permaculture

[Clint Popetz <clint@cpopetz.com>]

On Thu, Nov 17, 2005 at 12:26:55PM -0500, Michelle Maggiore wrote:
> Hi There,
> I am relatively new to this list, but I am especially appreciative for this
> particular topic of conversation......
> I am curious: in permaculture, the problem is often considered the solution.
> I am interested in how this principle is applied when the problem/solution
> is an animal, not a plant, i.e.possum and chickens, deer and gardens, bulbs
> and moles/voles,etc. and how to include and plan for these in one's design
> creatively.
> Michelle in Central Virginia

I'll give you one, which worked for us.  It's well known to organic
farmers with regard to pests, though they probably wouldn't call
it a permaculture approach (they call it a "lure crop".)

We (my wife, kids, and I) have a city plot, and in the front yard we
had carefully seeded and potted out a great variety of perennial and
annual medicinal herbs and flowers, only to have rabbits hop down the
sidewalk and eat them up when they were tiny and most vulnerable.  For
round two, we put up a urbanite wall along the sidewalk, hoping they'd
be lazy.  Right.  For round three (*ding ding*) we planted a bed of
lettuce in the easement (the area between the sidewalk and the
street.)  After that there were no problems.  I can just imagine the
rabbitts hopping up, looking left, looking right, and then choosing
the side with the lettuce :)

Oh, and if you aren't turned off by "woo-woo" approaches to these
types of things...we "asked" the rabbits to choose the lettuce.  We
closed our eyes after planting, and promised we wouldn't hurt them,
and that they could eat as much lettuce as they liked if they left our
other plants alone.  

Now, this might be seen as neutralizing a problem rather than turning
it into a solution, but I figure the rabbits _occasionally_ poop on
that plot, and IMHO increasing the diversity of species present always
helps in ways one can't imagine.  

                        Works for us!
                        -Clint
                        (Urbana,IL)

P.S.  Here's another (longer-term) solution along these lines.  The
squirrels in our town are reknown for eating every tomato just as it
gets perfectly ripe.  But they never touch ours.  My guess?  There are
four nut trees within a stones throw of the tomatoes.  Why eat
tomatoes when they can have black walnuts, acorns, and horse chesnuts?