Arundo Donax, The Giant Reed, Friend or Foe?
Arundo Donax, The Giant Reed, Friend or Foe?
Leslie Goldman, Your Enchanted Gardener, update
on one of my Plant Teachers for 2012.
Date: 5/10/2012 12:11:59 PM ( 12 y ) ... viewed 2145 times
What is your personal relationship to Arundo Donax, The Giant Reed?
To most of us, we have never heard of it, as much as we have little knowledge of most other plants; and yet to some, as myself, it has sourced a healing journey that has inspired me to want to meet neighbors who lived across the abyss
of the Arosa Canyon Rim outside my bedroom window.
To others, Arundo is a source of great financial gain.
To others, is has been a Sacred Plant. The Buddha was one who admired Arundo, and it very well made have been the reed that was used to make the basket that saved the life of the baby Moses, who grew up to become the great Law bringer of the Ten Commandments. To Egyptian embalmers, it was a familiar plant. They wrapped the King in Arundo Reeds. How else would they have save journey to their next life if not surrounded with this amazing plant that simply will not die?
Monsanto Corp Loves Arundo
To Monsanto Corp, Arundo is also on their list of favorite plants for the most unlikely reason.
In a time when every Park and Rec department, and conservation unit is attempting to go Green, the sale of Roundup Herbicide to attempt to kill it, is still the most frequently accepted route to kill its roots. Many applications of Roundup are needed. Arundo is more powerful than Roundup.
One of my Three Plants of 2012
Arundo is one of three seeds and plants who have become my teacher in 2012. I recommend that you personally get to know this plant and its many uses.
This writing was inspired by the upcoming Caravan I will take to the
National Heirloom Exposition September 11,12 & 13, 2012 in Santa Rosa, California, and the free class I will be teaching at Professor's Park in Tecate May 20, 2012.
Your Feedback is welcome about this writing!
Arundo Donax, Friend or Foe?
Monsanto Comes to my Own Backyard
The third plant teacher that has been calling out to me loudly is called Arundo Donax, The Giant Reed. Called Bamboo by many, capable of growing a foot in a day, this grass can be a fire hazard and cause havoc to waterways when ignored; and yet when befriended, Arundo Donax has more than 102 positive uses. Deemed sacred my some cultures for thousands of years, and valued by indigenous people as a building material for art, crafts, and structures, Arundo is being explored as a coal substitute and alternative to growing GMO corn for ethanol. One of Monsanto Corporations moneymakers, most Park Departments still turn to Roundup Herbicide, and other glysophate products in an attempt to kill a plant that simply is meant to be with us. Roundup is now showing up in air, water, and soil, and human urine. Roundup, and Roundup Ready Technology, is associated with GMO proliferation.
Arundo has been a massive growth stimulant in my life these past six months.
For more than 20 years, Arundo bordering the Enchanted Garden Intentional Community nearby San Diego State University, provided a curtain of privacy on the Rim of the Arosa Canyon. We never knew our neighbors. All this changed in the summer of 2011. Neighbors received letters threatening huge fines if we all did not submit when against a time clock, and at great extreme personal expense, to overgrowth that was seen as a fire hazard on our individual properties. Neighbors were told to cut down the stands of Arundo, and the pressing question I have had for six months now, was could I find other approaches to holding back Roundup from land where we had been grown out organically for more than 25 years.
When the Arundo went down, the curtain when up on the need to interact with neighbors, and intensely learn about the plant. Roundup herbicide, I soon learned, was the accepted recommended procedure. There were beliefs that had to be challenged about the plant and potentially research projects that will lead to shifts in city policy. There was a need to invest hundreds of hours in research projects and writing. “Our” Arundo stand is owned by our neighbors whose land borders our own property. Some interactions with neighbors were uplifting and cooperative; some interactions over the Arundo and Canyon Overgrowth cleanup lead to breakdown and silent impasse as deep as our canyon.
