2019/01/20

The Naturally Bug-Free Garden: Controlling Pest Insects Without Chemicals (Permaculture Gardener Book 2) - Kindle edition by Anna Hess. Crafts, Hobbies & Home Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.

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4.3 out of 5 stars 62 customer reviews
Book 2 of 3 in Permaculture Gardener (3 Book Series)

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Product details

File Size: 14291 KB
Print Length: 128 pages
Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
Publisher: Wetknee Books; Second edition (June 2, 2014)
Publication Date: June 2, 2014

62 customer reviews
4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5 stars

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Top Reviews

Richard A. Loftus
5.0 out of 5 stars Practical observations/advice on all-organic pest control, with some surprisesJune 20, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Many reasons to like this book--it's well written and organized and is clearly based on Anna's lived experience on her homestead in Virginia. It's not theory--she walks the walk. I liked that she included commentaries from her blog readers living in a wide variety of parts of the US (Portland; Missouri; Texas) to give perspectives from other biomes--I doubt I'll run into crayfish holes in my arid California garden! It's not encyclopedic but when she thinks the reader would need more information she cites specific books or web resources for that. Intriguing surprises: she's not much for traditional companion planting and explains why, and outlines how succession planting and trap crops can work in her own experience. She also isn't big on the use of chickens, ducks or other domestic animals as pest controllers in most gardens and cites the reasons, although she uses a chicken tractor in a very limited way. She outlines why she (and many of her readers) prefers to use wild predators instead, and how elegantly it can work. The book is heavily illustrated with color photos from her own and other contributors' gardens. I think what I learned the most from was seeing how her brain works--from reading this text you can see her example of using careful observation, research, and trial and error to fine tune moving her garden forward each season. As a novice gardener I'm glad I bought it and will check out her other books.

10 people found this helpful

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Teri Hanna
5.0 out of 5 stars Every Home Gardener Needs This Guidebook!November 10, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Great book for all gardeners who fight battle with bugs in the garden. I love her writing and easy to understand style. I love her photographs, they clearly show what she is talking about. Anna and her husband grow their own food in Virginia. You get her personal story and her personal battle with bugs. I can connect with her through her personal journey to get rid of pests in the garden. Anna teaches us to identify the bad bugs first. She uses a Mother Earth News map and survey showing the worst bugs in each region. She gives a couple of resources for learning about the bugs in your garden, her favorite book and an online resource. Anna gives us the worst bugs, how to promote good bugs, pollinators, ecosystem bugs, box turtle friends who eat slugs and snails, letting nature take it's course, outthinking the bugs, choosing resistant plant varieties, using row covers, keeping plants healthy, hands on bug control-yes picking them off and eating blemished fruit. She gives all this great information and writes it in an entertaining style along with photographs from her garden. This book is a treat! Also at the end you will find a preview of another of her books: Homegrown Hummus and Cover Crops. Every gardener needs a copy of this great garden book - I just love it! Get your copy today!

9 people found this helpful

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shgannon
5.0 out of 5 stars would give 7 stars if I could!April 24, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This book is so valuable for a gardener! It not only well-written, the photos are many and excellent for identifying pests. Once again this author has written a keeper of a book. This one should be kept by every gardener. Identifying pests becomes so easy and she gives ways of controlling the pests with natural means or safe remedies and the book gives info on good and bad creatures in your garden. Altho mainly for vegetable and fruit gardening there is also good info on flower pests. She writes as if she is sitting across from you and she shares what did or didnt work for her. Love it!

7 people found this helpful

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Richard Hoffman
5.0 out of 5 stars and how plant rotation can contribute to keeping bad bugs at bayNovember 20, 2014
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

The Naturally Bug-Free Garden gives sage advice about how to garden without the use of pesticides or poisons. Writing from her own experience and research, the author provides extremely valuable techniques for dealing with many garden pests. She uses, not only gardening but ecological and environmental practices to thwart enemies of the plants. Her practices match my own experiences as a chemical-free gardener. Anna Hess shows how to attract beneficial bugs to the garden, tells about plant methods of self-defense, explains the role of nutrition in plant protection, and how plant rotation can contribute to keeping bad bugs at bay. Her fluent and humorous writing style captivates the reader while providing great insights for gardeners at every experiential level. This book covers many more topics than those mentioned here. I highly recommend this book to anyone who does anything in a garden! There are so many gems of wisdom in this book!

5 people found this helpful

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Shirley Oates
5.0 out of 5 stars ... gardner who is interested in finding out what are good pest and bad pest I highly recommend this bookApril 13, 2015
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you are a gardner who is interested in finding out what are good pest and bad pest I highly recommend this book.. I have found it very interesting.
I have found that there are good insects to control the bad ones and you do not need to use poisons on flowers and vegetables to keep you healthy.
I do Highly Recommend it to anyone interested in being a serious gardner.

