guildfordcycads

I have noticed a lot of permaculture folks who say invasive species are not bad, not real, or are actually beneficial. They say things like “look at how it is providing shade for my farm animals”, or “look at all the birds and insects that use it”. They never talk about how they are potentially spreading into nearby native ecosystems, slowly dismantling them, reducing biodiversity and ecosystem health. They focus on the benefits to humans (anthropocentrism) but ignore any detrimental effects. Some go so far as to say the entire concept and terminology is racist and colonialist, and that plants don’t “invade”.

To me this is all very silly and borders on scientific illiteracy / skepticism. It ignores the basic reality of the situation which is pretty obvious if you go out and look. Invasive species are real. Yes, it’s true they can provide shade for your farm animals, which is “good”. But if those plants are spreading and gradually replacing nearby native habitat, that is really not good! You are so focused on your farm and your profitability, but have you considered the long term effects on nearby ecosystems? Does that matter to you?

Please trust scientists, and try to understand that invasion biology is currently our best way to describe what is happening. The evidence is overwhelming. Sure, it’s also a land management issue, and there are lots of other aspects to this. Sure, let’s not demonize these species and hate them. But to outright deny their threat and even celebrate them or intentionally grow them… it’s just absurd. Let’s not make fools of ourselves and discredit the whole permaculture movement by making these silly arguments. It just shows how disconnected from nature we’ve become.

There are some good books on this topic, which reframe the whole issue. They make lots of great arguments for why we shouldn’t demonize these species, but they never downplay the very real threat of invasive species.

• Beyond the War on Invasive Species

• Inheritors of the Earth

I’m an avid tree nut gatherer. After they are hulled and cured/dried I put them in buckets and store in a basement. This works well, I take out a bunch at a time and crack them for eating or processing.

I was cracking open a bunch of shagbark hickory from 2023 to make hickory milk. Many nuts were good, but the more I cracked and occasionally tasted some, I realized these had largely gone rancid. Too poor quality to make milk from and they were small nuts not especially nice for eating anymore. I mostly ate this bucket full already thankfully but there is probably a gallon left of in-shell mostly rancid hickories.

What is the best use of these now? I want to empty the bucket to store other foods in it. I have a compost roller and heap compost piles, 3x3x3ft, but I find nuts in shell take a long time to decay there. I have a small flock of chickens and they enjoy the crushed nuts, but I’m not sure if rancidity is okay for the chickens? Crushing the nuts seems like a pain if I’m not eating them, but it would make these other options work better. I could also just chuck the nuts in the woods but that seems like least good use, since they are not viable seed anymore and could attract rodents or weevils. Last idea I had was to stash them away for winter and burn them with firewood. My stove has a catalytic converter so I’m not sure if burning oily rancid nuts affects that but would be surprised, and I bet these are packed with BTUs so could be good.

What do you think is the best use? Thanks for any ideas!

This year I will be building a house on my land where I have already established a food forest, but it is otherwise bare. As part of the construction, a driveway will be built which will result in a large amount of top soil being “scraped” off. THe builder has said I am welcome to keep this, and would in fact bring the costs down as they would not need to dispose of it.

My question is – what do I do with it?

I have plans for many garden beds, but I was just going to have these at ground level with compost on top (no dig approach). Using the soil for raised garden beds seems like the obvious answer, but I’m cautious about using treated wood to contain the soil.

Are there any other permaculture aligned uses for this soil?

Maybe it’s more than one thing. I’m new to this and trying to understand some of the difficulties I might encounter logistically, financially or life wise.

Hi all! I love to listen when I work in my garden and I’ve just listened to the audiobook of Practical Permaculture https://www.audible.com/pd/Practical-Permaculture-Audiobook/B0FC32WF1M and found it SUPER helpful and kind of charming and inspiring too. Does anyone have any recommendations for follow-up audiobooks??

Title says it all. I’m currently an immigration attorney and I’m hoping to volunteer before and/or after my 9-5 jobs as well as on the weekends. I don’t know much but I an fit enough to do manual labor and I am extremely eager to learn!