permaculture

["April Sampson-Kelly" <askpv@ozemail.com.au>]

The "Weeds and What They Tell", by Ehrenfried Phieffer.
has few pictures, SO unless you
know your weeds well by the same common name you too
may find this frustrating.
Also, what weeds tell in one place may mean something different in another,
E.g. Dock in USA is touted to be indicative of hardpan, increasing acidity
and previous cultivation, [Phieffer]
in Australia the dock you see may be the native variety that has grown as
big as the introduced one [cribb and cribb]
because it has had a lot nitrogen directed to it and indicates waterlogging.
Which to the permaculturalist is a gold mine of opportunity.

Natural pockets of rainforest,  Acid soil here
may give same results as
distrubed soils in other, lower rainfall areas.
Stinging nettle is prized in Europeand biodynamics rely on its healthy
interaction with their soil.
Whereas the different Australian soils have reliance on different plant
species and micro-organisms (although this too evolves with plant changes).

Too me, kikuyu is my most persitant "weed" (not respecting diversity) and it
indicates too much
sun (not good for any plants here with high UV) and not enough water
catchment. Other plants get a chance
such as the native grasses and native violets when I close the canopy a
little and hold more water in the soil.

April


April Sampson-Kelly ADPA,BCA,MCA,GradSci,PDC
LC permaculture Visions
askpv@ozemail.com.au
http://www.ozemail.com.au/~askpv
GOOD PLANETS ARE HARD TO FIND
-----Original Message-----
From: FranksFarm@aol.com <FranksFarm@aol.com>
To: permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu <permaculture@listserv.oit.unc.edu>
Date: Friday, 14 November 1997 7:31
Subject: Re: Central Coast/Cal Poly Potent Info


>Hi,
>
>Just wondered if there is some sort of publication/research available that
>contains a list of "indicator" plants and what they indicate.
>I've seen lots of scattered references, but wonder if there's not something
>fairly comprehensive out there.
>
>Thanks. frank
>