4 people found this helpful

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Wayne J. Villines
4.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be a little longer but still good and easy to readAugust 27, 2018
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This was and is a very information filled book. But I feel let down because I simply wanted the book to take longer to read through. It is a book worthy of any one looking to improve there foundational knowledge of food growing almost naturally.

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DreamCatcherDD
4.0 out of 5 stars AwesomeJanuary 29, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Love knowing about what I am up against with my first garden the book would have been a five star if it had some pointers about matching plants together to help like growing cucumbers over your squash stops the borer. But in all worth getting:)

One person found this helpful

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Patty
5.0 out of 5 stars Great for Natural GrowersMay 15, 2015
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

What can I say, I have become partial to Ms. Hess. Great guide with a lot of ideas on getting those buggers out. As a natural homesteader who prefers not to use chemicals at all, this is great. Good work again!

Introduction to Permaculture: Bill Mollison

: 9780908228089: Amazon.com: Books

5.0 out of 5 stars Great intro and overview

March 12, 2010
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is a great introduction and overview of permaculture concepts. The book covers a lot of material for initiates to permaculture. It's sets the foundation for further reading and studies for those who want to get serious though one could take the principles learned just from this book alone and be quite successful in my opinion.

You learn how the sun, wind and rain, all play an important role in siting structures like homes, sheds, barns, green and shade houses and also in garden and plant selection and placement.

The book also covers designing for temperate, tropical and dry-land environments.

It explains how interconnected relationships between the land, climate, soils, water, structures, flora and fauna can be fostered to the benefit of all.

There are just so many creative ideas and diagrams in this book that it is worth it for those alone.

The book is 8 1/4 X 11 inches with small print that fills the pages with valuable information. I want to live in the sub-tropics of Hawaii and enjoyed the coverage in this regard but, the book also left me day dreaming about living the permaculture lifestyle in other areas like the High Desert of New Mexico and the Pacific Northwest of Oregon.

This book touches on all the possibilities, from the home garden with a few animals to commercial orchards, forests, animal farms, aquaculture, urban gardens and more.

But don't get me wrong, it does not cover these topics in depth, it gives a thorough introduction to these topics and an understanding that one would likely not gain by reading just one book. Also each chapter ends with a list of references for further reading.

In addition there are appendices listing useful permaculture plants, such as nitrogen fixing plants. One appendix even breaks it down into useful categories, such as fruit plants and trees for temperate, topical/sub-tropical and dry areas,pest control plants and finally appendices which list hundreds of the plants mentioned in the text by common, Latin, and by species names.

The book ends with a glossary of key terms used in the book and few pages about Bill Mollison (One of the founders of permaculture) and the permaculture institute including info on their 72 hour PC Design Certificate Course.

This book is highly recommended!

Chris Nixon
1.0 out of 5 stars Big disappointment - buy almost anything else.September 17, 2016
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
Big disappointment.
Reads like a technical manual with very little technical explanation. Using the word "introduction" to describe this book is inaccurate,
While Mollison is key to studying permaculture, this "introduction" is a WASTE of your money. Very little explanation or philosophy and lots of line drawings with little context. Download the PDF of the larger work on design and read the first chapter and you'll have exponentially more information introducing you to permaculture than this entire volume.
I don't know who the target audience is for this work, but they didn't do beginning permaculture explorers any favors here. Buy almost any other introduction. Wish I would have spent double and gotten the larger Mollison design book.
The edition I got was from Tagari publications 2nd edition 2013 and says Bill Mollison with Reny Mia Slay.

3 people found this helpful

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sulkahlee
5.0 out of 5 stars This book is exactly what the title states.October 19, 2011
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
This is a book that leaves you wanting to know more about Permaculture. It gives general information about the subject and how it can be applied to general locations as you would expect in an introduction. It doesn't, and I didn't expect it to give, details about what I should consider doing in my particular location. It did, however, give me ideas about what might be done and clues about where to get the information I will need to do it.

3 people found this helpful

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R. Lopez
5.0 out of 5 stars RE: A classicNovember 27, 2012
Format: Paperback Verified Purchase
I've been studying permaculture for about a year prior to reading this book. While I have learned a lot via the Internet, it does not compare with the material presented in this book. A good understanding of the principles and applications of permaculture is essential to its successful implementation.

Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist: How to Have Your Yard and Eat It Too: Michael Judd: 0884271693082: Amazon.com: Books

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Michael Judd
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Michael Judd

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Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist is a how-to manual for the budding gardener and experienced green thumb alike, full of creative and easy-to-follow designs that guide you to having your yard and eating it, too.

With the help of more than 200 beautiful color photos and drawings, permaculture designer and avid grower Michael Judd takes the reader on a step-by-step process to transform a sea of grass into a flourishing edible landscape that pleases the eye as well as the taste buds.

With personality and humor, he translates the complexities of permaculture design into simple self-build projects, providing full details on the evolving design process, material identification, and costs.

Chapters cover:
Herb Spirals
Food Forests
Raised-Bed Gardens
Earthen Ovens
Uncommon Fruits
Outdoor Mushroom Cultivation, and more . . .

