permaculture

[<permed@nor.com.au>]

What a great example of the principle of zonation at work...
 mIEKAL aND wrote:
>We made an herb spiral during our first permaculture course here at 
>Dreamtime 
&
>because we didn't keep it weeded & maintained, it became quickly overgrown & 
is
>largely burdock & blackcaps now & is thoroughly unnavigatible. This also 
happened to
>a large medicine circle (I believe similar to what is being called a mandala 
garden)
>which was created in an area that is not used on a daily basis & it to has 
gone wild
>& most of the original planting have been superimposed by the more 
>aggressive local "weeds."
This is to be expected in 'out of zone' situations - it's a location 
rather than system issue - Herb spirals & mandala/circle gardens will 
only 'work' close to a kitchen feeding people daily where the cook/s use 
the garden. Community centre landscapes can be productive but need to be 
designed as public low-maintenance landscapes.
These zone 1 kitchen garden systems do need daily interaction like 
planting, browsing, weeding, eating, harvesting, pruning, foraging, 
mulching, munching and many common weeds can managed through 'harvesting' 
- burdock root is a prized root veg in Japan, chickweed, pigweed & 
dandelion in salads - the more often you eat from the garden the better 
it's managed and it doesn't really feel like 'work', it's simply a part 
of feeding yourself.

A bit about herb spirals...
it does work if you plant the right herbs (or rather DONT plant the WRONG 
herbs?!), then keep harvesting/pruning, mulching and culling weeds.
The best perennial herbs are compact bushy (sage, thyme, marjoram, 
savory), prostrate plants (carroway thyme, prostrate savory) and 
non-invasive clumpers like chives, sorrel. Think twice about oregano and 
definitely don't plant mints, tarragon and other invasive or vigorous 
'wanderers' as they can take over in a few years. Larger herbs like 
rosemary need serious harvesting/pruning back to maintain the desired 
size.
For the right herbs the herb spiral (or other raised rockery) provides 
the perfect environment for these hardy sun-loving plants (sage, thyme, 
marjoram, savory etc) that prefer alkaline and free draining soil between 
rocks- the radiant heat from the rocks increases potency of their 
essential oils which translates to flavour and healing properties.
I don't know if Bill realised this when he dreamt up the herb spiral.

Robyn