When I say “Texas ecoregion,” I do not mean the general geographic distributions we generally think of. I’m not thinking “panhandle,” “west,” or “central hills.” That doesn’t tell you anything about the soil and the flora. An ecoregion describes the changes in the ecosystem across a geography. When I hear “Blackland prairie,” I not only know the soil type, but what kinds of trees, plants, and animals I can expect there versus another ecoregion. Shinners and Mahler spent a great deal of time on North Central Texas flora. Their book, a massive volume that would break someone’s head if you dropped it from a height, is called Illustrated Flora of North Central Texas. If you’re serious about Texas, I recommend you buy this book. It’s a hundred dollars well spent. Much of the information I’m going to give you comes from their book. It was my textbook in university, and for good reason. There are several factors influencing Texas ecoregions: temperature, the Gulf, geology, and the overriding climatic pressures of being part of a great and diverse continent with a lot of stuff going on. Texas has almost everything possible (not as diverse as California, but we try.) The Blackland Prairie alone has three different types of soils, though I’ll spare you that for this overview. Temperature in Texas works along a diagonal from the Panhandle to the Gulf. It’s not a perfect description, and a meteorologist is probably crying somewhere, but it’s good enough. And because rainfall goes in an east-west pattern, this can make some complicated weather patterns towards the interior of the state. The eastern half of Lampasas County gets on average 15 more frost free days than its western counterpart. Texas is tricky. Things can change drastically between a county or within a county. When looking for a permaculture designer, it is critical to find one who knows YOUR county and YOUR ecoregion. The soils are different. The plants that prefer your region may be completely different from someone on the other end of the county. You have to endeavor to learn your place well. The Gulf affects a lot of Texas, though its effects decrease the farther away from the coast you get. Obviously, humidity and rainfall are impacted. The Gulf moderates temperature and climatic extremes. You are less likely to experience long droughts and wide temperature fluctuations the closer you get towards the coast versus inland. Massive bodies of water have that effect on climate. The soil also tends to get more acidic and sandy, as salt, wind, and rain buffet the landscape. Here in North Central Texas, those factors are less apparent. For us, the Gulf influences our wind and rain patterns the most. I specialize in the Cross Timbers, Blackland Prairie, and Post Oak Savannah, so those are the ecoregions I’m going to describe today. That includes approximately 70 counties in Texas. Two things contributed most to the stability and health of these three regions: fire and ungulate migration. Fires, either natural or induced, kept shrubbery and opportunistic species under control. It revitalizes grasses, doesn’t really harm trees that much, and clears land of green briar, weeds, and plants that cannot survive the burn. What you are left with are patches of strong, slow-growing trees like black hickory and oaks, and lush, open grassland. It is nature’s method of spring cleaning. There are also some species that require the fast, intense heat of a grass fire to reproduce, like the Longleaf pine. Buffalo and other migratory species did their part by spreading seeds, churning the soil, and fertilizing the ground. They stayed long enough to mow and then did not return until the next year, leaving the grasses time to rebuild, grow deeper roots, and survive. This migrational pattern is critical to replenishing and sustaining prairie. When a grass is allowed to grow to full height, cut down, and then allowed to seed, the grass becomes thicker and stronger. When grass is cut repeatedly, its roots eventually degenerate to match its height. That means a grass kept at three inches can only maintain roots that are three inches. And you wonder why our lawns and pastures have such drought problems. They can’t grow the roots to grow strong and deep. But a migrational pattern strengthens the grass. Many native grasses under this system can grow roots reaching twelve to fifteen down in the soil. Blackland Prairie This region takes up the eastern half of Bell County, my main stomping ground. Interstate-35 cuts the county in half and runs straight up the Blackland belt from Austin to Dallas. Why build a huge road there? The prairie is flat (gently rolling at worst), relatively free of trees, and a great place to move thousands of head of cattle from north to south. It’s a natural thoroughfare if there ever was one. Most of Texas’s largest cities grew up on this strip. The clay is black, alkaline, and waxy, with white limestone bedrock. My property for example is 98% clay and it takes ages to dry out, which is both a blessing and a curse. Clay holds a lot of water and a lot of nutrients because of its tiny particle size, but it suffers from a lack of oxygenation. It can also be easily compacted. Care must be taken with this soil type to increase its organic mass with large particles, such as compost, to improve aeration, and to walk on specific