Money’s been tight for me recently, but I made sure to set aside the money to get the permaculture design manual. I’d been talking about it for over a year, and I certainly wasn’t going to be able to afford the class anytime soon.
It came yesterday. I’ve been reading it most of today. Good stuff.
I know, nothing really informative, but I’m just excited. Give me a month to slowly go through it, and then I’ll share what knowledge I acquire.
I really liked Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway. It’s really designed to work in an urban back yard, I’ve read a lot of permaculture books that are all about big estates. I’ve never Permaculture: A Designer’s Manual though, that’s the one by Bill Mollison, right? I’ll be interested to hear how you find it.
here in britain, we read the Earth Care Manual- A permaculture guide to temperate climates. It’s a great book, really informative. I kno it purdey well; any questions, please ask.
A great indigenous horticulture/hunter/gatherer manual is
“Tending The Wild” by M. Kat Anderson.
I’m reading it right now and it’s blowing me away. While it is more specific to California, it covers all the basic principles of management that will work anywhere.
Would the Earth Care Manual be a good place to start? Anybody know if it would be of much use for a borderline Cascadian, or temperate climates in general?
It mentions Britain specifically, so I’m wondering if another, more general book might be better for my needs. Its also kind of expensive here.
i’d take a look at ‘gaia’s garden’ and see if it feels right for you. toby resides in portland (i think) and a large part of the book is influenced by the years he spent in southern oregon.
i’ll look into the ‘earth care manual’ for you…
Yeah Toby’s “Gaia’s Garden” rocks, esp for Cascadia. In fact, I’d say it’s the only real Permaculture book that I’ve found that I like.
But you might also want to look into Forest Gardening based on Robert Hart’s work or Masanobu Fukuoka’s Natural Farming.
Thanks people.
I’ll probably get “Gaia’s Garden” then. I was looking at it the other day, but there are so many books on this kind of stuff now that I get a little unsure of myself.