permaculture

[Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>]

On Sat, Jul 4, 2015 at 12:28 AM, Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I have been thinking about a permascape system for that facility over the
>> past few days.
>> 1) Rain goes to concrete basins
>> put aquatic plants in them - water hyacinth would be ideal; not sure what
>> other floating aquatic plants you have down there.
>> If you construct some kind of rudimentary floating island you could stick
>> cattails on them and eventually they would send  roots down into the  silt
>> on the bottom if that could be allowed to exist, probably a good idea. This
>> would pretreat/remediate the water.
>> 2) Overflow goes to wetlands and pond
>> Have the flow pass through an expanse of "lawn", a gradual slope planted
>> with durable, vigorous weeds and grasses, unmowed.
>>
>
> Plants I have in my yard that would work well for this purpose: vast
> expanses of Nature's wild bounty: Johnson grass, vetch, greater burdock,
> broadleaf plantain, grasses, ground ivy or creeping charlie, Carolina horse
> nettle or Jimson weed, red clover, mystery weeds, morning glory, Canada
> thistle or milk thistle, trumpet vine or campsis radicans, honeysuckle,
> wild rose, probably some poison ivy, daisy or ragweed or goldenrod, milk
> weed for the monarch butterflies and bumblebees. If there is room for trees
> include persimmon and wild plum which are amazingly hardy; I think they
> spread by underground runner as well as by seed.
>

More on site water remediation, the "weed lawn" filtration, nutrient
removal, stage

You might think that a diverse random planting of colonies of common weeds
would become imbalanced and eventually not serve the intended purpose,
lacking certain plant varieties that are valuable to such an arranged
ecosystem. I have observed that most if not all of the plants listed above
return each year, sprout, mature, set seed and coexist with each other.
Competition for light and shade is a factor in the survival of each. They
grow in an area irrigated with rainfall runoff with moderate nutrient
content, so they are well fertilized. Their population densities together
with accumulated biomass on the ground help conserve water during drought.

Johnson grass, vetch, greater burdock, broadleaf plantain, grasses, ground
ivy or creeping charlie, Carolina horse nettle or Jimson weed, red clover,
mystery weeds, morning glory, trumpet vine or campsis radicans,
honeysuckle, wild rose, probably some poison ivy, daisy or ragweed or
goldenrod all grow together with variation in individual population
densities related to shading and crowding. I am looking at this very
planting out my window now and it is amazing. This is its best year. I
started trying to establish a fescue lawn which turned out spotty and weeds
filled in the spaces between fescue clumps. I decided to let become a weed
lawn. I mow it after most of the plants have gone to seed with an Austrian
scythe. This tool is the best one to use to mow any lawn, grass flourishes
this way.

One area I just took a quick inventory of is a well ordered planting of red
clover, mystery weed, morning glory, fescue, broadleafed plantain, Johnson
grass, weed crysanthemum and greater burdock, in groups scattered around
with each other. This is a stable, manageable planting that absorbs excess
nutrients, returns each year and covers the ground completely. Scything
keeps it manageable for foot traffic
by thinning out certain plant types and reducing height on others. For the
purpose of bioremediation no mowing would be desired and the overall
planting would sustain itself, continuing to completely cover the ground,
year round in warm climates. In cold area I suggest installing a large
number of Hugelkultur mounds on contours across grades, These would absorb
rainfall and nutrients during the cold months and return them to weeds
during the rest of the year, keeping the area relatively clean and aerobic.

Establishing a weed lawn with appropriate plants can be accomplished by
bringing in topsoil containing seeds from these plants or purchasing seeds
from sources like JL Hudson seedsman.

LL


-- 
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/