paths. You don’t want to walk on your growing places. The clay can be difficult to break through, so plants with thick, penetrating roots do better. For root crops, round roots can break up the clay better than long, thin roots. For example, beets are a better choice than carrots. Percolation, or the movement of water through a medium, can be an issue. Plants that can break up the clay are a valuable and critical asset to this soil type. This soil is considered one of the most fertile soils west of the Mississippi. Pioneers immediately started farming it with success, though their wagons often got stuck in the mud. The clay has this habit of getting wet from rain and expanding, drying out, and forming these huge cracks when the soil shrinks. Loose particles fall into the cracks. When it rains again, the soil fragments expand, exert lateral pressure, and create a series of mounds and depressions called a gilgai. This irritated the pioneers a lot. Some of these cracks were two feet deep and the depressions up to twenty feet across. Wagons couldn’t pass through in wet weather, but wow, the soil will grow some grain. It was once the greatest cotton producing region in the world. Another thing you may want to consider is what we affectionately call the I-35 corridor. Tornadoes love moving along the Blackland. I actually had an MRI scan done in Temple once when there was a tornado warning outside. It was just a warning, but tornadoes can and do occur much more often in the Blackland than if you went a little west or a little east. This should not be surprising. The Blackland is flat, weather patterns mix there, and stuff happens. Only 1% of native Blackland Prairie remains. I will be writing an article about Blackland prairie restoration for those who are interested in grasses that are six feet tall with roots twice as deep. Blackland is a true prairie with a huge variety of grasses. There are several types of grassland communities. Little bluestem is a main contributor. Oaks and trees are generally restricted to ravines, rivers, and streams, or certain protected areas. Every five or ten years, wildfires would run through the prairie. This often destroyed young trees and kept many species to rockier areas, particularly the mountain cedar (Juniperus ashei), and kept the grassland as a grassland. Now that urbanization and cultivation have made burnings almost nonexistent, opportunistic species such as cedar and mesquite are taking over. Overgrazing by livestock mismanagement has further altered and maligned the native flora. This pattern follows for the other Central Texas ecoregions, who are drastically changed, if maybe not as much as the Blackland. ![]() Cross Timbers and Prairies The Cross Timbers are west of the Blackland and includes the Lampasas Cut Plain, which is its own special thing and sometimes considered part of the Edwards Plateau. It stretches up into Oklahoma and Kansas. While not technically part of the Great Plains like farther west, it has the last vestiges of timber and shrubbery from the eastern forests before you get to pure grassland. It gets higher in altitude as you go farther west, and the western Cross Timbers are often called the Upper Cross Timbers. The soil is predominately clay, but has much more sand in it, and the topsoil tends to be thin and easily eroded. The bottomland has thicker soil, but up on the hills, you can often scrape off the topsoil with your boot. The pH can vary slightly due to the higher sand content, and for central Texas, could be considered acidic in some places. The soil has a high mineral content. The well water can taste funny because of it. There are many ravines, canyons, and rocky outcroppings in the hills. For this soil type, keeping the soil in one place and preventing erosion is most important. Topsoil is precious here and should be cared for properly. Even mild disturbance can rip off whatever soil you might possess, leaving only bare rock and sand. Overgrazing is extremely dangerous as the grass holding the topsoil is removed and it just blows away. Farming can be difficult due to the lack of soil, but can be rewarding with due diligence and effort, as it generally does not have the extreme drainage and percolation problems of Blackland. Cattle ranches are the main component of agriculture in the Cross Timbers. Mismanagement has seen to the destruction of much of the native flora and has allowed opportunistic species to invade where soil remains. If raising livestock in this ecoregion, migrational patterns and livestock rotation are necessary to sustain and build the soil. Effort should be made to imitate buffalo grazing patterns where at all possible. The flora is patchy in the Cross Timbers, ranging from open to dense, with multiple species of oaks, elms, and other deciduous trees. Post and blackjack oaks predominate along with live oaks, all of which are considered unattractive species for logging compared to others. Because of this, the trees were relatively untouched. Now, the oaks see the most decline from oak wilt and competition with mountain cedar who have been allowed to encroach due to fire suppression. Entire hillsides may not boast a single oak anymore. There are multiple communities of shrubbery and herbaceous plants that make up the forest sections. Because of the poor soil, the plants here tend to grow slowly, but with determination. Many people have marveled at an oak apparently living on nothing but several feet of rock. Post Oak Savannah
