permaculture

["Charles de Matas" <cdematas@hotmail.com>]

Hi Marjory,
              I don't know how velvet beans will do in your climate.  Maybe 
kudzu will be better.
In previous years I have been experimenting with the indigenous mucuna 
pruriens which has stinging pods (hence name 'cow-itch').  I got poor 
germination from these last year. Only one vine grew, but it covered several 
square meters, climbed up a pigeonpea tree and broke it down.  I plant the 
seeds in the rainy season when we get heavy rains.  They flower and then dry 
down at the end of the rainy season, around January here, leaving a lot of 
biomass.  I've learnt to handle the pods of the cow-itch and save the seeds.
  It's only a few weeks ago that I got some velvet bean seeds from someone 
in our permaculture group who got them from abroad.  These have non-stinging 
pods and would be much easier to save the seeds.  So I will try the velvet 
bean this year and maybe also plant the native cow-itch as well since this 
was growing on my land when I acquired it.  I have compacted clay soils so I 
will have to loosen the soil when I sow the seeds.  The beans grow better 
when planted in soils that have been previous loosened by cultivation.
  I've observed two types of grasses that predominate on my land.  One is 
an annual grass that seeds and dries down at the beginning of the dry 
season. This provides fuel for fires at the beginning of the dry season, 
which are not very intense and trees can sometimes survive it.  I think I 
can suppress this grass with newspaper mulch, and I've started doing this.
   Another type of grass is a perennial that sends out runners and sprawls 
all over the ground.  This provides fuel for fires at the end of the dry 
season, which are much more intense and usually kills trees.  The newspaper 
mulch would not be effective against this.  I've started hoeing out some of 
the roots but it's just too much to get rid of like this.  I'm hoping the 
velvet beans can smother some of this grass.  I've given my brother some of 
the velvet bean seeds also to try on a bamboo patch that he's trying to get 
rid of (without success up to now).
 I'm trying everything I can think of to stop the cycle of  more grass -> 
more fires -> more grass -> more fires ->.....

Charles.
Trinidad

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