Subject: Re: [permaculture] kinship
gardens and permaculture
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). But one way to use
Mushroom's work would be to pick unusual and rare species from genera or
families that are known to cooperate (say, a grain, a legume, and a cucurbit,
other than the usual corn-beans-squash) and try them in a guild.
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.
Toby _____________________________________________ For a look
at my book on ecological gardening, Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale
Permaculture, visit http://www.chelseagreen.com/Garden/GaiasGarden.htm
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