The book’s colorful pages are filled with practical designs that Judd has created and built over years of workshops, homesteading, and running an edible landscaping business. Though geared toward suburban gardeners starting from scratch, the book's designs can be easily grafted to the micro-habits of the urban landscape, scaled up to the acreage of homesteads, or adapted to already flourishing landscapes. Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist is a tool to spark and inform the imagination of anyone with a desire to turn their landscape into a luscious and productive edible Eden.

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Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist: How to Have Your Yard and Eat It Too Paperback – December 16, 2013

by Michael Judd (Author)

4.5 out of 5 stars 106 customer reviews

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Judd has worked with agro-ecological and whole-system designs throughout the Americas for nearly two decades, focusing on applying permaculture and ecological design.

His projects increase local food security and community health in both tropical and temperate growing regions. He is the founder of Ecologia Edible & Ecological Landscape Design and Project Bona Fide, an international nonprofit supporting agro-ecology research.

Michael lives with his wife, Ashley, in Frederick, Maryland, where they are creating a permaculture homestead. They are building a circular straw bale home and expecting a baby ninja by the end of 2013.

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Product details

Paperback: 144 pages

Publisher: Ecologia; 1st edition (December 16, 2013)

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106 customer reviews

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highly recommend michael judd growing mushrooms permaculture books get started fun read food forest herb garden suburban homeowner pizza oven front yard great photos book really fruit tree recommend this book beautifully illustrated easy to read really enjoyed step by step herb spirals

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crazybooknerd

5.0 out of 5 starsFABULOUS book for the smaller scale home gardener who values aesthetics in the garden as much as habitat and function

May 20, 2016

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I really really really love this book! I found it at the library along with many of the other popular permaculture books you find on Amazon. After a couple months of reviewing them all, I found myself continuously just going back to this one as reference. We're just putting in our first permaculture garden, in a house we just moved into, and this one just seemed to be the most practical with the most useful info for a small scale permaculture home gardener.

While there are other great books, I find that a lot of them are just completely not useful for our needs due to the scale of the designs and projects that they focus on. Many are for properties several acres or more. We have about 1/3 acre to make into a garden, in the middle of a subdivision. This one is really helping us figure out how to blend two different things that we want in our yard: a beautiful, ornamental communal/hang out space and herb garden right up against the house; and then from there going back to a food forest with espalier fruit trees and berry bushes lining the entire perimeter of our yard, providing food as well as privacy from our neighbors.

If you're looking for a how-to on setting up a large scale homestead with grazing land, barns, etc. then there are other books that will be useful for you. But for the small scale (<1 acre lot), this is the most practical permaculture book that I found, and I recommend it above the others.

One last thing. Part of what I *don't* like about some of the permaculture books, is the total chaos seen in the demonstration pics included.

While I like a garden that looks more "wild and whimsical" and for sure stay away from straight rows and ordered, highly-groomed landscaping; I also want something that is aesthetically beautiful, especially right up against the house. Basically, I like the English Country Garden look...everything exploding in coordinated flowers and colors, in soft soothing tones. I don't like looking out and just seeing what looks like a bunch of dried weeds and mishmash everywhere. I know a huge part of permaculture is biodiversity, and that's important. With Edible Landscaping, I believe I can achieve both. For example, at the base of every fruit tree I learned we should plant "plant guilds" composed of 4 different types of plants that will benefit and nourish the tree while attracting beneficial insects to kill the "bad guy" insects. In a lot of the permaculture books these guilds just look like a bunch of random weeds and/or plants, but in this book, I see diagrams of plants that aesthetically blend well together creating a more intentional look.

Anyway, the summary is that with the help of this book, I believe that I'll be able to achieve EVERYTHING of what I want--a closed ecosystem that self-sustains and provides habitat for all the wonderful birds and critters I hope to invite, a food garden that doesn't require the input of outside fertilizers etc, and a food garden that over time will feed the household. And all on a semi-small urban lot!

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24 people found this helpful
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Life Healer

5.0 out of 5 starsGreat sustainable gardening plans and ideas!

February 14, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I've been gardening for a number of years (I'll decline to share how many) and have a pretty large collection of gardening and landscape books. Most of the newer books I look at just have a more modern twist on the same old tried and true principals that have been around forever, maybe with some updated pretty photos for explanation and motivation.

This book surprised me. I learned some new things, and got new ideas. I especially love that Judd focuses on sustainability and (almost but not quite more important) low maintenance gardening ideas and planting suggestions. This book has great photos, clear instructions and even has recipes for drinks using the edible fruits you harvest. Judd has an easy going approach to his writing that is interspersed with humor. You could totally see yourself leaning on a shovel conversing with him about beneficials and compost - or, if you follow his suggestions, you'd more likely be chatting while relaxing in a hammock with a drink! I've already recommended this book to several of my gardening friends. Great stuff!!

