Kudzu is exceptionally useful, from food to fabric to medicine, and beyond. Utterly revered in the early 1900s, it spawned the 200,000-strong Kudzu Club of America and the annual Kudzu Queen beauty pageant. But its reputation changed as it grew fast and furious in warm, Southern soil. Without proper care, kudzu became "a vegetal form of cancer." What can this story teach us about interacting with the flowering vine — and other "invasives" — today? Can we cultivate a relationship somewhere between abandonment and eradication?
On a small slope by a lily pad-speckled lakeside, over a wooden foot bridge, tucked into a corner you'd never see if you weren't looking, kudzu sprawls with grasping vines and grape candy-scented blossoms. It's a small patch, not the devoured mountainsides we see so often. Our task is to get to know this patch over a few hours, and ultimately decide its future. We'll do this through a hands-on harvest, collecting vines to dry and store as natural building material. We'll also gather leaves for on-site farm animal fodder, flowers to snack on as we work, and roots if we get really eager (excavating the huge, fibrous chunks is notoriously hard work). During water and snack breaks, we'll reexamine the infamous plant's history and see what can be applied to our current site situation, balancing its unfavorable reputation with its many beneficial qualities. When we wrap up for an optional lunch together, you'll get some kudzu root to take home and make your own medicinal tea!
- Water, snacks
- Grippy-soled shoes or bare feet
- Sun hat, sun screen, loose cool clothing
- Hand pruners if you have them
- Kneeling mat if you want one
- Raucous enthusiasm for our weird and wondrous plant neighbors!
- Opening ritual and kudzu root tea
- Meet the plant — design challenge orientation
- Hands-on harvest with two field breaks for water, shade, and history
- Design challenge discussion — where do we go from here?
- Closing ritual
- Optional lunch at Treska's
- Kudzu root to take home and make medicinal tea
- A revised relationship with one of the South's most misunderstood plants
- A design framework for working with so-called invasives on real land
Cultivated Commons is a Hendersonville-based land trust and permaculture school. Through our workshops and courses, students upcycle marginal lands into public-access, car-free corridors that connect neighbors, harvest stormwater, and grow free food. Each student group works on a real design challenge on a real piece of local land, returning to their own neighborhoods as ambassadors for the common spaces we all share in trust. Our half- and full-day workshops can also be steps toward an Applied Permaculture Design Certificate, with tuition counting toward the cost of certification.