I do, check out the book “why tomatoes love carrots”.
I was talking about it last march
And my set it and forget it thread
I have borage, Goldie yarrow, red and white clover and cover crop all planted in it.
Borage makes a noticable difference in tomatoes, it seriously ups the flavor 30%, that’s what made me believe in it.
Ok yeah i opened it up n got lot of air moving around it and being exhausted outside.
Isn’t it also an attractant to pollinators?
Yep, and the flowers are edible and taste like cucumber, the leaves too
Yeah, I remember liking them when I was young!
They were much better than nasturtiums!
That’s the history of farming on this continent. Cool stuff, huh?
It was well beyond that. They had cultivated the north American forests to have fruits, nuts, edible and medicinal plants covering a continent. It looked wild but there was food everywhere, it was a balance. The colonists that came couldn’t see the forest for the trees though.
A paper from 1984, seriously read this one. It goes really in depth into the systems they set in place.
A great article about it
https://www.permaculturenews.org/2020/09/29/ancient-gardens-of-the-north-america/
"Up to about century ago (the early 1900s), the vast forests stretching from Maine to Florida and west to the Mississippi River, were home to billions of chestnut trees. They comprised about a quarter of all trees in the forest. Obviously, these trees produced huge quantities of food each year, the chestnuts used for human consumption as well as feed for wildlife (hunted for human consumption) and domesticated animals. Then, an imported chestnut tree from Asia introduced the America chestnut to a parasitic fungus, and they were all but erased from the forests they once dominated.
Studies have shown that Native Americans in the Northeast US gently swayed often visited or occupied sections of forest to have certain trees and plants with edible (and useful) output, such as the American pawpaw, persimmons, honey locusts, elderberries, oaks, and chestnuts. In essence, they were growing food forests to make foraging something much more akin to harvesting. Of course, many of these same species were attractive to birds and mammals that would were part of the Native American diet as well."
These are the things that our horrible white washing American education system teaches you, that they just planted the 3 sisters, instead of creating a continent that allowed them to live with abundant food sources that were inter connected and manipulated by them.
The Appalachian Mountians contain numerous beneficial native medicinal herbs. These native applachian herbs all have links to scientific studies proving their medicinal benefits, ranging from cancer to menstrual pain. Here’s a couple examples; Paw paw twig extract stops tumor growth, American ginseng taken 40 minutes before a meal can prevent blood sugar spikes
Paw Paw extract can inhibit tumor growth The growth-inhibitory effects of pawpaw (Asimina triloba [L.] Dunal) roots, twigs, leaves, and fruit against human gastric (AGS) and cervical (HeLa) cancer cells and their anti-inflammatory activities - PubMed
Mayapple contains chemicals used in various cancer treatments for Lung and testicular cancers, as well as certain leukemia. The American Mayapple and its Potential for Podophyllotoxin Production
Woods nettle and stinging nettle have incredible health benefits. 7 nettle tea benefits and how to make it | HealthShots
Ive started harvesting mine to make a medicinal tea. It’s sad we have such a problem with heart disease. When we have so many native medicinal herbs that lower blood pressure. A lot of these herbs are companion plants along with companion trees. Is companion trees a term, lol? A person would be reading for ever online. If they tried to read all the trials and studies that are available. I started researching medicinal herbs 2010 for my crohn’s disease. I didnt know it then. But a lot of the medicinal herbs that I was buying at the health food stores are native to the Appalachian Mountians. It wasn’t until I got into growing wild simulated American Ginseng. I started learning about the term, companion plants. It definitely deserves research. Black walnut releases a toxin that kills other plants. But these medicinal herbs are companion plants thus can grow along with Black Walnut. Same thing with ferns. Ive found wild ginseng plants growing in with ferns.