Urban Native Plant Food and Medicine Forest

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 357-365

I never Understood why cities with large areas in their property do not plant Native Fruit Trees in Parks and bare land.

Why the sidewalks do not have fruit trees planted? It is not Hard to choose between a tree that produce fruits and a tree that produce nothing. Or even worse have no trees on the side walks.

Native and endemic plants provide habitat for other native species which may be endangered. The expression “build it and they will come” applies here. In this way, permaculturists can play the role of restoration conservationist while building a community around food sovereignty and re-skilling. 

Many species need a specific habitat in which to nest or harvest food. There could be species that are native to your area which pollinate crops in my area, and if they don’t have anywhere to live, my part of the world would suffer.
 
Biodiversity is a critical aspect of the discussions surrounding food security, environmental conservation, and the health of our planet in the years to come. Permaculture is on the cutting edge of agriculture in that it considers biodiversity in planning systems. As Bill Mollison classically puts it, “you don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck deficiency.” 

A dynamic, resilient, productive, thriving system that has the power to provide for the people and restore the health of the planet.

With droughts, wildfires, and temperatures on the rise, precious forests are disappearing at a mind boggling rate. We know permaculture is a solution to this, as far as water catchment, soil building, and shade-creation are concerned. 

There is something to be said for restoring the plants which originated in your place of residence–because as we lose those forests, we lose the animals too, which exacerbates the problem.

Since native forests are environmental balancers and regulators, we might as well give them some leverage. Native plants are well suited for the area you live in, and will require less babying and human input as a result.  

The native plant food and medicine forests can sequester carbon, produce rain, and lower temperatures, and the planet finds its equilibrium. 

The end result: neighborhoods with yards full of native and endemic species, with the cultural knowledge of their uses revitalized.

When planning an endemic and native plant food and medicine forest, there’s no better way to learn than getting out into the woods, observing, and harvesting.

Planting, observing, and harvesting plants is an activity people of all ages, ability levels, and beliefs can enjoy together. It has the power to bring people together, cross-culturally, beyond the language barrier. It can unite people beyond the invisible walls that differences in income, religion, identity, and so on. 

What better way to gain a sense of place, belonging, and community than to come to know the original inhabitants? 

 Edible forest gardening 


 Edible forest gardening is the art and science of putting plants together in woodlandlike patterns that forge mutually beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is more than the sum of its parts. You can grow fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, other useful plants, and animals in a way that mimics natural ecosystems. You can create a beautiful, diverse, high-yield garden. If designed with care and deep understanding of ecosystem function, you can also design a garden that is largely self-maintaining. In many of the world's temperate-climate regions, your garden would soon start reverting to forest if you were to stop managing it. We humans work hard to hold back succession—mowing, weeding, plowing, and spraying. If the successional process were the wind, we would be constantly motoring against it. Why not put up a sail and glide along with the land's natural tendency to grow trees? By mimicking the structure and function of forest ecosystems we can gain a number of benefits.
Why Grow an Edible Forest Garden?
While each forest gardener will have unique design goals, forest gardening in general has three primary practical intentions:

• High yields of diverse products such as food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, 'farmaceuticals' and fun;
• A largely self-maintaining garden and;
• A healthy ecosystem.

These three goals are mutually reinforcing. For example, diverse crops make it easier to design a healthy, self-maintaining ecosystem, and a healthy garden ecosystem should have reduced maintenance requirements. However, forest gardening also has higher aims.


Where Can You Grow an Edible Forest Garden?
  Anyone with a patch of land can grow a forest garden. They've been created in small urban yards and large parks, on suburban lots, and in small plots of rural farms. The smallest we have seen was a 30 by 50 foot (9 by 15 m) embankment behind an urban housing project, and smaller versions are definitely possible.

Architecture
  Contrary to the prevailing wisdom on forest gardening, vegetation layers are only one of the architectural features important in forest garden design. Soil horizon structure, vegetation patterning, vegetation density, and community diversity are also critical. All five of these elements of community architecture influence yields, plant health, pest and disease dynamics, maintenance requirements, and overall community character. For example, scientific research indicates that structural diversity in forest vegetation, what we call "lumpy texture," appears to increase bird and insect population diversity and to balance insect pest populations—independent of plant species diversity. Learning how and why plants pattern themselves in nature and about the effects of the diverse kinds of diversity on ecosystem function can add great richness to the tool box of the forest gardener.

