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Jaime

Personal Favorite points from the course:

1. Relative Location: Why plant an apricot tree in the back corner of your yard if you're never going to visit it?
2. Grow soil not plants, and plants will grow.
3. The use of micro climates increases the varieties that can grow in an area. It can also increase yields of a plant by creating its preferred climate. A south sloping garden can shift the area up a whole hardiness zone. One can even grow tropical trees in temperate zones with micro climates.
4. Bill Mollison quotes:

Plant Species Project

Plants that are edible and soil enhancing that grow in central North America in hardiness zones 5 and 6 and enjoy light, medium and heavy soils include:

Saskatoon
Indian Millet
Agave
Honey Locust
Kentucky Coffee Tree
Kudzu
Sand Dropseed
Barnyard Millet
Downy Service Berry
River Birch
American Persimmon
Pale Wolfberry
Creeping Oregon Grape
Breadroot

Kudzu

Latin name

Pueraria montana lobata

Synonyms

Dolichos lobatus - Willd.

Common name

Kudzu Vine

Origin

Japan, China, Korea

Range

East Asia, North America

Habitat

Thickets and thins woods, woodland garden, sunny edge, dappled shade, ground cover, cultivated beds

Description

Perennial climber, grows to 10 meters at a fast rate, flowers from September to October, pollinated by insects

Uses

• Edible:
  • Root: very starchy, used for thickening in soups, for noodles€
  • Flowers: cooked made into pickles
  • Stems and young leaves: raw or cooked
• Medicinal:
  • Compound daidzin contained in the roots and the flowers used for treating alcohol abuse
  • Flowers and roots: are antidote, antiemetic, antipyretic, antispasmodic, demulcent, diaphoretic, digestive, febrifuge, hypoglycaemic and hypotensive
  • Flowers and tubers: treat alcoholism, fever, colds, diarrhoea, dysentery, acute intestinal obstruction
  • Root: treat measles, increases the blood flow to the coronary artery
  • Stem: contain galactogogue used as a poultice to incipient boils, swellings, sore mouths
  • Seeds: treat dysentery, hangover
  • Leaves: Styptic
• Other Uses:
  • Fiber: tough, strong fiber from the stems is used to make ropes, cables, coarse cordage and textiles
  • Ground cover
  • Paper
  • Soil Reclamation and stabilization: extensive roots system to prevent erosion, and rebuilding depleted soil, legumes fix nitrogen
  • Sweet vanilla scent of Flowers

Propagation

Pre-soak the seed for 12 hours in warm water and sow in a warm greenhouse in early spring. Germination should take place within 2 weeks. Transplant into larger pots when needed and plant outside after last expected frost. Cover the young plants with a frame or cloche until they are growing away well. Divide young shoots from the crown. The young shoots should be removed in the spring with some of the underground part of the stem, preferably with some roots already formed; they will usually develop new roots from the nodes. Plant out in the summer if growth is sufficient, otherwise grow in pots for a year and plant out late the following spring.

Guild

This guild shall grow in the temperate climate of the American Mid West, in hardiness zone 5, in a mostly sunny location receiving about 35 inches of rainfall per year; there is a thin layer of loamy soil before heavy clay soil.

I will grow a plum tree, prunus domestica. It requires well-drained soil but can handle either light, medium, or heavy soil. The plum needs semi-shade or no shade and moist soil. The Kudzu plant will act as a ground cover to keep the soil moist while also breaking up the heavy clay soil and providing nitrogen. As the kudzu has, a tendency to take over it will be harvested after the frost has browned its leaves and used for compost. As a second ground cover I will grow strawberries and of course eat them as well. To repel insects I will grow horseradish, which I can also use to repel fungus and harvest it as well. Chamomile shall be planted for its replant uses as well as medicinal and edible uses.

Permaculture International Journal

From Global to Local

This article expresses the views of Helena Norberg-Hodge dated march 2000. She is a leading analyst of the impact of the global economy and what follows are her beliefs. Globalisation is neither evolutionary nor inevitable. The very sophisticated system of advertising and pressure creates a degree of consumerism that can do little but destroy. The powers of government and industry have created a specific kind of mind set for economic development. Politicians and corporations have been promoting the myth that economies of scale are better and more efficient leading people to understand that if food from across the world is cheaper than from across the town its because its a more efficient system over there.

Globalisation has lead to pollution of the environment and to separation of producers from consumers. That means an increase in transportation, infrastructure and green house gas emissions. Globalisation is also leading to increased job insecurity and unemployment, as well as homogenizing cultures. “The economy is so false, so out of touch with real needs, so artificial it has almost nothing to do with resources, labour, or real production”. These destructive trends can be reversed if people become economically literate. We have got to protect the environment and jobs.

Bioneers

What an experience! To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to sitting and listening to speakers all day. However, it turned out to be incredibly inspiring. Speakers ranged in topics from global warming, environmental racial inequality, violence against women, the plight of the turtles, and local economy. My personal favorite speaker has to be Judy Wicks. She started out as a small business owner, a restaurant called the white dog cafe. She championed organic and local foods, including humanly raised meat and sustainable fisheries; she donates incredibly to non-profit save the world causes; she pays her employees living wages; she has organized trips to several third world countries to understand the effects of US policy; and 100 percent of the energy of the restaurant comes from wind power. The list of her accomplishments goes on. I want to go into business myself and this is who I want to be. I also found Van Jones extremely funny but his message was heart felt and serious. It got alot of people in the audience thinking, me included. His main point was the difference in focus for environmental causes between the affluent and the less well off and between suburbia and the ghetto. Both are right though. Its good to save the polar bears, but its also good to save inner city kid's lungs from pollution. He wanted to remind people about those the environmental cause often forgets about, the poor. My next favorite is Eve Ensler. She wrote the play the Vagina Monolgues, which I now want to see, and she has traveled all over the world putting on performances and campaigning to stop violence against women. I was super suprised to see her at Bioneers, but its an issue that can never have enough publicity. It was a great weekend. I learned loads nd can't wait to return again next year.