Rather than accept current understandings about Arundo, I proved against popular belief, that it could be chopped through a chipper-shredder; that is made an outstanding mulch and would not respout as feared; and that it could be composted. My journey sent me out making allies with other Arundo lovers. I was shocked to read reports that Invasive Plant Councils had been established to make war on Arundo. At the same time, others were earning a livelihood from defining it as trash and earning income from selling Roundup to kill it; on a positive note, Arundo was the centepiece for teaching Baroque Music in the schools! Arundo, I found, was the main source for reeds for clarinets. It was valued by the Buddha and Egyptian Kings. Who would have known that its roots had medicinal properties, that goats would eat it as fodder, or that it could be used to make flour to be added to bread?
Arundo Donax is the subject of a forthcoming film called “The Arundo Nation.” It is the centepiece for my own Arundo Blessing Ceremony helping to reconnect Woman, Man, Plant, Earth.
When left unmanaged, Arundo goes where it wants; when tended, it becomes a valued crop. My message is, "Make Love, Not War" with Arundo. Arundo is the subject of a proposed Museum Exhibit, as well as a student's University Thesis this Fall.
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OTHER PLANT YOUR DREAM BLOGS ABOUT ARUNDO
Arundo Wrapup: Can I Hold the Line on Roundup Herbicide
in my Own Backyard?
http://plantyourdream.net/?p=9771
SPONSORS OF THE ARUNDO DONAX WRITINGS
INCLUDE
Anthony Zolezzi, who when I introduced him to the idea that this plant might be a way to hire youth to do summer jobs harvesting the crop, and whose ears were sparked with the idea that this might be a coal substitute, aligned with me to sponsor my Arundo Writings.
I am looking forward to writing up a proposal for a Museum Exhibit about its
projected 102 Uses.
I also see Arundo being the subject for a thesis a UCSD student will do in the Fall of 2012 based on my Plant Your Dream Blogs on this subject.
Read More about Anthony Zolezzi, Sustainability Expert
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1366598
Anthony Russo,
Biosmart Packaging
I favor and use Zero Tree Toilet paper. This is toilet paper for after the Shift Happens. It is made from ZeroTrees!!!! Get the picture!!?????
Order a case now an TP your neighbors with Zero Tree.
http://earthsmartllc.com/products/recreation/all-recreation/soft-paper-produc...
BioSmart on Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/BioSmart-Packaging-and-Products/186907372812
Tony Tracy
No Fly Zone TT
The No Fly Zone tt is one more invention of Tony Tracy, The Green Giant, that I feel will contribute immensely to helping upscale spas and homeowners learn to life with the inevitable increase of organic farming in their neighborhoods. Local Organic gardening and farming is a trend. We more Urban Agriculture. Until soil is build up, and with the need to evolve compost practices that do not produce gnats and fruit flies, the No Fly Zone tt will help solve the gnat problem.
I am going to experiement with this at the Frey Vineyard in Fall 2012
and also at Jucumba Spa.
Jucumba spa has had a serere gnat problem. I will would a No FLy Zone Billboard out there. It will help revive the local economy that died when the spa died.
La Conchina at Rancho Tres Estrellas...place to test the No Fly Zone tt
in the Kitchen Garden...
GNAT PROBLEMS GONE WITH NO FLY ZONE tt
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1881933
PHOTO ESSAY LINK
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![http://curezone.com/upload/blogs/your_enchanted_gardener/no_fly_zone_tt_appliance_and_non_toxic_solutions_for_drains_and_cleani.jpg](http://curezone.com/upload/blogs/your_enchanted_gardener/no_fly_zone_tt_appliance_and_non_toxic_solutions_for_drains_and_cleani.jpg)
http://curezone.com/blogs/fm.asp?i=1910379
Rancho La Puerta's Cocina is a Great Place to Visit
http://www.rancholapuerta.com/cuisine/organic-farm.html
http://www.rancholapuerta.com/cuisine/cooking-school.html
http://www.rancholapuerta.com/cuisine/photo-tour.html
Arundo Tribe Facebook
http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Arundo-Tribe/272892909424998
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