Permaculture Database

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <lfl@intrex.net>]

Scott Pittman wrote:

 > What is a guild anyway.  A guild was an idea I first heard from Bill
> Mollison though it may have been developed by others.  It is based on the
> medieval concept of a union of men in the same craft or skill to protect and
> maintain the standards of the craft.  Interestingly it is also a term used
> in plant ecology to refer to any of a group of parasitic plants.
>
> The idea is that every plant evolved with a collection of associates that
> provide for its needs ie minerals, fertility, pollination, protection,
> procreation and etc.  This collection would be classified as a guild and
> would include other plants, animals, and micro flora and fauna.  Over time
> most plants that have been domesticated have been stripped of their
> associates and have become dependant on us to maintain them in relative
> health.
<...>
> I would love to see one guild developed, how about the apple?  And receive
> as much input as we can handle on this one specie and then move on to stone
> fruit or what ever.  I realize I may be naïve about the process but it still
> seems to be a fairly straight forward concept.

Fascinating. Thanks for defining guilds as a permaculture, ecological and 
horticultural concept.

A source of interest in a guilds database, especially
the part that includes fruit, are all the various Nafex fruit mailing lists, most if not all of which are hosted on 
ibiblio. The main Nafex list is and is quite active; I co-own that (solely to help with maintenance tasks as needed). 
There are a number of fruit subgroups for Nafex members, apples-n, being one:
______________________________________________
apples-n mailing list
apples-n@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/apples-n

The other list whose members would be interested in a guilds database is the 
GWL forum, gardenwriters,
which I co-own for the same reasons:
GWL = gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
GWA or GWAA = Gardenwriters Association of America
This list is comprised of many hundreds of garden book authors, some 
well-known.
most of whom would be quite interested in guilds, a concept that might be new 
to many of them

Michael Phillips, http://www.herbsandapples.com/, who wrote the famous books 
on herbs and on apples
has recently subscribed to my compostteas list. I am sure he would be 
interested in out project and might
be interested in contribution to the dataset.

I think we could build a lot of interest in our project within ths group and 
the Nafex main list;
possibly some funding opportunities might come out of it too.
><
gardenwriters mailing list
gardenwriters@lists.ibiblio.org
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/gardenwriters

GWL has searchable archives at:
http://www.hort.net/lists/gardenwriters

Send photos for GWL to gwlphotos@hort.net to be posted
at: http://www.hort.net/lists/gwlphotos
><
Here's typical comment on the value of this list to GWAA members:
"Could someone please remind me how to access the list archives.   Thanks.  I
only wish I got as much from the GWA and I get from the  GWL."
><
So there you go. Proof of the value of online discussion forums and their 
archives
and associated websites. The GWL website lists GWA members with links to 
their individual websites,
also on ibiblio.

I hope we can get this project rolling soon. I still think we should use 
ibiblio as host
as it is so robust, powerful, offers such good support and will provide what 
we need for free for the long haul.

LL
--
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
Venaura Farm
lfl@intrex.net
http://market-farming.com
http://market-farming.com/venaurafarm
http://venaurafarm.blogspot.com/
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech