permaculture

["Christopher D Cosby (ccosby)" <ccosby@memphis.edu>]

Have you considered sweet potatoes for loosening smaller areas? They work 
wonders on Memphis clay and produce lots of sheet mulch material, too. 
I would imagine they would naturalize to a small extent in your California 
climate. 
Small beans, I know, but better some than none, and those small areas could 
serve as islands of tilth for trees, etc.

Chris

Christopher Cosby
Department of Anthropology
University of Memphis
ccosby@memphis.edu
901.827.5937
________________________________________
From: permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org 
[permaculture-bounces@lists.ibiblio.org] On Behalf Of Rain Tenaqiya 
[raincascadia@yahoo.com]
Sent: Sunday, March 15, 2009 2:35 PM
To: permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
Subject: [permaculture] heavy clay and cover crops, more on shade

Loosening up heavy clay with cover crops is very slow.  Our native grassland 
here is composed primarily of grasses and clovers, in other words, cover 
crops.  The soil is too tight and dry for the production and integration of 
much organic matter.  Forking and irrigating it could help.  Gypsum might 
also help, though I hate mined inputs like this.  Dumping a foot of organic 
matter on top would definitely make a difference, especially if it was forked 
or disced in after a couple years, but getting this much material can be a 
challenge.  Pioneer trees are basically the simplest solution, though a very 
slow one.  Larry mentioned planting root crops like daikon, chicory, etc., 
and this is also helpful if you have the water for irrigation.  The solution 
depends on what you have available.

I forgot to mention olives and citrus as other trees that can produce well in 
the shade of Mediterranean climates, in addition to the usual suspects.  I 
have lists of plants and their sun/shade needs in my book, West Coast Food 
Forestry, which is available from me or online.

Rain



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