permaculture

[lfl@intrex.net]

Kirby Fry wrote:
> Hello Claude,
>
>
> > > I saw the pics of the water hyacinth and thought, "that's more of a
> solution than a problem"  <<

Those Chinese fellows were probably marvelling at the miracle of having
a plant to scour nutrient pollution from their lake. A value-added tool 
for the job in that they ended up with a bunch of high quality biomass 
to fertilize their field crops with. Liliput-like they could mass a full 
frontal assault on acres of magnum-sized floating hyacinths with a fleet 
of a hundred or so rowboats all pushing or pulling a wooden or rope 
corral containing their yield toward shore for harvest.

> I tend to agree, they produce incredible amounts of biomass and pull the
> nitrogen out of the water column, plus they're beautiful.  I was talking to

Beautiful lavender flowers. They really will turn murky, polluted water 
crystal clear. I've seen it happen in a large freezer chest I filled 
with water.

> a friend of mine about the "encroachment" of trees onto disturbed prairies
> (another sore point for the rabid exotic plant eradicators) and his response
> was, "Thank god the trees are outdistancing the men with their machines and
> chain saws."

> That we (those in the permaculture community) are glad for the presence of
> exotics and woody plants sets us apart from the aggies and native plant
> societies.  It's a distinction I'm proud of and have had several
> conversations with Bill Mollison about.

Kudzu is King. Pueraria thunbergiana. Native to Japan. Beautiful, 
extremely fragrant flowers (aromatherapy), animal forage crop, 
harvestable roots, much more easily controlled than bamboo,
nitrogen fixing legume.
In the book:
"Forage Plants and Their Culture"
Charles V. Piper
Rural Textbook Series
L.H. Bailey, Editor
1924
is a photograph, Plate XII with the caption:
"Showing the Attraction of Kudzu for Hogs in Georgia"

"Kudzu is remarkable for its very rapid growth during the warm weather 
of Midsummer. It succeeds well in the humid Eastern part of the United 
States. It prefers heavy soils and requires an abundance of heat and 
moisture. It survives Winter as far North as Nova Scotia.
It can be cut with a mower without great difficulty and the hay cures 
more readily than most legumes, as the leaves are less juicy. There is 
practically no shedding of the leaves in curing. The seed of kudzu does 
not germinate very well, so that the plant is usually propagated in 
layers. A new field of kudzu is best established by the transplanting of 
well-rooted plants in early Spring."

> He sees the invasive woody plants as nurse trees for the next wave of
> succession, and if an exotic  plant has useful properties, which they almost
> always do, then it's up to us to utilize them in a way that builds biomass
> and wealth.  Even kudzu, he says, is edible by pigs and cattle.

Eastern Red Cedar. As rapid a grower as Leyland Cypress but with 
considerable variation in needle color and growth habit.
Very excellent in ornamental landscaping, live fencing, windbreaks,
pollution barrier, wildlife habitat, harvested and resawn wood is 
extremely valuable in the home and around the homestead, rot-resistant, 
can be used for fenceposts, insect repellant - use for clothes storage
in closets and chests. Easily propagated from seed or cutting. Very 
drought resistant, tolerates poor soil, needs adequate sunlight,
bad around some apple varieties, harbors cedar apple rust.

> So I think we, the permaculture community, play an important roll in helping
> people to realize the potential of these exotic / invasive plants.   And
> once again the old adage of working with nature rather than against it must
> be our credo - no exceptions!

This is part of the mission of Permaculture. Work with what you have and 
make it beetter. Alan Chadwick did this on 5 acres of barren soil in a 
demonstration garden at UC Santa Cruz. It is still that and is called 
Chadwick Gardens. Has anyone on this list see it?
Some his lectures can be read here (thanks to Allan Balliett for 
providing the scanned/digitized text years ago):
http://www.ibiblio.org/ecolandtech/orgfarm/permaculture/Alan.Chadwick/

LL

> Kirby Fry
>
> For the real scoop on environmental and social justice issues check out the
> archives of Democracy Now!
> http://www.webactive.com/webactive/pacifica/demnow/archive.html
>
>
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