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.
Once again, the poisonous urushiol in poison ivy is in every part of the plant. You will need to wear gloves, long pants, long sleeves, etc. Armor yourself as much as you feel necessary. Mike is highly sensitive to poison ivy so he is careful to cover his face with a mask and his eyes with goggles.