Hunter gardens

[Zombiologist]

In older times, and among some modern hunters it's not unheard of to seed a feild with plants attractive to prey animals like deer and rabbits so that you can hunt them. In fact in seed stores they sometimes carry bags of mixed seeds to spread for this express purpose. It'd be interesting to be able to do the same in PZ.

[Axezombie]

As an extension of this idea crops should be protected against animals, wooden fences against rabbits, scare crows against birds and barbed wire fences or walls against boars/deers

[Papa Juliet Whiskey]

On 12/13/2022 at 4:42 PM, Axezombie said:

As an extension of this idea crops should be protected against animals, wooden fences against rabbits, scare crows against birds and barbed wire fences or walls against boars/deers

And claymore mines for the uninvited living and dead.

[Zombiologist]

On 12/13/2022 at 8:42 PM, Axezombie said:

As an extension of this idea crops should be protected against animals, wooden fences against rabbits, scare crows against birds and barbed wire fences or walls against boars/deers

To add to this there are more modern and more primitive options. Bird nettings (and insect netting) is used in some places, some living plants can be weaved together to form living fences (willow tree shoots for example) that eventually form walls but this takes quite some time and care. In some places plants are even weaved into living bridges that last hundreds of years and grow stronger the longer they stand. Sacrificial plants are used by some organic gardeners, which are planted near but slightly away from the garden to draw pests away to the easier food. Some plants can also be planted to repel pests. In fact in some ancient farming techniques the land was managed in such a way that pests simply avoided the crops because it was set up in a way they'd be repelled from the area without humans having to chase them off.

[Papa Juliet Whiskey]

On 12/21/2022 at 7:10 PM, Zombiologist said:

To add to this there are more modern and more primitive options. Bird nettings (and insect netting) is used in some places, some living plants can be weaved together to form living fences (willow tree shoots for example) that eventually form walls but this takes quite some time and care. In some places plants are even weaved into living bridges that last hundreds of years and grow stronger the longer they stand. Sacrificial plants are used by some organic gardeners, which are planted near but slightly away from the garden to draw pests away to the easier food. Some plants can also be planted to repel pests. In fact in some ancient farming techniques the land was managed in such a way that pests simply avoided the crops because it was set up in a way they'd be repelled from the area without humans having to chase them off.

A little off topic, but the living bridges referred here, if they're the ones I'm thinking of, take more than one human lifetime to make. 

 

Back when more primitive cultures cared about the future.

 

I mean, not like it really matters in the long run, but how were they supposed to know how 1993 was gonna turn out?

[Zombiologist]

7 hours ago, Papa Juliet Whiskey said:

A little off topic, but the living bridges referred here, if they're the ones I'm thinking of, take more than one human lifetime to make. 

 

Back when more primitive cultures cared about the future.

 

I mean, not like it really matters in the long run, but how were they supposed to know how 1993 was gonna turn out?

The ones made out of the roots of trees in the tropics take quite some time, but there are other designs I've seen as well that can be done in a few months. The most successful I've seen is one made of weaved living willow shoots. I've also seen furniture grown out of trained willow saplings among other things.

[Papa Juliet Whiskey]

On 12/25/2022 at 11:11 PM, Zombiologist said:

The ones made out of the roots of trees in the tropics take quite some time, but there are other designs I've seen as well that can be done in a few months. The most successful I've seen is one made of weaved living willow shoots. I've also seen furniture grown out of trained willow saplings among other things.

Thinking maybe I should plant some willows in the back yard...

[Zombiologist]

9 hours ago, Papa Juliet Whiskey said:

Thinking maybe I should plant some willows in the back yard...

If you want a very strong wall learn to train ironwood and weave it into a fence pattern as it grows. Pick a species native to your area for best results, american hornbeam ironwood is native to North America, not sure which species is native to Europe but I know there is one, not sure about the rest of the world. They are harder to train than willow trees and grow slower, but their wood is /way/ stronger, so once they get established you will have a very strong wall. Also don't build a willow wall or other willow structer within 10 feet of a foundation, those roots are very aggressive. Willows love water and you can even cut a branch off a willow tree and stick it in a bucket of water and it will root into a new tree making it easy to get many trees by simply harvesting willow shoots and sticking them in water. They drop tons of leaves and make a big mess sometimes, but if you don't like raking like me just put mulching blades on your lawnmower and shred it into the lawn. The mess just turns into free fertilizer for the lawn. You can also use willow tree bark to make mild painkillers, though it can cause a stomach ache. White willow is said to be the best species for making pain killers. It's also possible to extract the rooting hormone from willow trees and use it to make cutting from other plants grow.

You can technically train any plant to grow into basically any shape you want, but willow is said to be easiest to train as new growth is very bendy and flexible, and it's easy to clone willow trees from shoots to get lots of them at once.