Minutes from November 19, 2011

Attending: Bill Bross, Robert, Caroline & Charlie Gray, John & Ruth Hyde, Peggy Kane, Leona Lauster, Patty Love, Anita Messina, Laura Ouimette,

Due to new and re-construction several folks had difficulty finding room C 220. Before our next indoor meeting we will attempt to put a map online and provide directional signs on the FLCC campus.

We are looking for a new Canandaigua Botanical Society president (or assistant president). If you are interested, or know somebody who might be…please let us know! Also, we will be putting together the 2012-2013 program in January/February. Let us know if there is a particular program or event you’re interested in for next year.

Laura Ouimette was presented with Newcomb's Wildflower Guide and Peterson Field Guides: Wildflowers, Northeastern/North-central North America. A special thanks to Leona Lauster who knew how important these guides can be to a Botanical Society secretary!

A copy of Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv has been purchased for the Wood Library in memory of Maya Hobday. Maya and Laura read this book together after attending the March 2011 Canandaigua Botanical Society presentation by Bruce Gilman.

Notes from “Where the Wild Things Are” by Patty Love

People are interested in the science behind forest gardening.

Observations of natural world – Adirondack region

Humans create monocultures in controlled spaces while nature is messy yet productive and does have patterns.

Natural Gardens are everywhere: Bristol, Italy, Serbia, Madagascar, Tasmania, Kazakhstan (humid temps. - origin of apple wild gardens with 80 varieties of apples).

Monoculture vs. Polyculture

Easthill Farm – chickens in orchard, breaks pesticide cycle, fertilize soil, cleaning, scratching.

Robert Hart – Forest Garden in England

Alley cropping – fruit trees and annuals together with chickens – a way to transition!

Polycultures producing plentifully (Camp Epworth, Hudson Valley)

Knowing Natives knew: Native Americans were managing forests – harvests, controlled burns and clearing for the three sisters.

Peggy Livingston Stark: “We are on the cutting edge of 10.000 year old technology.

Degenerative > regenerative: to meet everyone’s needs.

WHY PERMACULTURE?

People Care…Earth Care…Resource Share

Permanent agriculture (perennials 3-3000 year life spans)

Provides for needs we all have (fun/play)

A way of looking at ecological design system

Natural building

What would happen if we did NOTHING?

Purposely creating healthy ecosystems

Edible Forest Gardens – Art and Science of putting

plants together in a conscious way

(more than sum of parts)

Why Edible Forest Gardening (EFG)?

High yields diverse products

Self maintaining garden (once established) – eliminate weeding!

Creates healthy ecosystem

Moral imperative “Forest gardening helps us take our rightful place as part of nature doing nature's work, rather than as separate entities intervening in and dominating the natural world" - Dave Jacke, author of Edible Forest Gardens

Maximizing net primary productivity

Swamps, marshes, estuaries are most productive

Seven stories (layers)

* Canopy

* Understory

* Shrub layer

* Herbaceous

* Ground cover

* Underground

* Vine layer

Elements > architecture

Key EFG tool = polyculture

Multi functional: food, fiber, fun, fuel, farmaceuticals, function, fodder.

Use perennials as much as possible with annuals too.

Fill niches in

TIME (polyculture)

SPACE (guilds - plants happy to live together)

SUCCESSION (things will change over time)

Fighting succession = mowing lawns

Try to get many functions from one plant

Creating Diversity, Stability, Resiliency via planting and design

Needs are met in many different ways. “As it is above, so it is below”

* Nitrogen fixing – nitrogen releases when plant dies or is cut

* Dynamic accumulator – long tap roots pull up minerals into

leaves then release into ground

* Invertebrate shelter – so bugs are kept in control

* Nectar plants – butterfly garden, bee balm fills many

functions

* Confuse animals with scents (mint to confuse deer)

* Coppicing

* Stack functions – like patchwork quilt, interlock pollination

* Issues and strategies

* OVERPRODUCE

Youtube: Greening the desert by Jeff Lawton

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sohI6vnWZmk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG_vRG66wkA&feature=related

Patty Love is available for workshops, consulting, and speaking. You may contact her at patty@barefootpermaculture.com.