Subject: Re: Permaculture teacher ettiquite

From: [email-masked]
Date: Fri, 31 Jan 1997 10:01:38 -0500 (EST)

Getting down to some applied design detail, I find that my rather extensive
library has holes in it when I come to do the design for our new place.  I'm
wondering if other people have the same holes.  If so, maybe we can generate
info on line to plug them.

1)  I have found very little in the way of species lists of shade - tolerant
plants for USDA zone 9 and thereabouts (zone 9 is much more like zone 8 than
zone 10 in terms of what grows here.)  If you aren't familiar with USDA
zones, our area experiences cold to about 15 F (17 degrees below freezing)
and heat in excess of 100 F.  It is warm temperate much more than
subtropical.  Chilling factor is also limiting and we need plants to have
chill factors less than 500 hours.  (Our site is very moderate due to water
effects and we don't get that cold or that hot very often but fewer chill
hours.,)  Lets put together a list of shade-tolerant useful plants and their
other growing and producing requirements. I'd be glad to make up the list and
distribute it to everyone who contributes.  

2)  Likewise, though I have good lists for plants for wet and flooded areas
in cool to cold temperate areas, I find little for warm temperate areas at
the margins of subtropics.  Same offer as above or I'll send you stuff for
colder areas if you prefer.

3)  There has always, since I started with permaculture in 1981, been a
dearth of organized information about  accumulator plants, what they
accumulate, and the needs and associates of these plants.  Same offer as
above.

4)  I've never seen a good list of edible tree leaves and very little on
medicinal tree species.  Mostly, I eat tree leaves to try them out, using
informed judgement on which species are safe.  Same arrangement as above.  

For convenience, I will use info published in Robert Kourik's Designing and
Mainataining your Edible Landscape, Naturally   to be the starting point.
 Certainly he has the only table of accumulator plants I've run across in
print.  

I will begin my work on this project as soon as ONE person also pitches in.
 Again, the list will be available to all who contribute.  If you don't have
knowledge and want to be part, I'll be happy to suggest library projects to
fit in.  Maybe we can have our own newsgroup if enough people get going.

These are all practical kinds of information that all people working in these
areas need.  I work from sub-arctic to tropics, so I'm interested in
everything, but naturally for now we are focussing on our own design.

For convenience, lets try to use both common and scientific names, cite
sources (including personal observation), country of origin where known,
potential for rampancy and other problems, uses, maintenance issues, soil
requirements, etc.  We can develop a full protocol as we go along and we can
add other species lists.  For example, Cynthia is very interested in
medicinal plants in permaculture designs (notably ours) but I did not put
that on the list because there is so much herbal information available.
However, it there is strong interest, we can include it if someone else will
put together that information.  

There are two advantages to having these lists all in the same project.  1)
 Most permaculture designers are interested in all these things.  2)  We can
develop a uniform protocol for presenting the information.  This will make
the lists much easier to use in the design stage.  

For Mother Earth, Dan Hemenway, Yankee Permaculture Publications (since
1982), Elfin Permaculture workshops, lectures, Permaculture Design Courses,
consulting and permaculture designs (since 1981), and now correspondence
permaculture training by email. Copyright, 1996, Dan & Cynthia Hemenway, P.O.
Box 2052, Ocala FL 34478 USA  [email-masked]  

We don't have time to rush.