permaculture

[Permacltur@aol.com]

        Well my computer got impatient, as it often does, and shot out my 
answer before I finished.  However, you get the idea.  Secificity of context 
is everything.  If you have RELIABLE daily rains, you can grow crops in the 
rainy season under trees in most places where the season is long enough.  If 
y ou have low evaporation potential, you can do forest gardens like Robert 
Hart's in the UK.  (But there light competition is likely to be critical.)  

        One other factor related to Bill's comment to consider is that some 
species (or varieties, even) of plants only conduct photosynthesis for a 
specific period daily.  For example, maize often will work for 5 hours and 
then shut down.  In dry periods, this comes with a leaf curl to reduce 
moisture loss.  Some crops, like cabbage, work continually.  One would EXPECT 
that a crop subject to water stress would be more likely to have this 
photosynthetic timer switch than one like cabbage, which is adapted to cool, 
moist climates.  Indeed, in geothermally  warmed regions of Alaska, with the 
extremely long summer days, cabbages routinely grow to HUGE sizes due to the 
continual photosynthesis of the plant. 
        Given this property, it makes sense to position such crops to receive 
afternoon shade, as they will have finished their work for the day anyway and 
might as well get some protection from further soil moisture loss (assuming 
that the shade isn't from trees that themselves slurp up the moisture.)  
        In some crops, such as tobacco, some varieties have this photo-timer 
and some do not.  The ones that do not are suited to open field culture with 
irrigation.  I don't advocate growing tobacco for more t han cerimonial or 
insecticidal purposes, but it is one I happened to know about (because I was 
a teen-age information specialist for USDA Agricultural Research Service when 
this was discovered.)   If anyone has a list of crops that use the photo-time 
(I am sure it has a proper name, but I forget what it is . Photoperiodism is 
something quite different.) , I'd like to have it and I will publish it if it 
is not readily available.  
It explains why, here where I live, we can expect dinky little cabbages as 
they must be grown in winter.  (Shade doesn't seem to be much of a factor, 
guessing from informal observations.)  
        In any case, yes Bill is often sloppy with information.  I think a 
major reason for this is that h e has stressed over and over that people need 
to be CONCRETE and SPECIFIC in designs for a given CONTEXT.  So he tosses out 
potential tools to use or not, given your design.  Or he gives an example for 
one place, maybe without specifying context because he is talking to people 
THERE, even though someone is videoing away.  The permaculture tool box is 
vast, full of concepts, and proven methods, and things to test on a small 
scale first, etc.  When we design, we pull from those tools what fits the 
needs of the site and people on the site.  At that time, we do a lot more 
thinking and narrowing down and information gathering.  A glib design is not 
a permaculture design.  And a practice is not permaculture at all, though it 
may be a component of a permaculture design if judged suitable.  

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.

A list by topic of all Yankee Permaculture titles may be found at 
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