The Post Oak Savannah is almost like the strange love child between the Pine Woods and the Blackland. It is its own distinct ecoregion, but is dispersed between what would otherwise be Blackland or Piney Woods. Some people consider it part of Blackland, but some don’t. The soil gets gradually more acidic as you go east. Bottomland is mostly clay as particles wash down from higher elevations, and the uplands contain more sand. There is usually a dense clay pan underneath the soil, which affects how water moves across the landscape. Percolation can sometimes be a problem. This makes the care requirements for this region a bit of a mix, but generally erosion and overgrazing are the biggest issues. Soil can be thin, but not as thin as the Cross Timbers. This area generally receives less rainfall than the Piney Woods. The flora of this region is variable and some areas appear more transitional than others. Trees are a mix of post oak, blackjack oak, red cedar, and Lobolly pines as you get farther east. The grasses are of a bunching Blackland type where there is more open ground. Flora from the east mix with flora from the west, and combine to make their own special assortment in the savannah. Both the Savannah and the Cross Timbers have oaks, but they are different species and types of oaks. Plants tend to stray from the heavy alkalinity of the Blackland to their more acidic counterparts. You may actually be able to grow blueberries here, if you find a particularly acidic spot. Just like in the other two ecoregions, fire suppression and overgrazing have extremely altered the native flora and soil quality of the Post Oak Savannah. Little of the old growth forests remain and most area has been converted to pasture or open range for cattle. Mesquite, yaupon, cedar, and others have started to take over from the oaks. Almost all of the native bunching grasses have been replaced by exotic grasses like bermuda and bahaia. The diversity of the landscape has drastically declined and many of the species dependent on certain plants have dwindled or fled to other areas. This has also destroyed much of the soil and the land cannot support what it used to. The Post Oak Savannah provides a unique opportunity for the permaculturist with it being such a transitional area. Things that would not be possible in the Piney Woods or the Blackland may be possible in the Savannah. ![]() It is easy to be overwhelmed by the possibilities and tasks of a permaculture garden, especially if you have several acres or a large farm. It can seem impossible to bring a complicated plan into fruition. However, the plan can, and should be, slow by design. Small systems are easier and faster to maintain than big ones. This is common sense. Large systems can often be broken down into smaller pieces that build upon one another. Often this can be the only feasible way to finish a large, intensive design. For example, I have 3.6 acres of blackland. The plan is to plant about a hundred fruit bearing trees, install a swale system, integrate the stockpond with native water plants, get chickens with their own system of runs, goats, a greenhouse, a fenced in garden (because of the goats), windbreaks between the septic sprayers and the rest of the property, and a myriad other things including an extensive food forest. Would I be crazy to install this all at once even if I had the money? Absolutely. I can’t possibly take care of all of that by myself. I can’t care for the chickens properly until their run system is established and able to feed them. Same thing with the goats, except on a much larger scale. I can’t afford to do all this if I can’t eat, so the garden takes high priority. Then if I build the greenhouse, I can buy seeds to grow many of the plants I want instead of buying plants, which saves a ton of money. Building the swales helps water the trees. The garden will take effort, but once it is established, it will not take as much of my energy. The food forest and perennial plants will take a lot of time and money to install, but after a couple years, they will largely grow themselves. Start small and slow. Be patient. Do not overwhelm yourself with too much. Know your limits, know your desires, and stay within what you are capable of. In the future, I want to consider having a small group of meat rabbits. Will I actually get them? That completely depends on what I have to sacrifice at the time to include them. The benefits must outweigh the cost. We have limited time and energy to give. If we want to include something new, that means something else will have a corresponding sacrifice. It may take you twenty years to realize your permaculture vision. And that is perfectly all right. Self-sufficiency is a myth, because no one should try to do everything themselves and exist without the support of a community. Such people try to segregate themselves from the world. This defies the basic human need for relationship and community. The proverb “many hands make light work” applies. A robust, connected group is not only makes work faster and easier, it makes life so much more worth living. We were designed for relationship and we should not shun or ignore the communal aspect of life.
