TALUS GARLAND EFFECT

I have a border running cross contour up the hill with my neighbour at a gentle angle. I want to fence it ..... and have been pondering how to effect a living fence but still harvest downhill rain water while accomodating the water pipes along this border that carry our water to the house. (One thing I must add is underground is bedrock at different rising levels so need to get the land flat as it slopes down for the pipes to lie well.)

This is what I have come up with:

Dig pits along the upward sloping border to trap rain water coming down hill. This is off contour and so I need to dig intermittent pits and not swales.

Fill with rocks until flat. This should also hold the water long enough to sink into the earth.

Lay house water supply pipework flat on top.

Cover with serpentine shaped Talus (pile of rocks sloped as a mound) wall - the wider and higher I can manage the better. This will look like a serpentine wall climbing up the slope at a +/- 30 degree angle. This will collect dew, act as windbreak, protect pipes from extremes of temperature, create microclimates in the curves, and give edge. The one negative I am trying to think through is if a pipe should leak somewhere I need easy access. Might have to buy really long strips of new pipe to lay this way and then where it joins... the point it gives in season changes due to expansion and contraction..... have an easy access point. The hope is that this talus wall covering the pipes will protect from all extremes of temperature anyway - but I would rather prepare in case.

I have seen Chinaberry grow through piles of rock and so could probably get them to grow at the top of the talus wall... They are pest resistant and I have tons of seed so an easy choice - thus turning a pest into a blessing. Once they achieve a good thick post height I will pollard them off and rub salt into the cut in hopes of preventing further growth.

The plan is then to grow honeysuckle, which grows like a weed here, in between and weave into a living fence on top. The trimmings are good fodder. To get the honeysuckle to grow I might have to offer the rootings a bit of soil base laid over some thick mulch. I don't want to build the living fence inside of this whole talus wall because it will block off the micro-climates created in the curves. On the back side will be well shaded and watered and on the front a warm micro-climate. A lovely thick living wall.... well that is the plan anyway!

Until next time,
Chelle

ORDERLY CHAOS OR CHAOTIC DISORDER?

This topic came up recently in a Permaculture discussion. An interesting conundrum.......

Previously I quoted something Bill Mollison said in one of his design courses:

“We should not confuse order and tidiness. Tidiness is something that happens when you have frontal brain damage. You get very tidy. Tidiness is symptomatic of brain damage. Creativity, on the other hand, is symptomatic of a fairly whole brain, and is usually a disordered affair. The tolerance for disorder is one of the very few healthy signs in life. If you can tolerate disorder you are probably healthy. Creativity is seldom tidy.

Tidiness is like the painting of that straight up and down American with his fork and his straight rows. The British garden is a sign of extraordinary tidiness and functional disorder. You can measure it easily, but it doesn’t yield much. What we want is creative disorder. I repeat, it is not the number of elements in a system that is important, but the degree of functional organization of those elements – beneficial functions.”

[Bill Mollison: Transcript for a Permaculture Design Course.]

I am very creative and so this really tickled me. I know some people so bound-up in the need for showpiece tidiness that they are only kidding themselves that they are creative. Our modern hyper-tidiness cannot produce creative abundance. Same with natural systems: Functional order in natural systems can look chaotic. But regimental tidyness - regimental visual order - is chaotic functionally. In terms of abundant human creativity it is death.

Question: Which do you want? Lots of rows of tidy plants gasping out an existence in neatly weeded bare earth? Or a mass of happy low-effort productivity? These two ideas are mutually exclusive.

When we have a diversity of plantings together they take care of each other. Different root depths ensure minimised competition. Some plants bring up what others need and give it later in leaf fall. Some need shade, some don't. Easy to see where this goes. Synergism with the many integrations producing beyond your wildest dreams.

I must admit to having had a bit of fun with this quote. I know he sounds a bit rough, but I had some things happen that brought it into clear focus. He is misunderstood as advocating untidiness. That is functionally disorganised too! But this extreme hyper-tidyness - an extreme kind of perfectionism and control - that seems to create a need to regiment everything into straight lines and perfect "order" kills synergy.... and creativity too! :-) And what do you have left? Monoculture rows of plants propped up with chemicals and poisons to produce on a diminishing return. And no special happenings in enthusiastic synergism. A bit nuts in my view.

Until next time,

Chelle

NOTHING WASTED

Bless the flowers and the weeds, my birds and bees.

Anon

I used to hate the way the Chinaberry just popped up everywhere, but now I just think of it as a wonderful source of bio-mass. A year ago I think I would be amazed that I would actually be happy to see a Chinaberry coppicing.

I cut it down now and it goes into the beds I am structuring. I layer different sources of bio-mass lasagna-style to build up the bed. I use the Chinberry as part of the greens, and also as mulch on top when needed. Those that have been chopped down seem to coppice so readily that they are an endless supply.

I read that Bill Mollison said that in order to completely destroy a tree you are to use road salt... I assume this means coarse salt... at the cut, and then cover with an old carpet to block out the light. I would need a lot of old carpet! But I will have to make a plan like this, in time, as I settle areas down to Food forest. For now they serve a welcome purpose. Everything that grows rampantly in this rainy season is used like this - if not specifically purposed to be there.

I have found that the Mulberry tree bouces back very readily too; a real blessing. Such a useful tree. And the long leafy stems make wonderful fish food for my Tilapia. I will probably cut back a number of Moringa too to create coppiced limbs and increase forage for the animals when I get them.

I found sad little sticks of Purslane down near the river and brought them into the Food forest too. Now they are the best looking Purslane I have ever seen! Large leafed and a good 40cm high. They have become forage food to me. I love nibbling on the leaves. It feels so good to reach out and pluck one leaf after another to eat. They are one of nature's richest sources of Omega 3 fatty acids. Perfect to add to salads. I have also read that when thrown into a stew-pot they will thicken the sauce. I have not tried this yet... they don't make it past raw in my kitchen.

With all the recent rains the weeds are rampant in growth. I will have to pull hard in some places, but they are welcome mulch. Even the Khakibos has become a friend to me; added around young plants the strong scent repels predatory insects. Nothing wasted.

Until next time,
Chelle