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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] Growing Along Highway Margins

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  • From: "Lawrence F. London, Jr." <venaurafarm@bellsouth.net>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] Growing Along Highway Margins
  • Date: Fri, 26 Mar 2010 22:17:44 -0400

Lawrence F. London, Jr. wrote:
Cory Brennan wrote:
Prairie grass or rapeseed could work as a biofuel possibly. Fertility
problem could be addressed with seasonal cover cropping and use of
organic waste streams in the city. Complex prairie grass systems may
maintain fertility even with harvesting if done right. Some research
is being done on this in the midwest currently. It may not be
advanced enough yet for this project but worth checking into.

How about a natural Fukuoka type plan for a plot of land wherein the existing seedbank is allowed to grow and compete for succession
- a public learning garden! interspersed throughout the roadside landscapes, integrated with the water impoundments, catch crops (swales catch runoff to irrigate lowland gardens adjoining (on downhill sides of the swales) allowed to develop unattended, providing wildlife habitat and food - I am thinking of benefits from a mix of eleagnus, cedar and/or juniper, carpets of native ground cover: mint, Creeping charlie
or ground ivy - the large leafed, prolific, medicinal, fragrant, invasive catch crop ideal for compost piles and Hugelkultur
(Glechoma hederacea http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glechoma_hederacea), chickweed, tall sweet clover, Alsike clover and miscellaneous other volunteer wild plants.

Here is a list of common yard weeds I like a lot that would be perfect in a low area below a swale, growing within banks of eleagnus and beds of various mints:

http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/prostrate-spurge.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/henbit.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/mouse-ear-chickweed.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/white-clover.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/thistle.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/common-chickweed.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/purslane.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/knotweed.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/prostrate-spurge.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/yellow-woodsorrel.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/dandelion.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/common-plantain.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/buckhorn-plantain.jpg
http://www.hort.iastate.edu/courses/syllabi/hort351l/weeds/ground-ivy.jpg

Instead of landscaping, what about food forests at those larger
junctions of land? Food will be exposed to exhaust, which is a major
downside but there may be microclimates where exposure could be
minimized.

Lead is no longer in regular gas so there may not be much of a problem from exhaust smoke. Weather and pollution-tolerant species of fruit
and nut (hazelnut, hickory). Pumpkins! Watermelons!

Yes, swales, water catchment, etc! Capture the energy..

I think it is about laws of thermodynamics. Go for the most concentrated
accumulation of energy, whether it is light, heat, nitrogen as in manure, water from within a watershed....and recycle it through successive systems of usage and successive cycles of reuse and recycling, eliminating errors in the wastestream.

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