17 people found this helpful

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J. Daniels

4.0 out of 5 stars

Less so a landscaping book, more a Permaculture techniques guide.

October 31, 2018

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I love Permaculture and Edible Landscaping, but this book is geared much more towards Permaculture. It's focused on a few techniques used in Permaculture setups such as Hugelkultur and swales. Other than the few methods it covers to create a sustainable food system, it doesn't offer much in the way of actually landscaping or utilizing certain plants to create a pleasing aesthetic which is one of the odder (but understandable) complaints I hear about Food Forests. If you're looking for a book to give you a list of attractive flowers, shrubs, etc. with multiple functions other than just being pretty, this probably isn't for you. If you're looking to implement low input food gardens, have a curiosity about how to use mushrooms to clean your water runoff, or what is and how to sheet mulch, this is a good book for you.

This book didn't fill the gap in my knowledge I was hoping for, but it reinforces other information for people looking to create healthy, holistic, and sustainable food-bearing landscapes to enjoy.

One person found this helpful
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Edward Earl Greer

4.0 out of 5 starsGreat start for permaculture

March 27, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

Liked the way the book was written. I have a small collection of permaculture books. This book skips the theory and gets directly to what a lot of novice permaculturists want to know to get started. Has a lot of great photos and drawings with easy to follow directions to get started. The author created his garden in Maryland with similar conditions to my area in northern Va was helpful for me. Most of the permaculture books I read take place in northern climates so their choice of plants may not work for my area. But if you read these books, you would know it's a trial and error thing, finding what works best in your setup.

13 people found this helpful

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Michelle Salois

5.0 out of 5 stars

Very practical, very clear. Almost like permaculture for dummies.

July 16, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I've read several Permaculture books now and

this would be the one I'd recommend as a first book to someone who doesn't care about all the science behind it, nor all the principles of design, and just wants to jump ahead to implementation on a urban or suburban yard.

Very easy to read, easy to understand, great photos and diagrams & illustrations. It is not an introduction to permaculture but an action plan for the urban or suburban homeowner. A unique aspect is it has lots of recipes for cocktails and even to make wine. I think it was a mistake to include the making of the cob oven when he could have used the space to tell about chickens, or about vertical elements to grow more food in less space while stacking functions such as shade and moderating sun or wind on the house, or about building water features. Hopefully he'll drop the oven chapter and add some of these others in his second edition!

7 people found this helpful

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The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience: Toby Hemenway: 9781603585262: Amazon.com: Books

The Permaculture City: Regenerative Design for Urban, Suburban, and Town Resilience: Toby Hemenway: 9781603585262: Amazon.com: Books

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Toby Hemenway

Permaculture is more than just the latest buzzword; it offers positive solutions for many of the environmental and social challenges confronting us. And nowhere are those remedies more needed and desired than in our cities. The Permaculture City provides a new way of thinking about urban living, with practical examples for creating abundant food, energy security, close-knit communities, local and meaningful livelihoods, and sustainable policies in our cities and towns. The same nature-based approach that works so beautifully for growing food―connecting the pieces of the landscape together in harmonious ways―applies perfectly to many of our other needs. Toby Hemenway, one of the leading practitioners and teachers of permaculture design, illuminates a new way forward through examples of edge-pushing innovations, along with a deeply holistic conceptual framework for our cities, towns, and suburbs.

The Permaculture City begins in the garden but takes what we have learned there and applies it to a much broader range of human experience; we’re not just gardening plants but people, neighborhoods, and even cultures. Hemenway lays out how permaculture design can help towndwellers solve the challenges of meeting our needs for food, water, shelter, energy, community, and livelihood in sustainable, resilient ways. Readers will find new information on designing the urban home garden and strategies for gardening in community, rethinking our water and energy systems, learning the difference between a “job” and a “livelihood,” and the importance of placemaking and an empowered community.

This important book documents the rise of a new sophistication, depth, and diversity in the approaches and thinking of permaculture designers and practitioners. Understanding nature can do more than improve how we grow, make, or consume things; it can also teach us how to cooperate, make decisions, and arrive at good solutions.

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Editorial Reviews

Review

Booklist-

"For the past six years, Hemenway’s acclaimed first book, Gaia’s Garden (2009), has been the world’s best-selling guidebook on home and garden permaculture. He now continues to champion this environmental philosophy that involves working with nature, instead of against it, for maximum sustainability. Although permaculture practices originally began with small-scale farms and gardens in mind, in his latest work Hemenway presents a much larger vision of applying them to metropolitan settings. In what is more than simply a handbook on finding space to grow fruits and vegetables in the concrete jungle, the author demonstrates just how widely the permaculture net can be cast by including advice on sustainably managing critical urban resources such as water, shelter, electricity, and even community centers. After introductory chapters on permaculture principles and the history and evolution of cities, Hemenway covers the basics of designing urban home gardens before moving on to discuss “water wisdom” and home energy solutions. An invaluable resource for city planners and dwellers alike, as well as an optimistic exploration of the possibilities for ecological well-being in our future urban landscapes.”

