Permaculture Database

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

Paul Cereghino wrote:

> 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?

- no matter where you go, there you are .... at PermaSphere.
permasphere.org (or .net or both), at ibiblio, for the db, data, galleries, 
the primary webspace.
PermaSphere.com for fundraising, donations, PermaSphere T-Shirts, and 
pre-prepared information packages
on topics frequently searched such as The Apple Guild on CD, $25.00 + S&H; Useful N2-Fixing Plants for Permaculture 
Designs; these packages could contain galleries of photos illustrating installed guilds so described and their 
components; Guilds for the homestead gardener, 3 Sisters, etc. This for fundraising. Interface with the permaculture 
list and get them involved in researching and writing up guilds. This could be their contribution to the pcdb project
and each document they work on would contain credits to those who worked on them. What about pond guilds? This could 
contain a lot of information about insects and their habitats and their interaction with other pond environment 
dwellers. Snails, duckweed, cattails and frogs, add dragonflies and bats, nutrient levels, aeration, etc.

> 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...

Some people, especuially raw foods people, much prefer seedling fruits,
i.e. trees grown from seed rather than grafted.

> 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!?

That's a nice scenario and it would be great to see a body of information 
about
existing and proposed guilds develop this way; can hardly think of a better 
way.
I expect there may be many guilds out there waiting to be discovered. Could 
this
be accomplished with an RDB alone or would a Wiki front end for a RDB be a 
more useful
or user-friendly interface?

A problem I am encountering as I maintain my 4 acres of market gardens is 
that as I eradicate more and more
weeds, i.e. the weedseed bank, through tillage, I lose many potential guilds, wild plants, possibly many valuable 
species that are host plants for beneficial organisms. I need to manually reconstruct plant communities within and 
around my gardens, in edge zones and elsewhere, in my fruit and berry plantings, herb gardens and out to the edges of 
the property. How do I find what will work and possibly enhance the productivity of the garden and provide for the 
well-being of the remaining on-site and transient creatures that occupy habitat on or near the farm. It is interesting 
to actually take stock of what lives on ones property and begin an ongoing inventory. Photographs and videos as well as 
audio recordings can help immensly with this. PermaSPhere users can all do this, compare notes and upload their photos 
with the field notes that have recorded for each.

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