Good morning, and welcome to the eighth edition of our monthly newsletter, Reading Landscapes.

Here’s what we’ve got for you today:

• Thistles to the rescue

• The common Dandelion

• Managing mature plants

• What we’ve been learning

🔎 Looking at the Landscape

Like us to discuss a photo of your landscape? Share it with us here. 

In this image, why are there distinct rows of specific plants? The plants are Black Thistle, also known as Spear Thistle (Cirsium vulgare), but why do they grow in this particular pattern?

I’ll let you think about that for a moment, but as a clue, this is just another demonstration of Nature stepping in and using what it has available to fix an issue. In this case, the thistles are the solution.

Okay, one last hint - look at the specific row pattern they are growing in.

In this situation, after grazing this paddock, we went in and slashed it to remove the remaining dry matter that the cattle didn’t remove. At the time, the ground was moist and soft. As a result, the tractor left a wheel impression along its track and caused a small hard pan to form on the top of the soil.

Knowing this hard pan was present, Nature sent in the troops to fix the problem - in this case, thistles, which are perfect for the job;

• Fast growing

• Big, deep taproot to break up the ground

• Spiky and not enticing to be consumed, meaning nothing will touch them whilst they complete their role

Generally, a slight problem like this will only require a short-term fix, as was the case in this situation—these thistles only grew in big numbers, like in the image above, for just that season, and the following season saw far less as they had completed their role of breaking up the hard ground.

By looking at a landscape and the plants growing within it, we can begin to form a story about why those particular plants are growing, especially when we include the historical context of that piece of land.

This process can then answer some of our questions and guide us toward finding the necessary solutions.

🌳 Learning from Plants

Have a plant you’d like to discuss? Share it with us here.

Dandelion

Common Names: Common Dandelion, Lion’s Tooth, Blowball, Cankerwort, Irish Daisy, Lion’s Tooth, Piss-a-bed

Scientific Name: Taraxacum Officinale

Where in the Succession: Mid Succession Accumulator

What is it telling me about my landscape?

Dandelion is a mid-succession accumulator, often finding itself in lower-fertility soils.

Where will I find Dandelion growing, and why is it growing there?

Dandelion is a highly adaptable plant that is quite comfortable living in various growing conditions and staying present thanks to its resilience.

In Australia, it grows primarily in the country’s southern half, but it is found worldwide, excluding the tropics.

Dandelion will often be found in growing environments, showing the following attributes;

• Hard, compacted ground

• Slightly acidic soils

• Low fertility

• Low organic matter

• Overgrazed, simplified pastures

Just think about some of the familiar places you find Dandelion growing

• Your lawn

• Disturbed land

• Cracks in the footpath

• Paddocks with compacted soils

Dandelion will also take up residence in higher-fertility soils

How can we manage Dandelion?

In many cases, Dandelions form part of a diverse range of pasture species, but when we see a dominance of Dandelions, we need to go back and look at the cause. Dandelions are excellent indicator plants; they always try to show how that landscape is currently functioning.

A good start is to look at the attributes we discussed above;

• Do you have hard compacted ground?

• Is the soil lower in fertility and organic matter?

• If you did a soil sample, did the result come back with a slightly acidic soil pH?

• Do your soils have a calcium deficiency?

How to overcome these issues;

🐂 Change the grazing practices, allow time for recovery, and let other species come and compete with the Dandelion.

⬆️ Look for ways to increase soil fertility and organic matter so that higher succession plants can survive and thrive.

🧪 Look to your soil - amend deficiencies and look to balance the pH

⚒️ Break soil compaction - look to assist the Dandelion in breaking through hard pans and compacted soil

Or the easiest of them all, let the Dandelion complete these roles for free and work alongside it on your journey to move the succession along - Stefan shares some great tips in this Youtube video that’s well worth checking out.

How to make the most of your Dandelion

🪨 As a Soil Indicator: Very low Calcium, Very high Magnesium, High Chlorine, low pH acidic soils¹ , Hard compacted soil, Low fertility and humus soil - but also happy to grow in higher fertility soil, good drainage.

🐮 Livestock: Dandelion can be a quality species to have as part of a pasture mix, with it recording reasonable crude protein levels of around 9-15%² as well as high mineral content when compared to more common grass species it is higher in phosphorus, magnesium, sodium, copper, zinc and boron³ .