Library Journal-

"Permaculture refers to a method of agricultural design that uses natural approaches. While several chapters address the unique challenges and opportunities in creating an urban garden, Hemenway refers often to his first book, Gaia’s Garden, the initial major volume published in North America on permaculture principles, for further detail. Here, the author’s focus narrows to an urban setting, where permaculture means more than having a sustainable garden but can generate powerful change and community growth. Combining anecdotal stories of local U.S. neighborhoods practicing permaculture principles with black-and-white and color photos, Hemenway describes ways in which urban dwellers can not only create their own backyard oasis but join with their neighbors to build shared spaces in which to produce food, culture, and identity. Valuable tips on water conservation via rain harvesting and graywater collection mingle with advice on reducing energy consumption, producing local energy resources, and decreasing your foodshed and carbon footprints. Notes and index provide a reliable reference for further reading. VERDICT: An enlightening read for anyone interested in green gardening, environmental ethics, social justice issues, and seeking positive community change.”

Publishers Weekly-

"This eagerly awaited book from West Coast permaculture expert Hemenway, author of the classic Gaia's Garden, pushes permaculture design beyond its usual realm of homesteading and gardening, applying it to the complex systems that make up contemporary urban life. Other permaculturalists are also exploring these ideas, but Hemenway's intelligent, down-to-earth analyses, astute systems thinking, and clear organization offer a particularly comprehensive, open-ended, and sophisticated yet understandable overview to readers who want to discover, evaluate, utilize, and integrate the untapped resources abundant in any city or town. Hemenway focuses on the philosophical, ‘whetting appetites' and providing toolkits rather than in-depth instruction, with the goal of teaching readers 'to become adept at a whole-systems approach to living in and finding solutions in cities, towns, and suburbs.' Referencing livable-city innovators such as Jane Jacobs and human-scale design thinkers such as Christopher Alexander, Hemenway shows how permaculture concepts can be stretched and rethought in an urban setting to include not just one's house, garden, and yard but also neighbors, parks, and city agencies.”

"Many people who are searching for a more fulfilling life, wanting to reduce their ecological footprint and build resilience for uncertain futures, grasp that permaculture might be part of the solution but are often unsure how it applies to their particular situation. For residents of towns and cities in the modern affluent world, The Permaculture City shows how permaculture design makes common sense."--David Holmgren, co-originator of the Permaculture concept

"Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden is the go-to book I always recommend for those interested in permaculture. His new book, The Permaculture City, is the much-needed urban version, a great introduction and full of important information on adapting permaculture to an urban environment."--Starhawk, permaculture designer and author of The Empowerment Manual

“The Permaculture City is a triumph in bringing the wisdom of permaculture practices to city dwellers. This book is a ‘bridge book’ for greening our urban landscapes. Rich in practical knowledge, Toby Hemenway is a trailblazer in demystifying the art of living sustainably within ecosystems: teaching how YOU can be a collaborative partner in a healthy urban biosphere. This book’s impact will be increasingly significant as we inevitably march toward living in built environments. For urban planners, architects, green builders, and simply citizens who want to enjoy a higher quality of life, The Permaculture City is The Book to lead the way.”--Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

“Permaculture is applied ecology, and its practice is evolving as society becomes more urbanized. As Toby Hemenway puts it, ‘We’re not just gardening plants but people, neighborhoods, and even cultures.’ Whether you’re new to permaculture or a seasoned ‘permie,’ The Permaculture City is essential: it captures the explorative state of the art in readable, often delightful prose. And, like all good permaculture books, it is eminently helpful at solving a myriad of practical problems in the home and garden.”--Richard Heinberg, Senior Fellow, Post Carbon Institute

“Toby Hemenway combines the skill of a storyteller with the vigour of experience and insight. He shows us an urban landscape with gardens, food, energy systems, and architecture that can ensure genuine sustainability. Beyond these vital elements, he also creates a template for a new kind of city: a human scale collection of village communities where quality of life is valued above quantity of output. With the majority of the human race becoming city dwellers, this is vital information for a more collaborative, intelligent, and resilient urban landscape, one that will enable us to face serious challenges now, and in the future.”--Maddy Harland, co-founder and editor of Permaculture magazine and Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts

"Toby Hemenway is among the true visionaries who can turn vision into practical action. The Permaculture City is a landmark book that will be used for decades as a compass and field guide to regenerate our world and communities. Toby depicts the virtuous circle people are already creating across the country and world, from small acts an individual can take, to larger systemic changes that only communities and societies can make. This is the gospel of building resilience from the ground up, and Toby is a true hero of our age―he shows us we’re all invited to the party.”--Kenny Ausubel, cofounder and CEO of Bioneers

“Half the world’s people now live in cities, and as Toby Hemenway convincingly demonstrates, they can be at the very forefront of the revolution in how we live. This book will thrill you!”--Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy

