Permaculture for Trekkies!

I've been listening to the latest podcast.

There seem to be an awful lot of Star Trek related comments in it this time! Also some about the Big Bang Theory which meant I've been humming 'Soft Kitty' gently to myself while skinning a chicken and listening to the rest of the podcast. I seem to have a vague recollection of Mr Spock peeing into a pot containing a yukka plant in the Enterprise, on the grounds that "..it was the logical thing to do, Captain."

Anyone else remember that bit? I'm sure that there are other permie related tidbits scattered through the episodes. Any trekkies out there care to share?

And Paul - I want one of those 'Resistance is Fertile' T-shirts!

Paul mentioned that Helen Howthow says no one has ever replicated a naturla system like Fukuoka's system. I just have to add that this video shows that Fukuoka has been reproduced. Not that its an exact copy, but that the methods have been adapted to different areas by observation of what works. I think the problem is that you can't just copy what someone else has done you have to, as Sepp says, "observe observe observe" and adapt the principals to your soils current state of health, you climate, ect ect ect. Here, for example, I cant grow rice, but corn and wheat and barely do fine with NO help and while squash were a main staple here 100 years ago, stink bugs kill it all, the soil is so messed up that squash is not a real option here until some balance has been restored. So the answer as to what to grow is "it depends". You can't simply do what Fukuoka did when you dont live where he did. Observe, and adapt! Apply the principals and yes then Fukuoka style farming works.

just listened to the last two podcasts myself (sepp holtzer / star trekkies and sepp holtzer/bone salve, pruning) quite interesting. Can't remember the Spock incident but sounds like something he would have done.

I found the last one the most interesting where they were talking about the russian olive and the not pruning the bottom branches off of the trees so that gives something for the browsers to eat.

I have Russian olive, Autumn olive and goumi growing here and basicallly love them, although they do tend to pop up where I don't really want them to. I have had some come up on their own and it seems that the ones that have crossed among each other flower wise and popped up on their own have much tastier berries on them. I have even given cuttings from them away. They are better "people" food than the boughten strains.

they have the most amazing fragrance in the spring and the pollinators love them. The ones here only grow maybe 12' tall or so, but they make excellent windbreaks (as Paul mentioned) and also privacy screens, but they do use up quite a bit of space per plant, really wouldn't plant them in the same hole as a fruit tree as was suggested elsewhere, as they are too aggressive for that.

Also Paul mentioned the chainsaw, one thing that does happen ..when you cut them down, they come back from the roots. My husband cut one down one year (head injuury, doesn't understand) and he apologized profusely for killing my tree, but now ..several years later, it is growing back nicely from the roots and stumps.

As for the rodents eating the trunks of trees, we have that problem here with boughten grafted trees and I have had a problem with trunk protectors damaging the bark, this year I am going to try to use something we bought for our house and never got to using, pet proof screen replacement (on the roll from Menards). I am going to cut the screen to loosely fit around the trunk of the tree, not tight ..and staple the ends together with a paper stapler..to fasten it. being petproof it is supposed to stand up to pets, so I'm hoping it will stand up to the rodents and also allow air and sunlight through.

I also agree with Paul about non pruned trees, I have some wild apple trees that grew from cores, and they were never damaged by rodents, they always had water sprouts or shoots coming out at the trunk, i have tended to "prune" those off but I think I'll stop doing that to see if the rodents do munch on those.

I also was in agreement with where he said that if you plant enough food for the wildlife they will generally leave your gardens alone..and that is fairly true here as I plant gobs and gobs of things specifically for the wildlife here, and the only trees or plants I ever have lost to the wildlife are grafted fruit trees (to rabbits and some hard pruned by deer) and sweet corn to racoons. We plant a very aggressive miniature hollyhock around here (yes we will share seed) that the deer totally love..they will eat that over anything else in the garden..I plant it pretty much all around the property including along the road and in the beds and woods edges..as well as many berry bearing bushes and shrubs and trees to satisfy the needs of the wildlife.

Other than the damage mentioned above I really don't lose a crop to wildlife, an occasional nibble, but they don't kill the plants.