permaculture

["Lawrence F. London, Jr." <london@sunsite.unc.edu>]

On Tue, 7 Oct 1997, Mike Skinner wrote:
 
> Pardon me, in advance,
>     But could a poor educated peasant farmer like myself get an
> answer to my "animal tractor on strip cropped" question or is this
> not the appropriate forum?

Now that's an interesting concept: strip cropping (as opposed
to row crops, broadcast sowings (i.e. greens, cover/forage crops)
no-till raised bed cropping). This sounds like a quick and possibly
effective way to prepare an area for later preparation of raised beds.
Take an area, weed seed bank and all, cut over existing weeds, distribute
soil amendments/compost, digging fork/spade fork/U-Bar dig the area
quickly, plant crop seeds. In the above example forage crops intended for
chickens would be planted. Weeds would be allowed to regrow/germinate
then be thinned or removed depending on appropriateness/usefullness or
whether they are part of a guild or have companion, biocontrol, medicinal
or food use. Strip cropping would give you an excellent opportunity to
sample your weed seed bank and experiment with integrating various weeds
into your permanent cropping schemes, whether they be row, raised bed or
strip. You would also have the opportunity to see which weeds are good
forage crops for chickens and then start saving their seeds for planting
ahead of the path of the chicken tractor. If they like weeds that
are miners of subsoil-located nutrients, all the better.

Re: Bill Mollison: I agree with Jack that Bill's writings and teachings
should, by example, encourage aspiring permaculturists to find solutions
for themselves in the regions where they are working, using his methods
when applicable. 


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 Lawrence F. London, Jr. - InterGarden - Venaura Farm
 mailto:london@sunSITE.unc.edu - mailto:llondon@bellsouth.net
 http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden
 http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden/permaculture.html
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