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About the Author

Toby Hemenway was the author of the first major North American book on permaculture, Gaia’s Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, as well as The Permaculture City. After obtaining a degree in biology from Tufts University, Toby worked for many years as a researcher in genetics and immunology, first in academic laboratories at Harvard and the University of Washington in Seattle, and then at Immunex, a major medical biotech company. At about the time he was growing dissatisfied with the direction biotechnology was taking, he discovered permaculture, a design approach based on ecological principles that creates sustainable landscapes, homes, and workplaces. A career change followed, and Toby and his wife spent ten years creating a rural permaculture site in southern Oregon. He was associate editor of Permaculture Activist, a journal of ecological design and sustainable culture, from 1999 to 2004. He taught permaculture and consulted and lectured on ecological design throughout the country, and his writing appeared in magazines such as Whole Earth Review, Natural Home, and Kitchen Gardener. Toby passed away in 2016.

Visit his web site at www.patternliteracy.com

Product details

Paperback: 288 pages
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing (July 31, 2015)
Language: English

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Biography
Toby Hemenway is the author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, which for the past six years has been the world's best-selling book on permaculture, a design approach based on ecology for creating sustainable landscapes, homes, communities, and workplaces. He has been an adjunct professor in the School of Graduate Education at Portland State University, Scholar-in-Residence at Pacific University, and a biologist consultant for the Biomimicry Guild. He teaches, consults, and lectures on permaculture and ecological design throughout the US and other countries. His writing has appeared in magazines such as Natural Home, Whole Earth Review, and American Gardener. He lives in Sebastopol, California, where he is developing sites and resources for urban and small-town sustainability.

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Lorecrystal
5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!December 24, 2016
Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is Toby Hemenway's last work before his death in December 2016. It is a wonderful introduction to design thinking, focused on the use of permaculture in towns & cities (where most people live these days). Since I am familiar with permaculture, only about half the book was new information, but it is worth buying for the other books mentioned alone.

11 people found this helpful

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Really good start to a great series
5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing Follow Up To Bill Mollison's pioneering Book Permaculture: A designers Manual!!!!!!!March 25, 2016
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

If you are tired of hearing about all our social and environmental problems and want practical solutions that you an ordinary person can put to easy practice in the city, suburb or town you live in, you have to read this book! This book can help you do things to battle climate change, rebuild run down neighborhoods, and rejuvenate your local environment and economy, n you can start with your own home.

10 people found this helpful

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danny
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful Application of PermacultureOctober 22, 2018
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As always, Toby Hemenway's book is well-written and thoroughly detailed, cited, and thoughtful. Toby starts the book with an introduction to permaculture and then starts to make his case for how a city can be green. The general format of how Toby approaches topics in this book is with a brief history of the subject of that chapter (which is quite useful to see how history has shaped our perceptions and beliefs), and then he applies the same four or five methods to each subject to explain how the needs of that chapter can be met through a permaculture lens. What I appreciated the most from the book was how Toby applied "Mission, Goals, Strategy, and Techniques" to each section. His focus on stepping back from the techniques-perspective of hsi book was especially important for getting me to see the bigger picture and how to find the right techniques for a given situation or place. The most interesting chapters for me were Chapters 8 and 9, which were about human interactions and making a community. I had not considered to think about people this way before, through the permaculture lens, and now it is a lot more interesting to figure out how to improve relationships with others and how to effectively get things done wherever I am.

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Brad B.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read and very inspiring.August 11, 2017
Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is a truly amazing book that can change your mental framework going forward. I love how the author addresses all aspects of life through the permacultute lens. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to create a change in culture, whether that be political, ecological, or economical.

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Yaqoub Al Meer
5.0 out of 5 stars Totally recommended for people interested in urban designJanuary 22, 2018
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Engaging and informative.

Totally recommended for people interested in urban design, the environment, or gardening.

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Karl Treen
5.0 out of 5 stars Very important book. Well done.February 14, 2017
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The book we've been waiting for. Not a list of techniques but a translation of principles. This important book should definitely be in your collection.

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Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars Recommend to Everyone!!June 23, 2017
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Amazing book with very helpful and diverse information and I love how he breaks ideas down so it is easy to understand, but not unnecessarily. I recommend this book to everybody and is useful if you are designing a small yard to a few acres or are interested in how we can make cities more sustainable and energy efficient.

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micki madison
5.0 out of 5 stars Five StarsFebruary 18, 2017
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great book so sad to see that Toby is not with us any more.

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Edible Forest Gardens (2 volume set): Dave Jacke, Eric Toensmeier: 9781890132606: Amazon.com: Books

Edible Forest Gardens (2 volume set): Dave Jacke, Eric Toensmeier: 9781890132606: Amazon.com: Books

Edible Forest Gardens is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates. Volume I lays out the vision of the forest garden and explains the basic ecological principles that make it work. In Volume II, Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier move on to practical considerations: concrete ways to design, establish, and maintain your own forest garden. Along the way they present case studies and examples, as well as tables, illustrations, and a uniquely valuable "plant matrix" that lists hundreds of the best edible and useful species.

