permaculture

An excellent book for those living in temperate zones, like the northern United States, Southern Canada, or UK. This is a detailed advanced permaculture handbook, along the lines of Mollison’s Designer’s Guide, but specifically focused on wetter and colder climates.

Essentially, edible forest gardening is the art and science of putting plants together in woodland-like patterns that forge mutually beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is more than the sum of its parts. You can grow fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, other useful plants, and animals in a way that mimics natural ecosystems. You can create a beautiful, diverse, high-yield garden that is largely self-maintained. —From the Introduction Jacke, a long-time permaculture teacher and designer, has written an ecological gardening masterpiece in this two-volume set. You may buy Volume One & Two individually or as a set. The first volume is devoted to the vision and principles of the ecological forest garden. There are many details and case studies in Volume One that form the ground work for Volume Two, which has a wealth of information pertaining to design details. Taken together, the two volumes of Edible Forest Gardens offer an advanced course in ecological gardening—one that will forever change the way you look at plants and your environment. This project took the authors seven years to complete and the quality and depth of their work is a testament to their seven-year efforts.

Volume Two has a wealth of information pertaining to design details. Case studies and examples are presented as well as tables, illustrations, and a uniquely valuable “plant matrix” that lists hundreds of the best edible and useful species. This book provides incredible amount of the latest information, gleaned from many years of research, teaching, and practical development of permaculture gardens and properties, compiled into easily accessible and useable forms that simply cannot be found anywhere else.

This is an excellent book for applying permaculture principles to the backyard garden. This book has pretty much become the standard for gardening with permaculture in a suburban or urban setting, and gets rave reviews form both beginner and experienced gardeners.

This is really a fabulous, illuminating and highly useful book. In the 1970s, Bill Mollison and David Holmgren worked out the concepts of a nature-mimicking ecological system of sustainable agriculture and earth friendly communities (permanent agriculture) and coined the term “permaculture”. He further defines permaculture as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” This is a handbook that combines science, biology, botany, and common sense principles to form a practical guide for designing sustainable homes, mini-farms, villages, and larger communities. The concepts are applicable to all climate zones, though there is more focus on tropical and desert climates than for temperate regions, since the originators of permaculture live in Australia.

This is probably the best simple, clear, easy to read introduction to permaculture concepts. If you want a low-cost introduction to permaculture, this is the book for you. The serious permaculturist should pick up Bill Mollison’s Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual, and for those living in temperate North American zones, I recommend you also pick up Dave Jacke’s masterpiece, Edible Forest Gardens Volume One & Two.