On Wednesday, April 2, 2003, at 08:55 AM, mIEKAL aND wrote:
I have a really hard time seeing these as mutually exclusive binaries.
There's certainly some overlap between kinship and permaculture gardens, but no one that I know of has explored how extensive it is, or whether the criteria of one can meet those of the other--are they useful for each other?
Plants that are closely related evolutionarily may not work well together or be useful to a human gardener.
So diversity for diversity's sake--
growing a lot of species from one genus, say--isn't a compelling reason from a Pc perspective, though it's what Mushroom would like to see people do (along with lots of other things).
Other useful ideas for permaculture being suggested by kinship gardening: If you know of two closely related genera that have qualities close to the one you're looking for, say a fiber strength or flowering time, you could use the kinship relationship to locate a genus or species intermediate to the two and see if it's got just what you want.
There are also great potentials for crossing not-too-distantly related but little-known species/varieties to yield new traits. I'm sure with a little thought we could come up with more
One interesting observation is that although Mushroom's kinship maps feature a vast array of species, the ones he is actually growing and is most excited about are domesticated varieties; same with Gabriel Howearth's, for the most part. So even in the rarefied realm of kinship gardens, there's a strong practical note.
I think Alan Kapuler should be awarded a MacArthur fellowship.
The fact that he has to scrape up a meager living seems nearly criminal; his work is on a par with Nobelists, and offers the world a lot more than does the latest subatomic particle. His Peace Seeds Journals are expensive, it's true, but they support his work, so I've bought them all, and I ain't rich. I doubt if he will develop a website--he's too busy farming and researching--but some kindhearted developer out there ought to think about putting his work on the internet so more people can have access to it.
Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.