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.

What is an edible forest garden?
An edible forest garden is a perennial polyculture of multipurpose plants. Most plants regrow every year without replanting: perennials. Many species grow together: a polyculture. Each plant contributes to the success of the whole by fulfilling many functions: multipurpose. In other words, a forest garden is an edible ecosystem, a consciously designed community of mutually beneficial plants and animals intended for human food production. Edible forest gardens provide more than just a variety of foods. The seven F's apply here: food, fuel, fiber, fodder, fertilizer, and "farmaceuticals," as well as fun. A beautiful, lush environment can be a conscious focus of your garden design, or a side benefit you enjoy

Editorial Reviews

Review

HortIdeas-

We reviewed the first volume of this two-volume set in September 2005 HortIdeas--in fact, we were so impressed by it that we devoted that month's Book Reviews section entirely to it. Until Mycelium Running--another amazingly important and well-done book--appeared, we were considering doing the same this month for the second volume of Edible Forest Gardens, which is much thicker (by more than 270 pages!) than the first volume. The shorter length of this review certainly does not reflect the relative importance of the volumes--we recommend that anyone interested in experimenting with temperate-zone "gardening in the image of the forest" should study both.

Although Volume 2 ostensibly emphasizes "practical" information building on the "theoretical" ideas in Volume 1, it is clear that both volumes are essentially theoretical. That's because (as we discussed in our review of Volume 1) nobody has yet convincingly shown the viability of forest gardening (relying heavily on perennial crops) in temperate areas as a sustainable alternative to conventional gardening (based mainly on annual crops). Jacke and Toensmeier are, admirably, attempting to disseminate ideas gathered from a variety of source that might enable such viability. Ultimately, at this stage development of temperate-zone forest gardening techniques, virtually all approaches are experimental and in need of validation. We simply do not currently know their limitations.

Understanding that knowledge on "nest practices" for temperate-zone forest gardening needs to be established experimentally can be exciting for those willing and able to adopt the scientific attitude: no matter how they turn out, the results of an experiment, performed appropriately (meaning especially that adequate control treatments are provided), are never "bad." In other words, we think that would-be temperate-zone forest gardeners who are sincerely interested in helping to establish this novel form of agriculture should proceed by trying to test some of Jacke and Toensmeier's numerous design, site preparation, species choice and establishment, and management guidelines. We view Volume 2 of Edible Forest Gardens not as a recipe book for what works but rather as a compendium of possibilities for what could work--an invitation par excellence to experimentation instead of complacency. Right on!

Plants and Gardens News--Patricia Jonas, Brooklyn Botanic Garden-

But even if you grow enough organic food to feed yourself, are you doing what's best for the ecosystem? "Many drawbacks of modern agriculture persist in organic farming and gardening," Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier write in Edible Forest Gardens, because they do not "mimic the structure of natural systems, only selected functions." Even Quail Hill Farm members are still harvesting mostly annual crops grown in plowed fields. Jacke and Toensmeier offer a radical vision for stepping out of the conceptual continuum of conventional agriculture and organic farming. They point to the productivity of temperate forests--which is twice that of agricultural land in terms of net calories--and take that as their design model. Building on Robert Hart's classic book, Forest Gardening, and incorporating permaculture practice, Jacke and Toensmeier propose a garden where many species of edible perennial plants are grown together in a design that mimics forest structure and function.
Edible Forest Gardens is an ambitious two-volume work whose influence should extend well beyond ecologists and permaculturists and, in the best of all outcomes, reach into the mainstream. Volume one lays out the "Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture," and it also includes a very useful analysis of existing forest gardens (one only 50 by 90 feet) and a tantalizing 30-page appendix of "top 100" species. As of this writing, volume two, which focuses on practical design and maintenance considerations, is just being released, but on the evidence of volume one, I have no doubt the set will be an indispensable reference for gardeners and farmers for decades.

"When people have food gardens," the authors write, "they usually are tucked out of sight and out of view of the neighbors. They rely on external inputs of energy, nutrients, insect and disease controls, and water and are based primarily on annual plants. For some reason, growing food is considered unsightly, unseemly, possibly antisocial, and in some towns and cities, illegal! The tremendous infrastructure we have built in our cities and towns reflects a culture and horticulture of separation and isolation." The consequences of such attitudes about growing food have been disastrous, and each of us can contribute to the repair effort. Jacke and Toensmeier say that the principles of forest gardening can be applied even in a tiny urban yard or on a rooftop. Containers of edible perennials and annuals on a rooftop are not most farmers' idea of agriculture, but I grow nearly 20 percent of the authors' top 100 species and intend to look for ways to take this small start much further.

