permaculture

[Sharon Gordon <gordonse@one.net>]

How does your area do on wild rice or cranberries?


>  basket willows, ... What "value added" things are you doing with 'em?

Carol Cox of Ecology Action in Willits has come up with a backpack
basket.

Have also seen some wonderful work lately combining basketry and
gourd work.  Are there any gourds that grow in your cool weather?



> >The Real Goods
> Ahh- another reason for a visit. But d'ya know if they are harvesting?

Their main harvest was clean water in that section as they had it set up for
cleaning the water.  But there was a variety of mature fruit trees and
shrubs and bamboo along with lots of other things.

Another neat thing they did about 30 feet from the water on stable ground
was to make what you might call a Hops Olive Amphitheater.  They did
this by making a large round bed about 18 inches wide at seat height.
Behind this was a second attached round about 5 feet high.  The seat
height one was covered in a fine gravel for seating.  Behind this were
olives.  Around this was the structure for a tent like
roof, but instead of canvas there were hop vines trained up and over it
which made for a sort of living tent, very nice inside.  Looked like it
might hold 40 people or so or double that if a second row sat at ground
level.


> once again; I'm not after species so much as HOW to design it for function;
> I'm looking for people's experiences. Now, info like how native Americans
> managed a species, that's good; I've seen some good stuff in "Before the
> Wilderness, Ecological Management by Native Californians" (Blackburn and
> Anderson)

Sounds like a good book, will look for that.  If you don't get enough direct
ideas, I have good luck sometimes going at this backwards, looking for
an interesting species and then searching around for the context in
which people have used it.


> my land is too steep and not enough water; at times things will be a bit
> partched. I will hopefully have a couple small ponds, one dedicated to
> primate immersion, and perhaps some Oregon chub, an endangered top minnow.

Does the time of water coincide well with the life cycle of salmon?
There are some that might work that have been introduced into creeks
that connect with Lake Tahoe.


> I have a collection, incl. ones selected for flavor; if anyone else is
> evaluating daylily varieties for flavor, let's talk.

Would enjoy hearing your thoughts on this.  I have been using the
plain ones, but would like to branch out into using the interesting
ones.



> And baskets; Arundinaria gigantea is the name, canebrake bamboo, I have 3
> clones I propagate. It is one of the better wetland bamboos for this climate.

What are the canes that were lashed together and used for boats?
I have seen info on plants (tule? rushes? cattails?) woven together
and used for house coverings.  For value added items, what about
toy boats or toy boat making classes for children whose parents who would 
like for
their children to have real toys.  Children in other countries who have
free access to these kind of materials tend to make themselves miniature
(doll house size) village houses complete with people figures.

I've heard of people weaving with iris leaves, but haven't tried that yet.

Sharon
gordonse@one.net