 Links

http://www.wildernesscollege.com/plants-used-for-medicine.html 

http://www.urbanecology.ca/documents/Student%20Technical%20Series/KingH.pdf

http://www.edibleforestgardens.com/about_gardening

https://nakazora.wordpress.com/category/natural-farming-forest-gardening/

 

Trees of Mexico Guano Palm

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 356-365

Guano Palm, Sabel mauritiiformis, Arecaceae family. A prized palm  is found in the Maya jungles and is the most valuable palm frond for the Maya people since it is used to build their traditional home's roofing. 

The Guano palm has large thick water-resistant fronds that will last up to 15 years when properly cured for roofing.  Harvest only during full moon by the Maya to avoid steam to be susceptible to insects damage.  The Guano palm trunk as it matures because very hard and sturdy.

Guano is slang for bat droppings. But in its context, guano is perfectly normal word for thatch from this common palm tree.

Guano is Sabal genus but potentially many different species are called guano
It is typical in local Spanish of Mesoamerica for the same word (in this case huano or guano) to refer to many separate trees

 Guano palms, used to make the thatched palapa roofs
Palm thatch is cut only during certain phase of the moon
 
Most visitors to Maya sites assume that when the local people say it is best to harvest palm thatch during a certain phase of the moon, that this is utter superstition with no actual supporting facts.

Very easy: harvest the palm for your home at any time of the month that you select (ignoring the position of the moon).

Compare it with a Mayan thatch roof harvested at the optimum time of the moon for having the palm protected by the position and amount of the sap.

I bet that the “anytime, non-superstitious” thatched palm will rot a lot more quickly, than the house that the local experienced Maya villager can build.

Peruvian Man Reynaldo Ochoa, Plant 30000 Trees

By Liliana Usvat    
Blog 355-365

Here is the story of Reynaldo – Rainforest Hero, about one man's inspirational regeneration of the Amazon Rainforest

More and more permaculture projects are demonstrating that areas in rainforests, that were once biodiverse habitats for scores of species but have been logged for timber or destroyed by slash and burn agriculture, can be replanted for food, fibres and medicines. Not only will they provide resources for local people, they can also become richly biodiverse in varieties of plant and animal species. This is a win-win situation for people and the planet.

Two of the major problems affecting the area are deforestation and malnutrition.
Local people habitually clear land to grow crops such as yucca and bananas for sale. They generally have a monoculture and use a piece of land (a hectare or more) for around 2 years before clearing some new land where the soil is nutrient rich. Though each farmer generally owns just a few hectares of land the 'slash and burn' faming culture has a major impact as almost every farmer does it.


Reynaldo Ochoa, a 54 year old resident of Manu was no different. Moving to the region in the early 1980's he cut and burned forest for farming like everyone else. But he soon found a better way. He learned about permaculture farming and began to adopt its method on his own land, with great results. He uses a multitude of crops in one place which work in a sustainable manner, replacing nutrients with nitrogen fixing plants and trees while having a multilayered crop yield; he grows fruit trees with yucca and a number of other fruits and vegetables. He also began planting soft and hardwood trees. He found that the shade the trees provided actually helped his crop yield as well as protecting the land from strong winds and the damaging effects of soil erosion.

One community is learning to live in balance with their environment.



For decades the people in the Manu region of Peru have used slash-and-burn as their primary farming technique. Realizing that there would soon be no forest left if this practice continued, Reynaldo Ochoa began experimenting with different approaches to farming the land. He's now dedicated to reforesting the region and teaching residents more sustainable alternatives to deforestation, like agroforestry and permaculture.

Planting Trees with the crops the system works in balance with the nature.

The garden provide all the needs of the family. They are able to live without cutting the forest.

The Peruvian man planted 30,000 trees since it began.

Without trees the earth became barren and crops will not grow. Agroforestry help land to recover and let farmers survive without clearing the forest. The trees provide shade absorb carbon from the air and put nutrients into the soil.

It is important for families to have fresh food and live in harmony with the forest and nature.

Everything in life begin with a seed. It is the same for a plant a tree or an idea. Each tree make a difference. It is a special feeling to plant a tree and watch it grow and flourish.

 Reynaldo Ochoa help to achieve a sustainable future for Manu Region in Peru

Reynaldo and the Crees foundation begun a 'bio garden' program in 2008 helping teach local families how to grow their own vegetable gardens year round, giving them a chance at a better diet and a sustainable income through the sale of the excess. They get expert training, have the garden built and planted for them and then they are helped and monitored throughout the year. Crees and Reynaldo's vision is that in order to protect the forest and its diverse wildlife you need to engage the people in better practices which serve their needs and the forest alike.


Link

http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/short-film-showcase/rain-forest-hero-plants-over-30-000-trees-to-save-the-amazon?source=relatedvideo