permaculture guilds

[ljgeoff]

I'm still learning a lot about the practice of food forests and permiculture.

We're planning on taking down 5-10 trees this year. Big trees. Mike has been thinking about the management of the fresh lumber. I've been thinking about the stumps.

Stumps are rather amazing things. They hold water, and as they decompose, they release nutrients into the surrounding soil. They nurture the soil mycelium:

Plants have something the fungi needs: energy from the sun in the form of sugar. The fungi on the other hand, has something the plant needs: access to the nutrients trapped in complex organic molecules. These nutrients are not available to the plant. So, like a small child who cannot open the cookie jar, the plants must bribe their fungal partners with sugar to open the jar and hand them a cookie (nutrients). This relationship plays an incredibly important role in our forests. Fungi do more than form connections with individual plants. The mycelial network of one individual fungus connects with many individual plants, forming a vast interconnected web of shared information and nutrients throughout the forest. Amazingly, mycorrhizal fungi can do more than just exchange energy and nutrients with the plants they are connected to, they can also act as a mediator between healthy and unhealthy individual plants, passing vital nutrients from the healthy to the weak. Mycorrhizal fungi are the communication and resource transportation infrastructure of the biological world.

Mayne Island Conservancy

What I do with the stumps will depend on where they sit, of course. But mostly I'll be putting in perennials like garlic at one stump and asparagus at another (those two dont play well together). Likely, there'll be a stump or two inside the greenhouse - a strawberry bed would work well there.

Comments

[elainegrey]

Here in the humid southeast, as the roots rot back to the stump, the ground subsides leaving ankle twisting fissures. Depending on the foundation for your greenhouse, you might want to keep an eye on that. But leaving the stumps to feed the soil - yes!

[ljgeoff]

That happens here, too, but much later in the game. Ive seen stumps up her take decades to get soft. I should do a study!

Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I'm still learning a lot about the practice of food forests and permiculture.<<

I do that here too. I call my approach laissez-faire permaculture.

>>Stumps are rather amazing things. They hold water, and as they decompose, they release nutrients into the surrounding soil. <<

You could build a hugelkultur bed for one, and the stump would make it go all the way down into the soil.

>> But mostly I'll be putting in perennials like garlic at one stump <<

Consider also garlic chives. They are a favorite of my parasitic wasps, which are beautiful to watch -- my favorite is the blue-winged wasp -- and parasitize scarab beetles, hence the population crash in June bugs and Japanese beetles.

There are many ideas, depending on the height and shape of the stump.

https://stumpbustersllc.com/creative-ways-to-use-a-large-tree-stump/

https://www.diyncrafts.com/17925/home/20-amazing-flower-planters-lawn-ornaments-made-old-tree-stumps

Re: Thoughts

[ljgeoff]

A hugelkulture was on my radar, too. And I was just reading about parasitic wasps!

Re: Thoughts

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> A hugelkulture was on my radar, too.<<

Yay! :D

*ponder* A stump would also make a great core for a hibernaculum, particularly for amphibians, and all the better if you have one that already had a hollow core or lots of nooks and crannies.

>> And I was just reading about parasitic wasps! <<

I have lots of these:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scolia_dubia

There's also another kind with lots of white on it, but I'm not sure what that one is.

I see swarms of these and other small insects all over my garlic chives. Their other favorite is sedum -- I have several patches of 'Autumn Joy' which they love.