permaculture

[Scott Pittman <pci@permaculture-inst.org>]

Thistle are very high in potassium so make good compost according to
Ehrenfried E. Pfeiffer, a biodynamic writer, states that the best time to
kill thistle is after it is pollenated by removing all the heads "it will
wilt and bleed
to death".  You might checkout "Weeds and Why They Grow" by Jay L. McCaman
the book is available from the author at Box 22, Sand Lake, MI 49343 Phone:
616 636 8226.

At 02:23 PM 5/21/99 -0700, stephan leimroth wrote:
>
>greetings!
>
>i have a weed problem. 
>not just with our local, demonic weed being highly
>invasive and difficult to control but with controlling
>them in the first place.  on our site, heavily
>miss-grazed in the past, star thistle is insiduous. 
>but it grows so well and thrives where nothing else
>will (not even mustard), that i just hate to pull it. 
>it seems so crucial to the development (and recovery)
>of the soil, to getting the nutrient cycle going.  
>
>i've never seen any nutrient deficiency signs on a
>thistle.  it must have tremendous power to pull up the
>soil nutrients that are in scarce or out of balance
>supply here.  it thrives where everything else would
>be hard-pressed to even germinate.
>
>i have a high regard for 'weeds'.  one of my fantasies
>is to be able to see the natural plant succession
>evolve given no pulling, spraying, or cultivating of
>these pioneer species.  the problem of course is our
>limited life span.  how long would it take for the
>'native' species to re-establish?  or would nature
>find peace with a mono crop of weeds?
>
>when i was in new zealand, there was a big campaign to
>eradicate wild ginger.  the stuff just keeps growing
>on top of itself to form a massive root ball, almost
>impossible to be rid of it.  but i saw it as a great
>healing process;  it seemed like the ginger was
>growing in places where previous sheep grazing had
>wiped out all the top soil.  it seemed if allowed to
>run its course, eventually there would be a tremendous
>amount of organic matter in the soil.
>
>is my thinking totally miss-guided? am i still just
>too much of an idealist? does anyone have ideas on
>this?  
>
>kind regards,
>
>stephan.
>
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Scott Pittman

Permaculture Institute, USA
PO Box 3702, Pojoaque, NM 87501  US
phone 505.455.0270

*********
Ingenio Patet Campus