Mollison has said: Permaculture is a philosophy of working with, rather than against nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labour; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions, rather than treating any area as a single product system..
The juice of jewelweed is a traditional remedy for all sorts of skin ailments including poison ivy. An oft-repeated folk saying, Wherever poison ivy is found, jewelweed grows close by. To use it, you can simply crush the leaves and rub it on the itchy places.
Look for the vine with clusters of three leaves. Poison ivy always has clusters of three leaves. Use this as the defining characteristic, as this plant is not so obvious in most other ways. Poison ivy is remarkable with its ability to grow in a variety of ways.