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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] To Cut or Not to Cut

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  • From: "Kirby Fry" <peace@totalaccess.net>
  • To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] To Cut or Not to Cut
  • Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 07:39:13 -0600

Hi Gene,

Wow, you're daughter's already graduated college? My girls are ten and eight now. It's been a long time hasn't it?

It's funny, the older I get and more jobs I do, the less I wince at removing woody brush and small trees that have grown up where they may do harm - against slabs, rubbing against roofs, in the middle of gardens, etc.

In a garden, especially in a demonstration garden, I like to be able to see the plants we're cultivating and be able to take pictures and see what's going on. Typically, the N2 fixing trees that I've planted close to the fruit trees are acacias and mesquite that don't shade the sunlight as much as a mature hackberry might. So even though a hackberry might fix nitrogen it may not be the best farmer's tree to have up against your fig.

However, if you want to leave the hackberry because it's pleasant and useful then you really just need to know how long until your fig tree's health and fig production begin to decline, verses a stand alone tree in similar conditions (Kevin?). In Houston, our neighbor's figs turned into big trees under the shade of pines and live oaks. We had to climb up the tree or get on the garage roof to get the fruit. Hard freezes, though, seem to keep figs at the large woody bush / small tree stage. You could also take another graft from the fig tree, plant it somewhere else and allow the two other trees to follow Nature's course.

On our land we have a nice ratio of about 50/50, grass to trees. If I did nothing it would be all trees within 25 years, which could be a good thing in and of itself. However, the prairies and savannahs of Texas are ecotones, or transition zones between your great eastern forest and the plains and deserts of the west. There's lots of edge between the grasses and trees, but without the bison, mule deer and antelope there's not enough disturbance to maintain the grasses. We, to some degree, have to become that disturbance in their absence.

Point being, our open spaces and edges are preciouse to me and I'm pretty picky about what I fill hem up with when we're planting a food system or building a homestead. Take care,

Kirby







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