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nafex - Re: [nafex] Blue Understory

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  • From: lee sharp <sharplr@yahoo.com>
  • To: nafex@egroups.com
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Blue Understory
  • Date: Wed, 10 Jan 2001 13:03:45 -0800 (PST)

If you do not know what Florida betony is you must not
have it and you should consider yourself lucky.
Because once you get it you will spend the rest of
your life trying to eradicate it.


--- rick valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com> wrote:
> >As a new tangent- has anyone had any luck finding
> compatible and
> >useful/edible understory/groundcover plants for
> blueberries? Besides
> >quackgrass, I mean. ;) Plants that help keep weeds
> out, like the same
> >conditions as the blues', and add a yield to the
> mix?
>
> So far we have cranberry & lingonberry. I'll add my
> own successes to the
> list: Gaultheria miqueliana and Houttynia cordata. I
> see a pattern
> developing: creepy little Ericaceous plants in
> general like to be with
> blueberries. But Houttynia is an exception-
> herbaceous perennial,
> Saururaceae, edible/medicinal. Any others out there?
> -Rick
> OK! Now I've got Dan's reply:
> >Apios americana is a spontaneous associate of
> blueberries in New
> >England (USA) where I come from originally. If you
> don't mind a few
> >prickles, smilax is another viney associate with a
> good food potential.
> >Apios uses blueberry for a scaffold.
> > As I said in an earlier post, pigs are a
> >pretty good companion crop. Down where I live now,
> Florida betony does fine
>
> >between blueberry plants, as does the maypop,
> Passiflora incarnata, with
> >edible leaves as well as fruit, I am told.
> >There is no reason not to run poultry among the
> bushes, too, as another
> >animal crop, of course moving them to a different
> pasture before the fruit
> >ripens.
> > Early potatoes in mulch come to mind.
> Dan;
> I have used maypop leaves in a relaxing tea blend-
> quite pleasant, although
> flavor is very mild.
> I don't know Florida betony; anything more to say
> about it?
> This is an impressive list, but two big buts come to
> mind for me;
> Blues are brittle- vines? Don't the branches
> breakunder load or when you're
> pulling them off? And they don't like root
> disturbance (in my experience) so
> crops that need digging or animals that dig? Or is
> this because I'm
> accustomed to heavy clay soils and the blues' roots
> here are mainly in the
> upper humus and mulch? Our rainless summers also
> mean that you need to do
> alot to keep them alive; I've had them die of
> drought in the ground, never
> mind when dug up and left. I can't imagine having a
> hog in my carefully
> mulched blues! And whenever the chickens have gotten
> on them, the mulch gets
> distributed everywhere but around the berries, =
> work to do.
>
> Rick Valley Northern Groves
> PO Box 1236, Philomath, OR 97370
> Mobile-(541)602-1315, hm.& msg. (541)456-4364
> Bamboo catalog $3 or at
> <http://www.teleport.com/~dbrooks/bamboo.html>
> "Useful Bamboos and other plants‹ Permaculture
> education‹ Ecological design &
> consultation centering on water,landform and
> horticultural systems"
>
>
>


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