Many farmers will look to add species like Plaintain or Chicory for their mineral content, whilst you may already have Dandelion growing for free.

A study of irrigated pasture containing 13% Dandelion where three different grazing styles were conducted found that in all three treatments, the cattle grazed the Dandelions as readily as the grass and that the protein and mineral content was sufficient to meet the requirements of beef cattle⁴ .

Dandelion is also an excellent bee feed source thanks to its large quantities of pollen and nectar and its extended growing season.

💊 Medicinal: Dandelion has a long history in traditional medicine, with Arabian physicians first speaking of it in the tenth and eleventh centuries. As Diego Bonetto shares, Dandelion is often regarded as the King of Detox in herbal medicine⁵ . It has a long history of being used as a mild diuretic (where it gets the common name ‘piss-a-bed’) and laxative.

Additionally, it has a long list of health benefits found through a comprehensive review of its impact on human health⁶ , such as reducing cholesterol, strengthening the immune system, anticancer activity, assisting weight loss and much more.

Dandelion is also used in many patented medicines⁷ .

🍽️ Consumption: Dandelion has many culinary uses, providing three separate products - roots, leaves and flowers.

Roots — Perfect for soups or roasted like a parsnip, they are also rich in inulin to promote healthy gut probiotics. They can also be used as a coffee substitute.

Leaves — The greens are for salads or stir-fries. Being a bitter herb, it’s best to look for young plants or cook them to manage that strong flavour. But like all bitter greens, they are very nutritious and exceptionally high in vitamins A, B6, C, and D.

Flowers — Can be used to make wines, added to salads, syrups, jellies, or jams, and infused in honey.

Looking for recipes? Diego Bonetto has an excellent starting collection⁵ , and that’s only the beginning.

🙋 Answering your Questions

Ask the Team! Share your question here, and we’ll answer it in a future newsletter.

💬 Rachel Asks:

I’m based in a summer rainfall landscape, so over the winter months, I generally have a bulk of dry plant matter left over from the wet season. Now, heading into spring, I’m wondering how to manage all that dry material.

🎙️ Hamish’s Answer:

The most crucial part is to get that material recycled because if those dry plants are left standing, they will readily oxidise and lose the carbon and fertility they contain. Once a plant is no longer green and actively growing, it won’t be photosynthesising and won’t be completing any beneficial roles for your productivity. So the best thing is to get in and complete that plant’s lifecycle and open up the environment for the next generation of plants when that rain arrives.

The main question is how you choose to recycle the material.

You have two main options: livestock or machinery.

With both, you aim to get the organic material down and into contact with the ground, where your soil organisms are ready and waiting to feed on it and break it down.

There’s also no reason why you couldn’t complete the job with a combination of machinery and livestock. It comes down to what you have available and what will yield the best result. To get that material down solely with livestock, you’ll want to achieve high density and impact; not every property is set up to accomplish this.

📚 What We’ve Been Learning

A quick list of our favourite things we’ve been watching, reading, listening, and writing.

Stuart McWilliam - No Farm No Food: Our very own graduate and team member Stuart was with the Corrective Culture team last month for a podcast covering topics from NSF to public speaking to food.

Ologies with Alie Ward: An interesting podcast series that I stumbled across recently. Each episode sits down and discusses a topic with a “professional-ologists’ obsessions.” There is a huge range of topics, and I’ve been listening to the space topics lately.

Cultivating Change: Stuart Andrews' Impact on Farming: Stuart sat down recently for a podcast with Beverly Holt. The discussion covers the connections between Tarwyn Park Training and Forage Farms, uniting farmers, managing weather challenges, and explaining why we do things.

5 Pillars of Natural Sequence Farming: Our newest blog is live. It covers the details behind our 5 Pillars, the story behind their creation, and the meaning behind each one.

1  Weedy Wednesday - Dandelion - Savour Soil Permaculture

2  Grazing value of summer weeds

3  Dandelion

4  Dandelion Use by Cattle Grazing on Irrigated Pasture

5   5 recipes for your dandelion weeds. — Wild Plants, Foraging, Food, Art and Culture

6   A comprehensive review of the benefits of Taraxacum officinale on human health - Bulletin of the National Research Centre

7  Dandelion (*Taraxacum* Genus): A Review of Chemical Constituents and Pharmacological Effects

8  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY OF DIFFERENT MATERIALS ORDINARILY USED FOR BEDDING