permaculture

[rick valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>]

>A friend of mine is looking for ways to control/reduce the large Canada
>thistle crop
>on his pasture land. It is cattle/horse grazing land in the Cariboo area of
>central
Aha! graze something besides cattles and horses.
>British Columbia, Canada. Despite its name, this thistle is not native to
>Canada and
>is in fact classified as  a "noxious weed."
Canadian friends insist it is called "California Thistle"
> There are large areas with high
>percentages of thistle and the only economically-viable way he has come up
>with is to
>cut them down with a tractor-pulled mower, a method which apparently has a
>low
>success rate.
They make a superior compost ingredient if harvested before seeding. They are
a valueable nectar source for some insects.  They spread via underground
stolons; they do well in hard soils. Keyline plowing w/grazing by hogs and
goats? Just a guess. The old saying about stupidity: doing the same thing and
expecting different results.
A story:
Thistles grew, and my friend read that a burro would eat them. So he adopted
a feral burro via the BLM, and set it out to graze. Alas, adoptions often
take time: the thistles had set seed. The burro chowed down, and shat thistle
seed across the farm! Such a stand of thistles the next year...
The Canadian thistles are a challenge for me, too.
-Rick


Rick Valley Northern Groves 
PO Box 1236, Philomath, OR 97370 
Mobile-(541)602-1315, hm.& msg. (541)456-4364  Bamboo catalog $3 or at 
<http://www.teleport.com/~dbrooks/bamboo.html>
"Useful Bamboos and other plants‹ Permaculture education‹ Ecological design &
consultation centering on water,landform and horticultural systems"