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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Blueberry/willow guild design critique

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  • From: Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Blueberry/willow guild design critique
  • Date: Wed, 18 Jul 2007 00:14:33 -0700

To think I was excited when I got a response! Pat... would you please call me Paul rather than "This person".. Still looking for suggestions... I couldn't find many design suggestions in your response. Your motive is unclear to me.

Juncus effusus is not aggressive. You see the plant will proliferate only if
conditions meet its
needs. It can tolerate very sour ground that most other plants cannot and
also where their seeds
will not germinate.

Under wetland conditions J. effusus is a very successful competitor. I am talking about wetland conditions where soft rush can outcompete other species and load the seedbank, hence my hesitation about using it as part of a polyculture, but due to its productivity, my interest in its value as a mulch plant. There are many plants adapted to seasonally anaerobic soils other than soft rush. I guess soft rush must behave differently where your come from. We could talk more about my field experience with soft rush if that is what you are after?

Willows that are used in natural fencing can be grown but not with
blueberries and certainly not in a situation where you want to harvest food.

I was going for NEXT TO.. as opposed to WITH. The willow would have to be organized and harvest managed so that the willow was not shading the blueberries. How does having some osiers nearby prevent harvest of food? You might notice that the Willow seed is small and wind blow. I have only seen germination on bare moist ground. Most of my local species don't sucker strongly from rhizomes. I was imagining fairly well behaved stools. I like hardwood poles over bamboo because the bamboo is so slick that garden climbers slide off. Other coppice species adapted to seasonally saturated soils are welcome if you have any suggestions. I have planted some Fraxinus latifolia and will see its second year growth, but I have found it finicky in previous plantings.

Also plant on giving some distance from the food stuff or your going to have
willow everywhere in
no time. Invasive applies to this plant

There are hundreds of willow species, with different growth rates and habits. Growing the willow as coppice with some competing canopy might encourage straight vertical growth better for my purposes. I was proposing a mosaic not an intercrop. I agree that a blueberry willow intercrop would be silly.

rather than to Juncus e. and I. psuedoacorus which are
only successful under very prescribed circumstances.**

I guess you could call yellow flag opportunitistic? But I don't feel a need to plant more of it, It'll make good starvation food if you don't mind a little heavy metal loading.
---clip---
*Yellow flag iris, /Iris pseudoacorus/
*(Washington State Class C Noxious Weed)
This emergent wetland plant with showy yellow flowers quickly spreads through underground rhizomes and rhizome fragments. It naturalizes along streams, canals, and shorelines in Washington, particularly near developed areas. It outcompetes native wetland plants along the shoreline and severely reduces water flow.
---clip--*/
Iris pseudacorusis a wetland plant that is especially showy during its short blooming period. This good-looking plant has been transplanted into well-watered gardens all over the world and has widely escaped; it is also used in sewage treatment, and is known to be able to remove metals from wastewaters. Like cat-tails, yellow iris colonizes into large numbers, forming very dense monotypic stands, outcompeting other plants.
/*---clip---
In some regions it has escaped from cultivation to establish itself as an invasive <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invasive_species> aquatic plant <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aquatic_plant> which can create dense, monotypic stands that outcompete other plants in the ecosystem. Where it is invasive, it is tough to remove on a large scale. Even ploughing the rhizomes is often ineffective, and its eradication is highly unlikely. It has been banned in some areas but is still widely sold in others for use in gardens, and it will continue to be planted by gardeners unaware of or unconcerned with its invasive potential.
**





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