permaculture

[Steve Diver <steved@ncatark.uark.edu>]

Kirby Fry wrote:

> Yes, that was certainly overstated.  By 'no exceptions' I believe I meant
> that, non-native plants should fall under permaculture ethics as well as the
> natives they may be displacing, that they shouldn't be an exception to Pc
> ethics.  I didn't mean 'no exception' to my interpretation of, working with
> Nature rather than against it.

I can't imagine a permaculturist taking exception to non-native plants.

On the other hand I can't imagine a permaculture lettting exotics
do what they want willy nilly, simply because they are part of nature.

How this notion ever got started in relation to permaculture in
the first place is a mystery.  I'm aware that certain segments of
horticulture and botany have gotten getting religion over NATIVES,
but permaculture has a a wholly different view of plants that in
fact tends towards worldwide diversity; i.e., permaculture is
more akin to a botanical garden than an arboretum featuring
natives-only.

On the other hand, I guess I just see the plant there and if
it is a weed then you deal with it one way or the other. I like weeds
alright, and I can pull out some resources that talk about their uses
as indicators and soil binders etc, but when it comes down to it
if you are a farmer or a gardener and it is time to make a decision
on whether to keep it, work with it, love it, kill it, or piss on it, I
don't see any Pc philosophical reasons to hesitate if the decision
is to axe it.

Ponder its growth and placement there, observe it and think
about it and plan for a tactic for mimicing nature another day,
but make your decision and move on.

I have been observing pature plants and border plants
and wasteland area plants growing on my farm, as I swiftly
mow them down riding the tractor and brush hog.

I have made some interesting observations and they
are mulling and simmering in my mind.

Just the other day I noticed a row of garlic chives about
50 feet long that seems to produce an allelopathic effect
because they live there amongst an overgrown pasture and
survive. I come by a few times each year and brush hog close
to the row of herbs, yet weeds never encroach into the row of
garlic chives themselves.  It is remarkably free of weeds
in-the-row as well as a few inches away from the row.

Two ideas come to mind:
1.  Plant twin rows of garlic chives 6, 8, 10, and 12 inches
apart and let them mature one year.  The next year plant
an intercropped vegetable in the alleyway between the
garlic chives and see if weed control is achieved through
this allelopathic-intercropping method.  You'd have a low
maintenance crop as far as weed control goes.

2. Make an extract of garlic chives and spray it on the
soil surface after a tillage sequence, and repeat on a weekly
basis; perhaps the extract will suppress weed germination
and growth; a natural plant-based herbicide.

There is another low-growing plant out there that looks
like a perfect living mulch.  It reminds me of a low-growing
lespedeza or just a local weed of some kind.   Yet, it
senesces in mid-July so it would be geared to early season
crops.

Hope that helps,
Steve Diver