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Pastimes : Gardening and Especially Tomato Growing -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Cogito Ergo Sum who wrote (3434)	9/15/2021 4:21:43 PM
From: sense	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3494

The entire concept of permaculture is vastly underappreciated, even by those who are ostensibly its advocates. Every year I try to find a way to add something of value... which, as proved true of the lettuce experiment, doesn't always pan out... But, occasionally it does: I've done trials on tomatoes and come up with a couple of better varieties for local conditions... that are now the dominant choice of variety (far better flavor, earlier, more persistently productive) for the local "direct to consumer" farms. I've not convinced them, yet, that they don't need to collect seeds and start them in the greenhouse to replant each year... rather than just manage a patch of naturalized tomatoes like you would a hedgerow of wild blackberries... And, the best yet... did strawberry trials and found one variety (out of 35) that not only survives our occasionally extreme summer heat without a lot of water, but also survives the winters without any protection... and makes the best flavored berries, too... in just the right size... with no crunchy frankenberries... and no need to dig the plants and store them to over-winter, and then re-plant them in spring... which is just a massive amount of work... And, then, paired up that berry with fruit trees... to grow the berries under the fruit trees... where they make a dense enough carpet of leaves, and emerge early enough in the year, that together with the shade from the tree, they completely shade out the weeds... including the bind weed. So you end up not having to do any labor at all (or, use any chemical or mechanical means) to keep the ground below the trees free of weeds... while you also make dual use of the ground... and prolong the berry season by the margin in which the shade from the trees allows them to flower a bit later than they do in full sun... You get tree fruit and berries... and no weeds... with less land, and less work, and no chemicals ? The amount of pointless labor being done on small farms... only because the choices made are the "approved solution" that mimics what industrial scale agriculture does ? Hard to quantify the costs in time, labor, equipment and chemicals... doing things that are essentially unnecessary.