permaculture

[Elfpermacl@aol.com]

In a message dated 9/25/98 3:50:54 AM, newman@bcinternet.net wrote:

<<Dan (that was your name amidst all the other information?),

Thanks for the specific starting points. It's after midnight and I feel like
starting
right away!

My trees/logs are Douglas Fir. Will they last in such a wall?

Jeffrey

Elfpermacl@aol.com wrote:>>

Snip

Yes, I'm Dan.

I have no idea about the rot-rate of Dougas fir.  I'm from the East of North
America.  However I am under the impression that you don't have quite the
problem of wood melting into the ground where Douglas Fir grows as we do here
in Florida, where I live.  (Where hickory I cut and stacked just a year ago is
punk at the top of the pile even!)  
        You have species of poplar, aspen, that grow with douglas fir if I 
recall
Ansel Adams photos correctly.  These are stolonaceous sprouters, they send
underground shoots along that sprout up.  Cut the main shoot to force more
suckers.  Plant this in the wall as soon as it is constructed and it should
hold, assuming you have the moisture for aspen.  Westerners may have better
species suggestions.  You probably want to mix in some tap rooted species to
act like giant push-pins to hold the wall in place.  I've seen pines in the
Philippines with the soil eroded around their roots--always an opportunity for
information--that were like this.  They go straight down like a crow-bar into
the soil, with an array of powerful radial roots ever yard (meter) or so.  You
need something like that if your wood rots fast.  If you have a dry climate,
you wood will last longer but it will be h arder to get stuff established.
Don't neglect the obvious like agave and cactus if  you have a sunny exposure
on the wall.  These are good barrier plants, limiting traffic.  Depending on
your minimum temperatures, you might also consider an exotic, Jujube, which
sends down deep tap roots, forms thickets, is thorny, and produces great food
(not that there's anything but good to say about nopales).  A little
observing, reading, and poking around and you can come up with a good match of
species to make your wall as permanent as anthing can be that is trying to
simultaneously defy gravity and erosion (*wind AND water).  It should last
longer than you do.

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since 1982),
Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and annual correspondence
courses via email.  Copyright, 1998, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O. Box 52,
Sparr FL 32192 USA  Internships. YankeePerm@aol.com  

We don't have time to rush.

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