To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [permaculture] To Cut or Not to Cut
Date: Thu, 1 Feb 2007 07:39:13 -0600
Hi Gene,
Wow, you're daughter's already graduated college? My girls are ten and
eight now. It's been a long time hasn't it?
It's funny, the older I get and more jobs I do, the less I wince at removing
woody brush and small trees that have grown up where they may do harm -
against slabs, rubbing against roofs, in the middle of gardens, etc.
In a garden, especially in a demonstration garden, I like to be able to see
the plants we're cultivating and be able to take pictures and see what's
going on. Typically, the N2 fixing trees that I've planted close to the
fruit trees are acacias and mesquite that don't shade the sunlight as much
as a mature hackberry might. So even though a hackberry might fix nitrogen
it may not be the best farmer's tree to have up against your fig.
However, if you want to leave the hackberry because it's pleasant and useful
then you really just need to know how long until your fig tree's health and
fig production begin to decline, verses a stand alone tree in similar
conditions (Kevin?). In Houston, our neighbor's figs turned into big trees
under the shade of pines and live oaks. We had to climb up the tree or get
on the garage roof to get the fruit. Hard freezes, though, seem to keep
figs at the large woody bush / small tree stage. You could also take
another graft from the fig tree, plant it somewhere else and allow the two
other trees to follow Nature's course.
On our land we have a nice ratio of about 50/50, grass to trees. If I did
nothing it would be all trees within 25 years, which could be a good thing
in and of itself. However, the prairies and savannahs of Texas are
ecotones, or transition zones between your great eastern forest and the
plains and deserts of the west. There's lots of edge between the grasses
and trees, but without the bison, mule deer and antelope there's not enough
disturbance to maintain the grasses. We, to some degree, have to become
that disturbance in their absence.
Point being, our open spaces and edges are preciouse to me and I'm pretty
picky about what I fill hem up with when we're planting a food system or
building a homestead. Take care,