Permaculturing in Portugal

Summer is here and it’s watering time. Even with the few vegetables we have growing this year, watering them is already taking up a good couple of hours every evening. Part of that is to do with the fact that we are mostly watering them with a watering can. I’ve re-opened a couple of irrigation channels to help things along and got them working reasonably well, but it’s still not hugely efficient. I figured we could do better. But what to do?

Today I bought a reel of hosepipe. I knew I had a large funnel somewhere, and a ball of twine. With 15 minutes’ work with the ball of twine, an hour clearing vegetation from the top of the waterfall, a ladder, and a bungy strap, we now have a working irrigation system for the main vegetable bed on the yurt terrace. A bit Heath Robinson, but considerably more efficient than the watering can.

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After posting about nettles and docks, I got to thinking about brambles (Rubus fruticosus) and bracken (Pteridium aquilinum) as well. Also mint (Mentha arvensis) which we have in abundance and which spreads in a similar fashion, and mimosa (Acacia dealbata) which we don’t have on the quinta but which is another “problem” plant in Portugal. All these plants are vigorous, resilient and quickly outcompete most other herbaceous species. The primary means of their rapid spread and apparent monocultural tendency are their extensive creeping rhizomatous root systems.

Nettles, brambles, bracken and mimosa

What I was thinking about was what do all these plants have in common besides these characteristics? What’s their role in nature? Is there an analogous process we can easily relate to that’s more useful and true to the state of things than this notion of “noxious weeds”?

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