Print

[panjsher]

I know there have been stories of people planting entire forests by themselves...

Just curious if there is anyone on here finding good spots in the wild, rather than the garden...to plant interesting / rare / medicinal plants. And what kind of success you've had.

- Pan

[BubbleCat]

Personally I keep myself on a tight leash when sowing in the wild:

Not only must the species I am sowing be native, also the parent plant of the seeds must be local. It does occur that people do believe they do good by sowing rare (endangered) species in an area where they belong but with little knowledge regarding their parents origin. The definitions of species and strain are rather fluent, meaning that plants of the same species or even strain of different origin might have considerable differences, with many of those not being too obvious or visible but important. Like seeds dormancy patterns. Examples I can come up with are: Many poppies, regarded as 'the same' have very unique dormancy patterns, depending on if the seeds were collected in scandinavia or mediterranian area. Or the california poppy, being reproduced in nurseries controlled environments, many of the commercial seeds dont exhibit much of a dormancy pattern at all. If we introduce significant amounts of seeds from questionable sources into the wild at once we might end up polluting delicate features and characteristics of the natural population, sometimes even 'improving' the population short term but screwing it big time in the long run, as a concept of survival that might appear beneficial at first may have its downsides in the long run, and the plants that are there and have always been there, sure have figured it out already and have a pretty good reason not doing it that way. Consider that not every year is the same, some phenomenons in nature are periodic but the periods can be rather long, way longer than a year. Also consider that plants do not choose their mate.

So, my personal take on this one:

If you take, give back. But youre never asked to give just because you could. Meaning: If I take seeds of a plant, I make sure I keep a share of the seeds for my own use and in turn aid the parent plant spreading the other share if the seeds in close proximity (of course I too leave seeds for the plant to spread as naturally intended). That means if I want to sow in the wild I have to find the plant in the area first, I will not buy seeds if ebay, nurseries or specialist shops and toss them around hoping to do any good to a population that already is on the decline.

nice example here: http://www.cpp.edu/~jcclark/poppy/spreading_seeds.html

My 2 € ct.

[fairdinkumseeds]

I know many cool spots up and down the coast of OZ that have access to freshwater and are not wild forests anymore.
Old farmland, disused sections of highway, council land, edges of mass forestry or agriculture or army land.
In these areas where the main plant type is "noxious weeds and grasses", I often remove large sections of weeds, and plant cool species for my own entertainment, and for later generations to enjoy.
Have done so since my teens, and its super cool going back to a place years later and seeing what survived and the benefits, if any, of all your hard work.

Originally it was stone fruit mostly, but now I generally reintroduce natives from surrounding areas that have been displaced by logging, farming, land clearing and weed competition.
My knowledge of natives has improved over the years and I am personally less reliant on introduced species for a feed.
As a nutty prepper type I also add a mix of useful fruit crops, vines, and fodder trees, as well as medicinals and fish poisons that may be handy if SHTF.

Many of the places I did a heap of work on have been destroyed by road building, or water diversion, McMansions, mass agriculture, but many are still super cool places to go chill out for a while.
Nice to know I can rock up any time and pretty much guarantee some sort of a feed.
Zero expectations of success = zero disappointments.

1 Like nobody likes this.

[panjsher]

I actually had a couple of specifics in mind, which I didn't mention: I was thinking Himalayan yew, for one.

But also, in many cases for ideas I've had would require talking to local elders, growers, and healers about the rightness of spreading certain plants around..

I know Credo Mutwa has advocated the wide dispersal of sutherlandia to fight disease...

Also I seem to remember Masanobu Fukuoka advocating a "New Genesis" type of plan....

Obviously ideas on this sort of thing are bound to clash. I definitely appreciate the delicate balance of many ecological systems, then again, in many cases, arguing for restraint could be seen as struggling to shut the barn doors once everything has already not only gotten out but fled the farm.

1 Like BubbleCat likes this.

[Botanicus]

"My idea is entirely different. I think we should mix all the species together and scatter them worldwide, completing doing away with their uneven distribution. This would give nature a full palette to work with as it establishes a new balance given the current conditions. I call this the Second Genesis." - Masanobu Fukuoka

I find this idea very intriguing...

2 Likes fairdinkumseeds and ONandONandON like this.