This applies to permaculture in a myriad of ways. We should seek to integrate with the community with our food, our methods, and our love of people. Building bridges takes a lot more time and effort than not building one at all, but once you have one it is much easier to cross a river. Bridges allow free exchange of knowledge and resources. The current monoculture represents a world without bridges. There are no helper plants to aid them. There are no repellant plants to keep destructive bugs away, or aromatic plants to encourage necessary pollinators. They are islands in an empty sea, completely segregated. Permaculture tries to create a flowing and integrated ecosystem where the whole is so much, much greater than the sum of its parts. The plants support each other and together, have a yield far surpassing anything they could have accomplished alone. In this way, permaculture wants to make bridges and communities, both with people and plants. This may not be as obvious as some of the previous principles, but from a designer’s point of view, it makes complete sense. To wit, don’t get bogged down in the details of decorating the house before you have a house or know which room is the kitchen.
Nature uses many different patterns that can shed light on permaculture design: the spiral, hexagon, branching, keyhole, overbeck jet, and flowform to name a few. We can use these patterns to aerate water, distribute nutrients, and create an energetic flow through the design. The proverb “can’t see the forest for the trees” tells us that in any part of life, we can’t let ourselves get distracted by the little things. You’ll end up missing something, I guarantee it. Whenever I design a house floor plan (it’s a hobby), I usually forget about where to put the washer and dryer. That’s a pretty important part of family logistics, but I get distracted by where to put the couch and dining table. You don’t want to be like me designing houses. Just saying. First put down those essential things, and the other smaller things will fall into place. This comes as rather self-explanatory. It not only means the obvious, “produce no waste,” but also that any waste you have means you have a lost opportunity. Pollution is energy and opportunity wasted and waste is…well, wasteful. Food scraps can be given to pigs, chickens, or worms, all of which turn “waste” into a useable resource. Practically anything can be composted, so organic matter shouldn’t be an issue. Worms in particular have become popular for converting waste. Many people are experimenting with composting toilets that employ worms to increase sanitation and again, turn waste into an opportunity. Animal manure is composted and spread throughout the garden for nutrients and biomass. A permaculturist tries to find an opportunity in every situation. A pond full of algae means excess energy. That means you can grow a host of water plants and some fish. What was once wasteful is now useful. This goes back to catching and storing energy. Pollution means you are not catching, storing, and using all of the energy available to you, and that is simply unwise. It’s like throwing away money. Or at the very least not making as much as you could be if you thought a little bit harder. There is a group building houses out of plastic bottles filled with unrecyclable waste, like batteries. They can’t break down the batteries, but they can use them for something else. One of the biggest potential sources of waste for the permaculturist is actually having too much food. Nature likes growing stuff, and a permaculture gardener often finds the kitchen overflowing with vegetables, fruit, and milk. Many getting into permaculture do not find themselves as willing to spend days and weeks putting that food up for the future. They didn’t expect to can, dehydrate, pickle, and preserve hundreds of pounds of food and still have more to do. It can be overwhelming. Things go bad left and right. Even the neighbors can get overwhelmed with summer squash and tomatoes.
