The Problem is the Solution

Oh no, I'm so sorry. I'm very impressed with your positive attitude. I hope everything turns out well for you.

I know I'm not the only one around here who likes Marcus Aurelius quotes, here's a new one I heard recently.  It goes something like this "Sometimes the thing that is in the way is actually the way itself".  Very permaculture.

This is one of my favourite threads! I suppose the soution is always a mind change - looking at the half full glass rather than the half empty one.

This was posted as its own thread, but it really is a good example of the topic:

What to do with a big dead tree?
https://permies.com/t/373386/BIG-dead-tree#3775405

Leigh Tate wrote:Bill Mollison said

The Problem is the solution. Everything, works both ways. It is only how we see things that makes them advantageous or not.

Stanford economist Thomas Sowell said the same thing but spelled differently:

There are no solutions.  There are only trade-offs.

brian keath wrote: Stanford economist Thomas Sowell said the same thing but spelled differently:

There are no solutions.  There are only trade-offs.

Yes, but the difference is, that in economics, often those trade-offs add up to the same number or less. The nifty thing about permaculture and stacking functions is that often the value of the stacked up solutions add up to more than what the identified "problem" equaled as a deficit.

This isn't the best example, but one of our duck runs was a bit hot in the afternoon sun. We planted a baby Morus alba Mulberry I had rooted from a friend's tree. It adores the muddy duck water we dump out of the buckets, it's providing fruit, the leaves are edible, and it's already had a pup grow up from one of the roots, so if I or a friend needs a Mulberry bush, we can dig it up in the fall.

This is a true abundance of thoughts.  I have researched Japanese Knotweed and have a couple of thoughts.  I see Diane considers Knotweed good for shading creeks and ponds.  One slight problem is that Knotweed spreads using rhizomes - big tuber-like structures and have almost to no rootlets.  Why is that a problem?  Rootlets are required to hold the soil along creeks and ponds.  When Knotweed grows right up the the edge of a water course, it allows the banks to be more deeply eroded during bank full or floods (around my part of the country, bank full is roughly 1.4 years).  Bank full to flood is when a stream will work the hardest.  Not enough energy in lower flows. In England, Knotweed is Falopia Japonica and has a very dangerous reputation.  If any project is intended near a stream, a full environmental study has to prove that no Knotweed is in the area.  They have experienced full destruction of some foundations and dams due to the power of Knotweed rhizome growth.

Knotweed contains multiple phenolic chemical compounds.  Reservatrol is a wonder drug.  It has been shown by Johns Hopkins to exceed both Doxycycline and Tetracycline for control of long-term Lyme disease.  It is antiviral, antibacterial, anticarcinogenic (4 types and growing) and anti-inflammatory.  I have used the anti-inflamatory properties in excess of 10 years to keep walking after diagnosis of severe siatica.  Knotweed also contains Quercitin, a drug capable of controlling the production of cytokines in the lungs (mucus producing cells).  My wife finally took some and swears by it now.  Both Reservatrol and Quercetine were identified in National Institute of Health studies to curb Covid symptoms.  I never had a bout, which I ascribe to my regular injestion of Reservatrol.  

Beyond its health benefits, Knotweed is allotropic, it inhibits germination of seeds and growth of many plants.  I have a friend who has discussed testing it to see if the juice might reduce roadside weeds without harming wildlife.  Open experiment for anyone to try.  We have not been able to determine which part of the plant contains the highest percentages to harvest and crush.  Since only the liquid would be used, there would be no opportunity for any pieces of rhizome to sneak through and that is how virtually all Knotweed in the US spreads. That is another concern regarding allowing it to grow along streams.  Any chunks of rhizome that break off during flooding will float downstream and spread.  A piece the size of a thumbnail is said to grow from a burial of 3 feet.  

Knotweed produces flowers in abundance, which bees seem to love.  The honey from those flowers is said to contain many of the positive health benefits of the parts of the plant.  According to the references I have read, the plants do not produce seed that grows.  

Yes, the problem is the solution ...

...but sometimes for an entirely different problem.

While I was searching for a good provider of compost for my growing spaces, I ended up receiving a load of compost that was full of various weed seeds unbeknownst to me. After I had spread the compost, and the weather warmed up, I started finding a whole bunch of things growing in the soil. It was a rather frustrating experience. The majority of the weeds turned out to be pigweed, also known as wild amaranth. I picked it, I hoed it, I chopped it but it kept coming back. What a vigorous plant!

This year, a couple of my hens learned how to escape their paddock netting and scampered into my garden. I was rather surprised to find them vigorously ripping leaves off of a few of the existing pigweed plants and it was a lightbulb moment for me. I now have a new system!

The local deer seem to like nibbling the tender bits of the pigweed causing it to grow low and wide with many branches coming out. As the pigweed starts to show sign of flowering heads, I will chop it at root level and throw it in to my hens. They systematically remove the foliage and the rest of the plant melds down into the woodchips surrounding their coop. Letting the deer nibble on the pigweed seems to distract them from the other unprotected plants growing nearby, namely beans, corn and squash. Yes there is a little bit of damage to them, but they seem to target the green amaranth. They don't bother the red for some reason?

In any case, I now look forward to seeing wild amaranth pop up in the warm months as it is now a feed supplement for my chooks.

Timothy Norton wrote: In any case, I now look forward to seeing wild amaranth pop up in the warm months as it is now a feed supplement for my chooks. :)

Have you tried cooking some of the green leaves as a veggie? I'm told it's human compatible, but have been too scared of identifying it accurately while it's still young and tender enough to try cooking it.

Jay Angler wrote: Have you tried cooking some of the green leaves as a veggie? I'm told it's human compatible, but have been too scared of identifying it accurately while it's still young and tender enough to try cooking it.

It is funny that you mention that, I have been looking at recipes that utilize Jamaican "Callaloo" which is a type of cultivated 'wild' amaranth. I'm getting close to being confident in trying it. I'm thinking next year when the leaves are most tender giving it a shot. I believe I would be more likely to eat the plant for its greens than the grain due to the work it takes to harvest the tiny grains.