Introduction to permaculture by Bill Mollison

Author:Bill Mollison
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: permaculture
Publisher: Yankee Permaculture
Published: 2001-02-13T05:00:00+00:00

Pamphlet IX Permaculture Techniques Page 2.

term cabbages. I always put a nasturtium in here and there. The leaves are tasty in salad.

By summer, the J erusalem artichoke is really up and out of the ground, forming a quick barrier hedge. Within the garden, you will have a few oddities scattered here and there. Cucumbers are part of the trellising system, and probably need to be on the hot side. There will be other things that can go on the cool side, like those scarlet runner beans. They are just about the best beans in the world.

You can establish conditions for a particular plant, or plants, and you keep that plant going in this spot year after year.

If you are dealing with a really small garden, it will pay you to set up a straw-box of potatoes, which is permanent. Board up an area something like eight feet by five feet. Throw some straw or seaweed into it. Set your potatoes 9" x 9". Scatter a bit of ashes on, then fill up the box with straw, and let your client just pick potatoes from the straw. Some will grow green on top. J ust push them down underneath. Keep the whole thing ticking all the time. No soil, no bottom. Poles make a very good frame. The bark rots off and adds nutrient. Never use much sawdust, unless it is quite scattered. It tends to cut off all the air. If you put in much leaf material, it mats, and you get an anaerobic condition. Use the same straw-box every year for your potatoes. We have had potatoes growing for 12 years in straw boxes. Some of the people I know, for as long as I can remember, have had their straw beds of potatoes. It doesn't matter if it is on concrete.

Near that, you grow a couple of comfrey plants, because for later plantings you should always include a comfrey leaf. Pick a comfrey leaf, put your potato in it, wrap it up, put it under the straw, and that is your potash and nutrients. Another thing you grow near the potato box is a little pot of mint to cook with your potato. As you are picking your potato, you pick your mint. Grow it in a pot to

keep it from spreading.

The base of your straw box is a good environment for horseradish, which is a good companion plant for potatoes. You can make a special place for your horseradish. Get four old broken earthenware pots and sink them in the ground, leaving them out a little bit at the top. Every year, you refill these with good Earth and stick your horseradish root in it. Otherwise, you can't dig your horseradish. It grows straight, is easy to break, and very easy to lift.

Now let me tell you about composting as against mulch. Every time you compost, you decrease the nutrients, sometimes to one 20th of the original. Usually, though, you get about a 12th of the nutrient out of compost that you get out of mulch.

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