This is where the people care and fair share ethics come into play. You have too much? There are plenty who do not. There are food banks, shelters, churches, and charities that need what you can provide. This should not be disagreeable. It should be an honor to give of what we have been blessed with. There should be no waste in the permaculture life. ![]() Anything that continues to give is better than something that only gives once. This is common sense and such things should be valued. Horses often come to mind when you think of a renewable resource that is also a service. The old Depression saying of “reuse, recycle, or do without” exemplifies this concept of getting out of the consumerism rat race. Necessity is the mother of invention and you will be surprised with the things you can achieve with what you already have. An ugly sweater can be unraveled and knitted into a coat for winter goat babies or a pair of mittens. There has been a resurgence of recycling and creative upcycling with the derision of consumer culture and the fact most of us don’t have a lot of extra money to spend on unnecessary things. It requires a change in mindset. With permaculture, this comes in the form of perennial plants instead of annuals, and food forests that provide food over the entire season. Many medicinal plants are perennials. Such practices allow us to get out of the consumer cycle and be less dependent on non-renewable, less sustainable resources. Plowing creates a nutrient flush that plants can use and grow quickly. Once. But it swiftly depletes soil so it has to be artificially renewed with chemical fertilizers. You pay for speed and the excessive nutrient use with soil strength, fertility, and your own money because you have an added cost you wouldn’t have had if you didn’t plow. A more renewable option, such as intercropping with legumes, is not as environmentally or monetarily expensive. Physics and experience tell us that every action has a complete and opposite reaction. If you want everything now, you will pay for it. Excessive control comes at an equally excessive cost. Permaculture values those things that give over time and are not quickly exhausted. It saves time, money, and peace of mind knowing that you will not be suddenly bereft. ![]() This principle has to do with living wisely and within reasonable boundaries. Self-regulation is not a common thing in our society anymore. We indulge in every kind of excess, whether it is food, materialism, sex, or personality. The regulated person is becoming a thing of the past, scornfully regarded as Victorian or Puritanical. We scoff at the limits of society, philosophy, and culture. I only ask a person to consider why the fence was there in the first place before tearing it down. Fences don’t only keep you in. They also keep other things out. Think about that. The proverb for this principle is a Biblical one. “The sins of the fathers are visited on the children to the seventh generation.” Permaculture isn’t applying this proverb philosophically, but economically. Our children and our children’s children suffer when we indulge in excess and do inappropriate things with our lives and with the earth. Some things need to be discouraged and punished because they are dangerous. What damages the system damages us, and sometimes the damage can be so difficult to fix. Sometimes the damage is irrevocable. We need to be careful about what we do, because the consequences of our decisions are not always quick and obvious. Negative feedback can be a slow beast. Therefore, we must be wise with our knowledge and our actions. We must also be willing to accept feedback, whatever it is. In this way, permaculture strives for pragmatism and objectivity as we learn what should be done and shouldn’t. “When your needs are simple, it doesn’t require much time or work to meet them.” – Mark Boyle ![]() “You can’t work on an empty stomach” is this principle’s accompanying proverb. Permaculture realizes that while all of this ecological theory is well and good, is doesn’t help much if you starve. I love that pragmatism. It forces the person to get out of the library and put it into practice. Permaculture is not the field of the sitter. It is the field of the walker and the digger and the harvester. You have to do it. However, some people have taken “obtaining a yield” possibly too far. Many people have criticized large enterprise people like Joel Salatin for making too much money, sacrificing permaculture for profit, and the like, or permaculture designers for charging too much money for their services. I personally think most of these people have misunderstood this principle. There is nothing wrong with making money. There is nothing wrong with keeping yourself to the standard of other professionals when it comes to how much you charge. If you asked Joel Salatin and any designer worth the name, they would say they charge what they do to make enough money to continue to do what they do. You can’t expect a designer to offer his services for free or next to nothing. He wouldn’t be able to eat enough to give his services in the first place. You obtain a yield in whatever form because we live in a world where you need food, housing, clothing, and transportation. You also need some extra money in case your car dies or you get tuberculosis. Permaculture is not idealistic enough to demand its adherents forget about reality. A person has needs and those needs much be bought or bartered for. Now, some people are rightly concerned about a person abusing permaculture to obtain an abnormally high yield so they can become wealthy and live the good life in Aruba. Personally, I would go to Germany, but that’s just me. There is truth to this concern. We see it everywhere in business and in families. I honestly don’t think many permaculture people are at risk for this, but we must always remember why we obtain a yield. It isn’t just for us, and it shouldn’t be. The three permaculture ethics are earth care, people care, and fair share. When we have surplus, we should give of what we have. We are not islands in an endless sea. We are part of families, communities, counties, states, and