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  • From: Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Re: Basketry and Nurse Plants
  • Date: Mon, 21 Apr 2003 12:35:34 +0100

Hi Scott and all,
I have planted a dozen sea buckthorn, exactly for the purposes you state
(N-fixing, berries) and also to shelter my apple trees from westerly
winds. Also found when I headed the largest ones (they were shading the
apples too much), that the goats are quite fond of their foliage and
bark. Got the first berries last year, but not much as the weather was
dismal last summer.
They grow incredibly fast here, and now the oldest ones (planted about 5
years ago) have begun to sucker, which means I can dig up some and plant
them elsewhere. Sea buckthorn is invasive here (suckers, not berries),
especially on dune systems. I'm not troubled about that in my situation
because most of the suckers will end up in my goat paddock or the
neighbours cattle + goat fields so they will be taken care of. The rest
will be in the orchard where I can dig them up if needed.

As to basket making + willows - I'm a kindred spirit! I have planted and
continue to plant whatever varieties I can get my hands on. They are
such beauties will all those different bark colours, leaf shapes and
sizes etc., and so so easy to grow. I collect them wherever I find them.
Also think about selling to basket-makers in the not too distant future
and possibly, if I can learn the art, to do some basketry myself. All in
its own good time.... The oldest of our willows are 9 years old. I am
getting to the stage where I can cut some right down now to get the nice
straight growth required for basketry.
There is still (or again?) quite a tradition here in Ireland, and on an
island off the West Coast I have seen 'Sally Gardens' still in
existence.

I love your description of the Thai basket weavers.

Slán,
Ute


Scott Pittman wrote:
>
> Ute, you might think about Sea Buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) as a nurse
> plant, it has great fruit (highest in anti oxidants and high in vit. C),
> birds don't like the fruit so it doesn't have the rampancy of Elaeagnus,
> and it's nitrogen fixing. The fruit makes a very nutricious drink and good
> jams and jellies (high in pectin). It may be that Elaeagnus is not as
> rampant in Europe, I saw miles of hedgerows on a train trip across central
> Russia with no sign that it was taking over the surrounding landscape.
>
> I am a wantabe basket maker, I collect them from around the world, and
> admire the multiple uses that different cultures have found for them and
> the different designs to accomplish different tasks. In the not too
> distant past there was a very strong basket making culture in the U.S. I
> still find apple picking baskets at flea markets. I also am interested in
> growing the different colored and textured willows for sale to the art
> basket and sculpture market. One of these days I will slow down enough to
> do basketry - I look at it as a form of meditation or a community building
> enterprise. While travelling with Bill Mollison in Thailand I visited a
> Thai village that had a platform built above the rice patties where 12 or
> 15 villagers gathered and prepared and wove the most exquisite bamboo
> baskets. There was a place for all ages from infants too the infirm on
> that platform. It was like an opium dream sitting on that platform
> listening to the quiet conversations and laughter and overlook the beauty
> of the patties greenly reflecting the clouds overhead.
>
> Scott
>
>




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