Subject: tagasaste

From: Peter Bane <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 9 Jan 1998 23:18:34 -0500 (EST)

Hello Jeff,
Your post was forwarded from Larry London.  Forget growing tagasaste in
Northern Montana until global warming is a lot further advanced than it is
yet.  It's hardy to about 24 degrees F.  It does well in most of
sub-temperate Australia and New Zealand, California, Florida, S. Texas,
etc.

The only perennial legumes besides the clovers that'll handle your climate
are Caragana (Siberian pea shrub) and perhaps Robinia (black locust-
doubtful, but worth a try in a sheltered location).  Shepherdia genus
(buffaloberry, silverberry) shrubs and Eleagnus genus (russian olive,
autumn olive, goumi, cherry eleagnus, etc.) are useful nitrogen-fixing
non-legumes (Actinorhizal fungal association); also look at sea buckthorn
(Hippophae rhamnoides) and alders for the same qualities.

For further reference, see our Issue #34, Useful Plants, "Some Plants of
Russian and Central Asia," by Joe Bullock.  Joe lives on Orcas Island in
WA.

Good luck,
Peter Bane
The Permaculture Activist
PO Box 1209
Black Mountain NC 28711