countries. A permaculturist should never hoard. We should desire to give what we have been blessed with in order to be a blessing. That can come in the form of food, knowledge, physical aid, and items we need to live. I am a sucker for a good homemade soap. Obtain a yield so you can live and so can your community. That is this principle. ![]() You would be shocked at the energy wastefulness of the average home, the average city, and the average person. Energy is not infinite. The sun is not always up to give its heat, it isn’t always raining, and food is not always ready for harvesting. There is a limited amount of energy provided at any one time and if we are going to be clever, we need to catch whatever comes our way and keep it there. No use catching a fish if you toss it back. No use complaining about drought when you let all your rain wash away when you get it. No use complaining about hunger when you don’t preserve your harvest when you have it. Much of permaculture is catching and storing some type of energy, particularly water. In some areas, this is more critical than others, but when it comes to growing food, you’re largest limiting factor is water. Decomposition needs a certain amount of water, so without water you cannot build soil. Swales, keyline systems, and mulching are all methods of catching and storing water. Swales slow water down so it can soak more into the soil and reduce erosion. Keyline moves water throughout a landscape for optimal absorption and use. Mulching prevents evaporation seen on barren soil. You can catch and store sunlight with plants by creating “suntraps.” In cold climates, this is particularly beneficial because it creates areas that are able to use more sunlight and keep it there for a longer period of time. Passive solar greenhouses do this as well. They catch sunlight and store the heat in thermal mass that slowly releases the heat over time. Rocket stoves trap heat from burning wood in brick or cob structures, like benches, that also function as thermal mass. If you have an energy source, find out how you can catch it, store it, and use it in as many ways as possible before it is gone. This is practicality. When you get a job, you have a salary, and that salary only goes so far. It makes complete sense to make those dollars you earned go as far as you possibly can. In the long run, you’ll be richer for it, and not as reliant on outside energies. Heat, water, and soil are like money. If you think of it that way, you will hesitate to be as wasteful with it as you were before. You will look at water running down a street and cry at the waste. Cheese is an example of catching and storing energy. Milk is one of the more perishable food items that will come into your homestead. Cheese is one of the best ways to take that milk and store it in a stable form for future use. Practicality at its tastiest. You may not have milk in winter, or when the cow is dry, but you will have the cheese. Catch the energy when you have it and later you can use it when you need it. ![]() This begins a short series on the twelve permaculture principles. These are concepts and ethics that permaculture strives to adhere to and encourage. I will give short summaries on each principle. I hope that you will come to understand more about what permaculture is and its general ideology. It is an ecological science, but like any science, permaculture is hollow without ethical rules. These principles give meaning to an otherwise callous system. The first principle is on careful observation combined with interaction. Observing nature is the beginning and the end of permaculture. It seems rather trite. Go look at stuff. However, permaculture, and science as a whole, would not exist without observation. And like Sherlock Holmes would say, many people see, but do not observe. There is a difference. I have driven past a farm almost every day for three years, and I saw the trees on the fence lines, but I did not observe until just a couple days ago that the trees all leaned to one side. A sign of the prevailing winds. How could I not see that? Nature is the teacher, and it is a teacher we know very little about. Take soil for example. There are tens of billions of microorganisms in just tablespoons of soil. But how many of those microorganisms can we culture in a lab? About 1%. That is a serious hindrance to the field of microbiology. Practically all we know about soil is that it works. How, we don’t know. It’s just that complicated. However, when it comes to making soil, we can observe how to do that. Composting is essentially making soil really fast. Bottom line, if we want to learn how to do something, we need to observe how nature already does it. God created a glorious place for us and in it He designed everything it needs. We make problems when we think we can do it better than the Designer. If we want to give credit to ourselves, and credit to the earth we are called to steward, we must endeavor to observe objectively. That is the essence of permaculture theory and one reason why I consider it an ecological science. Observe and interact with nature. Learn how it works. Copy what it does. People noticed that apple trees grew much better with nasturtiums. I do not have to be a professor to know that is a good thing. You do not have to be a scientist to observe what goes on around you. Native Americans and ancient cultures the world over discovered the medicinal benefits of some plants a lot of us in America consider weeds and actively seek to kill. The poster child for this: dandelions. If you want to engage in permaculture, you must put aside cultural prejudices or the thought that you know how it is and look at what is really there. You have to look at things like a child, with a child’s openness. That is the only way to learn and see what you might otherwise miss. Observe and interact, like a child. That is permaculture. |
Rebecca Burrow
I am a Christian permie designer trying to spread the word about Christian land stewardship through permaculture. I like goats a lot. Maaaaaaaah. Archives
September 2016
Categories
|
Burrow Permaculture Consulting | Permie Blog |