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  • From: Daniel Jager <dfjager@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [permaculture] Know your ecosystem
  • Date: Mon, 26 Dec 2011 06:36:55 -0800 (PST)

In another forum on Natural farming, Fukuoka style, a discussion came up
about how abandoned fields invariably turn out very lush, vibrant and green
given enough time.

I have seen that myself in many places around the world, in many different
climates. Abandoned fields, never tended to, are lush, diverse and
flourishing. Yet not everything grows there. Apparently only those species
that are perfectly adapted to the conditions of that field at that particular
time. This we know in Permaculture.

I wish to share a specific example I recently observed in Thailand:

After the flooding in Thailand, I lost almost my two homegardens. The area
were in lived (and will continue to do so), was flooded for 7 weeks with 8 ft
of water. Pomegranates, Starfruit, Acerola, Surinam cherries, bananas,
papayas, Moringa, passionfruit, Marian plum, breadfruit, etc, etc. All gone.
It was much the same with the homegardens of most people around me.

And yet, the abandoned housing allotments around my house were still vibrant,
much as they were before the flood. Most trees even started to bloom like
there hadn't even been a flood.
The area, former rice fields drained 20 years ago and left to develop
naturally, is overgrown with Darwin Black wattles, Raintrees and Leadtrees.
The underbrush in the rainy season is dense and diverse and lianas are
already up to an inch thick in places. And best of all, none of this was
planted; it is all just natural regeneration on these waterlogged soils.

So I wondered what these trees knew that I didn't know.
I found out that the land in and around Bangkok was originally fresh water
swamp forest, often inundated for 6 months in a row, very much like some
areas in the Amazon delta in South America. Now it rarely floods though.
Still the soils outside of the raised gardens get very soggy in the rainy
season. So soggy, that most tree roots have a hard time and not many trees
will take.
The dumb part is, I should have known this! I trained in uni as a Physical
Geographer and I grew up in the Netherlands, of all swampy places in the
world. It guess it was my pride and ignorance that dismissed the obvious
evidence in my location and resolved to grow unadapted trees.

While in flood evacuation, I went to look for fruit trees that can grow in
tropical fresh water swamp conditions, and was surprised that I managed to
find some 40 species that can tolerate it, to varying degrees. So I restarted
the garden already with seeds from specially adapted trees.

---
With modern pumps and drainage systems and soil improvements, people here
(but also in my home country of the Netherlands) *think* that they have
changed the area to suit their purposes. But that is an illusion!
They changed the surface and apparently it looks fine, but the roots of trees
reach below the surface and very soon they find out... 'This is swamp land!'

In Natural farming, or in Permaculture, if we are perceptive and recognize
the limitations of our location, and seek perfectly adapted species to suit
our conditions, I have know doubt we will be successful AND fully in-tune
with Nature.

Daniel




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