Eino Kenttä

John Suavecito wrote:Interesting idea, Jay. I have heard of biochar/charcoal being used as a filter for liquids many times.  It does seem to lower the stench of something like manure, but there seems to be a liquid factor.  My apples are in a non-air tight shed, so I don't think it's a big factor in my case.  

I seem to remember reading something somewhere here about storing apples in wood ash to make them last longer, because wood ash either absorbs or breaks down ethylene? Since char contains some ash and is also very porous, maybe it could work?

I don't really see how you'd practically use nanotechnology in agroforestry design? Or why? As I see it, a lot of the appeal of permaculture is that it uses tools that can be understood by anyone, which makes self-reliance and resilience possible. None of us will ever be able to make a nano-bot from scratch without the aid of all of the industrial system. If we start using (and eventually depending on) the most advanced products of that system, we're effectively at its mercy.

Of course, I can't build a computer from scratch, and still I use them. However, if all computers were to break down tomorrow, it wouldn't affect my ability to garden. If, on the other hand, I'd taught myself to garden with lots of computerised aids, and convinced myself that was the only way, I might be in trouble if they were no longer available.

In short, I don't see the benefit of nanotech in permaculture, I think incorporating it might be very destructive, and I'd rather put my trust in a system that's evolved over 3.8 billion years than in one which might possibly be invented ten years from now.

No direct experience (our climate is more or less the exact opposite of dry and hot, and our lindens are still small) but I've read that Tilia tomentosa is more drought tolerant than other species. No idea how it manages heat, but I imagine it might be okay.

Well, my first impulse was to say never... but then I realised this violates basic geometry. What if you only plant two plants in one go? The shortest path between any two points in a three-dimensional space is always a straight line. Conversely, any non-straight line planting could be broken up into a (possibly large) number of straight lines. So yeah, in order to avoid breaking the universe while retaining my ability to plant things at all, I'm forced to say always. Maybe I'm overthinking this though. Just a bit...

I would say blackcurrants, they do okay with a bit of shade. No experience with clay soil, so I have no idea how well they'd manage that. Otherwise, maybe goumi?

Check out Icelandic turf houses. They're not exactly built into hillsides, but almost (the walls on three sides are built from rocks, turf and soil, and quite thick).

I'm not myself today - well, then who are you? Who can you logically be except yourself?

William Bronson wrote: I love that plant, but I can't seem to get it to spread in my garden!
On a similar note, last night I was making waffle batter with oat flour and I had to keep adding milk so it could remain liquidy.

Do you have a part of the garden where the soil is a bit compacted? The edge of a path or driveway, maybe? That would be a good place to scatter plantain seeds and see what happens, unlike most plants they seem to really enjoy it...

Not a tree, but... Plantain, Plantago major, has the most mucilaginous seeds I've ever seen. Made "porridge" from them once, and had to keep adding water over and over again, since it just kept on thickening. When gathering the seeds, your hands had better be completely dry, or the seeds will glue themselves to your skin. I suspect this is part of what makes plantain so good at spreading. Anything passing the plant in wet weather gets coated with seeds.

I use the whole egg, but I have read that for extremely dry hair you can use yolk only, and for very greasy only the white. No personal experience with this, though. I always use both.