permaculture

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Are you in an area where there are plenty of osage oranges? Can you get
osage fence posts?? I've done it many of times in a variety of different
ways,depending on circumstances ,availability,and finances. Osage-orange
grows relatively quickly, so it would usually take about 4-5 years to grow
to a decent size from relatively small trees.
Another quicker way of doing it was in geting osage orange fence posts and
"planting" them in the increase of the moon in a moist or water sign
(except for Scorpio). That would serve a dual purpose as you'd have the
posts which would also become trees.
The best way to propagate them is from stem or root cuttings, although you
can also plant the seed or sprout the roots. 
In pioneer days, they used to crush a number of osage-orange fruits and
make them into a slurry that was then poured into a plowed shallow furrow
and covered with about 1/2 inch of soil. That old way still works fine. It
will take longer though. How much time do you have ;-)
The trees are either male or female, and only the females bear fruit called
"hedge apples" . There's an enormous amount of uses and it really makes an
excellent long lasting mulch.The fruit itself is one of those old time pest
repellants that really works.
Old hedgerows that have survived over the past 100 years and are no longer
needed to fence in farm animals now serve as habitat islands for many
creatures that otherwise might not be found in the midwestern prairies.
Deliberately planted as a hedgerow, it would be made up of regionally
appropriate shade trees, understory trees, shrubs, perennials, and grasses.
A very attractive design ,low-maintenance once established, and serves as a
bridge between wooded areas for mammals, birds, insects, and amphibians.
Osage is one of my favorite trees. 
I'd be happy to answer any further questions.



For the Earth,
Barb

Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you
nothing. It was here first. 

Good breeding consists in concealing how much we think of ourselves and how
little we think of the other person. 

The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly
kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the
aggressive and pitiless minority they don't dare to assert themselves. 

Mark Twain
 


*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 9/17/2004 at 9:53 PM Roxann Phillips wrote:

>I am glad you brought up the fence posts topic.  We have 160 acres to
>fence eventually.  To begin, I am only going to fence the west and south
>ends because we are located in a dead end canyon, surrounded by
>unoccupied land on the other directions.  The property is laid out
>square, but the land itself is very rugged.  I am thinking of planting
>osage trees along the fence lines with the intention to eventually grow
>them thick enough to be the fence themselves.  But before they mature
>enough to post the fence to them, I'll have to use steel t-posts.  The
>osage trees would be thick enough (hopefully) to prevent breakthrough by
>the livestock, as well as offer wind protection to crops.  They should
>also grow tall enough to provide discouragement to deer.  Now, the
>question is:  has anyone else done this, and how long did it take the
>trees to grow to a useful density?
>
>Roxann
>
>
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