permaculture

[Rick Valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>]

> John Irwin wrote:
>> Though many of us don't want to recognize anything as
>> a weed, there are some plants, like poison ivy, that just
>> aren't welcome.

Rhus toxicodendron unwelcome?
   It's a honey source
  -a dye plant
  -a laquer source
  -important bird forage in the berries
  -good browse for goats and cattle
  -astoundingly beautifully colored wood, if you can find a big enough
       piece- (I have my eye on one up a tree with a trunk 6 inches thick!)
  -wonderful fall color

And don't think I'm not affected by the plant. Imagine, if you will, bicycle
touring with your lover, and stopping at a lakeside cottage to camp while
the owners were absent. A warm summer evening, no mosquitoes, skinnydipping
after dinner, and a romantic night on the lawn under the moon.
And the morning after- the morning after! You discover the FRESHLY mown lawn
was FULL of poison ivy!
And that you still had 2 months of bicycle touring ahead of you.
ARE you shrieking in sympathetic horror yet??????

Although I must admit, that after years of attempting mechanical control
(hand pruning) and bio-control (by planting close relatives- other Rhus- to
see if the "niche could be filled") I tried 1 (one)
paintbrush-by-gloved-hand application of roundup and knocked the poison oak
right back down the bank to where it was welcome to stay.
After all, what could I do? It was INVADING MY LAWN!
The only time I've really had that stuff work as advertised.

"My Karma Ran Over My Dogma"

-Rick Valley, in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, currently housesitting a
Rhus plantation.