause I wanted to share with the group a
> little bonus I got from Ortho, manufacturer of nasty chemicals (and some
> decent books).
> I noticed a weed identification chart at a gardening store that I felt would
> be useful to help me identify all those beneficial "weeds" that I might want
> to encourage. (i.e spare rom mowing)
> Anyway, I went to Ortho's web site and asked for one and , lickety-split,
> it's on it's way !
> Hee-hee. (I don't why I'm so tickled by this, feel like I'm being naughty or
> something..)


Good for you! I love weeds! They're beautiful, nutritious, beneficial to
the environment and make lovely gardens. They don't mind poor soil or
little water and the less you care for them, the better they grow! I have
some recipes for dandelion wine and jelly, but I can't use them because my
9-year old eats ALL of the blossoms before I can get to them. Well, at
least he has a healthy liver!

Blessings,
Ava




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