Oliver oversees the newest to-reads (and some we've finished already). Our fuel is on the right -- we'll get through these in a couple weeks. |
One stark difference between learning outside of grad school is that my response to this 'daunting' stack of books is that I don't find it daunting at all. I cannot wait to dive into all this goodness! We've had the same Netflix movie for over a week now because we can't motivate to watch a movie when we have all this at our fingertips!
I'm currently reading this book:
Amazing -- a must read. |
One complaint I've read about permaculture is that it advocates for planting a lot of non-native plants and even some that have been known to become invasive. In our climate, however, can we really use all native plants and still end up with a favorable result that provides food, materials and beauty for us to enjoy without hurting the land? Or, are the complaints about permaculture and non-native plants coming from people who haven't quite mastered the correct arrangements of plants to prevent the non-natives from taking over? One book I read mentioned planting bamboo since it can be used for so many things and also does so many great things for the environment around it, but bamboo is known to spread quite easily. The author suggested places to plant it to prevent the spreading (around a pond, near a paved path, etc.), and also suggested just paying attention to it. When you see small shoots emerging, harvest them and eat them -- the baby shoots are the best anyway. I guess I'm just not sold on introducing a lot of potentially invasive non-native plants to my property....we have enough Asian bittersweet as it is!
I'm about to take a permaculture design course, so I'm hoping to get a lot of my questions answered there, but I'm impatient (hence I'm already almost done with one of the class texts). Anyone have any experience with permaculture and how to do it with all native plants?
If you haven't read already, consider the work of Mark Shepard on Restoration Agriculture...permaculture meets "big ag" through the eyes of an ecologist. Book reviews at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.acresusa.com/toolbox/reprints/Dec12_ShepardInterview.pdf
http://www.groaction.com/discover/2581/mark-shepard-interview-profitable-permaculture/
Sorry, that was the D's...thought it would recognize us.
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