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pcdb - Re: [pcdb] Some thoughts

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Subject: Permaculture Database

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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: pcdb <pcdb@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [pcdb] Some thoughts
  • Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2007 21:18:23 -0700

Don't worry Scott, a robust bureaucracy can spend $3000 an hour just talking.

So to build a guild one needs to know what any given plant needs and then
try to provide those needs on site. A partial list would be nitrogenous
plants, birds for nitrogen, phosphate and seed dispersal, predator insects
for insect control as well as plants to support those insects, bulbs to keep
the soil open around the root zone, and etc.

for the purpose of database work, the "and etc." part is critical to flesh out. I suspect that even with creating splitting this list of 'forest support functions' could be satisfyingly short for the majority of applications, and then be used as an attribute linked to species. I have a list somewhere I can't find right now.

I don't think that we would want to include in this data base
pruning tools, or grafting techniques that would be for another discussion
and catalog.
I agree that coming up with 'plant-animal target composition' tool that is user friendly and encourages socialization with interactions considered over the seasons is a substantial challenge, if you are feeling cocky then add successional vectors to it... still feeling tough... add disturbance regime.. got hair on your chest?! dry on climate change for size!

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.

So I will pretend I am a user. I have a modest knowledge of conventional gardening, a weak mental catalog of plants, and I just got turned on to some agroecology ideas, and took some classes but cannot talk myself into a PDC and I am ready to try to create a forest based on one of my favorite fruits... the apple. I live in a poorly drained silt soil running from moist to wet, currently in grasses and forbs I can't identify, the site runs from moist to wet, and I understand that pretty well because I like digging holes. I live in the lowland pacific northwest at 47 degree N latitude, and my winters rarely get below 10 degrees F. I have 3-5 months of drought.

I've gone to PFAF.. and every time I try to search I get a query with 150 species that I have never heard of and they all seem to do well anywhere, but I am unsure if they would really do well on my site...

I go to the NEW FANCY PERMASPHERE WEBSITE! What do I get... what do I do with my information?

Step 1 -- I should be able to immediately enter as much information about where I am... soils, climate, temperature, rainfall, bioregion... and that should serve to sort available information by relevance. I should be able to put in precise info where I have it... and generalized info where I am uncertain.

Step 2 -- I should be able to enter 'Apple' to start my quest.

[apple is a node... the 'apple' query provides a series of nodes sorted by relevance using some kind of relevance metric.] the DB uses my search term in combination with my place information to search information somehow related to my apple node AND the place I am asking about.

Step 3 -- I should be given a list of possible directions to enter the dataset based on my unstated intent... do you want to find plant associates? do you want to learn more about the limitations and opportunities of apples? do you want to learn about animal associates?

Step 4 -- after reading up on general apple stuff... I want to come up with some associates... I get a query page... do you want to filter by any of these attributes... do you want to sort or group using any attributes... yes... I want to find bulbs that grow in my place that make nice cut flowers that grow in the sun but can tolerate some shade as my apples grow. I want to find ground covers that make nice tea, I want fruit bushes that fix nitrogen... I want another useful plant that produces mulch. I want some self sowing annuals that do some neat things...I want to stuff some natives in there... I want a few small trees for those low spots that get really wet.

So I end up with a Apple(on carefully selected rootstock)-Goumi-Peppermint-Comfrey-Fennel-douglas iris-thimbleberry-willow forest...

Step 4 -- I can save my guild with my contact info. I can come back and report on how it is working. The next visitor with similar conditions who comes to the site may depending on their query, find my guild and associated comments, and can then leave their comments. The thimbleberry makes getting around hard... contain them to certain areas... my 10' circular clump produces 20 plants a year for sale, and 10 oatmeal toppings a year, but the chickadees really love them in winter...The peppermint is getting lost... I harvest my other species hard to favor the peppermint... wow.. goumi tastes weird...

Someone else has some suggestions... the guild becomes a composite guild with several variations being discussed by different people... a small lot version with espalier... a wild version on a forest edge with pigs involved...

How about something like that
How does this work!?

Paul





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