And what about chocolate and oranges? Clearly there are foods that cannot be grown in a temperate forest. "We do not expect forest gardening to replace regular gardening or the foods we know and love," the authors admit. "Just how far we can take forest gardening in supplying food for ourselves is not yet determined." Finding the answer may be the most optimistic work gardeners and farmers can do.

"These will be the benchmark works in the field for many years. The level of scholarship and meticulous footnoting is unsurpassed by anything I've seen in permaculture literature."--Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden

"A tree de force! A must-have set of books for anyone serious about polyculture, integrated organic garden and landscape design, permaculture in the temperate zones and, of course, food forests. The charts of condensed information alone are worth the price of admission. The best book on these topics in years Keep these books within arm's reach at all times!"--Robert Kourick, author of Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally

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From the Publisher
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"...this book will define the intellectual territory of its subject for at least a generation...Dave Jacke has knit an indigenous practice at once ancient and renascent with the mainstream of scientific exploration. He has given us legitimacy – and by us I mean all the ecological agricultural explorers of the epoch – and a cogency that will now be impossible to denigrate or diminish...An excellent and essential reference, brilliantly conceived and passionately written, Edible Forest Gardens should be on every permaculturist's reading list for the year ahead."

--Peter Bane Publisher, The Permaculture Activist magazine

"...But the book I will be keeping by me for the seasons ahead... is Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier. In its way this book--the first of two volumes--is a sequel to the wonderful Tree Crops: A Permanent Agriculture (1929) by J. Russell Smith.... Edible Forest Gardens offers a vision of the garden that reaches well beneath its aesthetic surface and into its ecological depths. It reminds us that whatever gardens are an oasis from, they can never be an oasis from the natural world or our own underlying economic needs."

--Verlyn Klinkenborg The New York Times Book Review June 5, 2005

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About the Author

Dave Jacke has been a student of ecology and design since the 1970s, and has run his own ecological design firm—Dynamics Ecological Design Associates—since 1984. Dave is an engaging and passionate teacher of ecological design and permaculture, and a meticulous designer. He has consulted on, designed, built, and planted landscapes, homes, farms, and communities in the many parts of the United States, as well as overseas, but mainly in the Northeast. A cofounder of Land Trust at Gap Mountain in Jaffrey, NH, he homesteaded there for a number of years. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Simon's Rock College (1980) and a M.A. in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design (1984). You can learn more about his work at edibleforestgardens.com. He lives in Keene, New Hampshire.

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Product details

Hardcover: 1068 pages
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing; VOLUME 2 edition (November 15, 2005)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1890132608
ISBN-13: 978-1890132606
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avid reader
5.0 out of 5 stars Lots of valuable informationJuly 1, 2014
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

Although this is an expensive set, there is so much valuable information in these 2 books for those interested in permaculture and forest gardening in the temperate climates of North America, it is well worth the price. The authors have scientific information to back their recommendations and to give credence to the longterm benefit and viability of the vision of permaculture and forest gardening…it is no longer just a wonderful vision but actually in the realm of reality. I loved the second volume with all the tables of plants arranged by their functions. There was so much information presented in a way that you can design a plan for your forest that will work really well together and will have a really great chance to thrive. If your plan includes plants that fix nitrogen and that accumulate nutrients such as calcium and potassium you will not need to add fertilizers. If you plan to have plants that support bees with nectar and pollen, you will have no problem pollinating your crops. If you make sure you have plants and habitats that attract predatory wasps and other beneficials , you will not need to worry about pests as much. I don't agree with everything in this book…such using glycophosphate. I think some of the soil preparation techniques that are recommended are too labour intensive…there must be a better way but overall there is really a lot of useful information

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Jalar
5.0 out of 5 stars Totally worth itFebruary 17, 2018
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

"The" book on forest gardening in North America. I wish I would have bought this first. So many other books I have are encompassed in this book. Volume 1 is about forest ecology, learning about what we are trying to mimic. Volume 2 is the practical applications section. These books and the Permaculture Designers manual are all you need. Volume 2 is a great reference. Volume 1 is pretty dense, but very interesting, thorough background information for what we are trying to accomplish.

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The realskinny
5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT BOOKS!January 20, 2015
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

These are SERIOUS reference books that you will have to go back to again and again. Martin Crawford has a very readable tome about food forests which is excellent--these are excellent too, but give much more indepth analysis of the process and on ecology. I have read them in tandem--again, these are books for the serious raw foodists and sustainable gardener, or designer and will probably take MONTHS of reading and years of digesting, but I think they are well worth it AND will serve anyone serious about sustainable agriculture, well.

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Julie Guerrieri
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Books!January 30, 2014
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I had originally checked these books out at the library, but, being as they are so large, I couldn't even get close to finishing the first one in only two weeks. I was impressed with them, however, and decided to spend the money on my own copies.

I was so excited when they arrived--I'm still only partially through Book 1--and it's great having my own copies. And, unlike the ones from the library, these ones were in good shape--I'm a freak about the condition of my books, and I intend to keep these looking as good as they did the day they came!

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George Roark
5.0 out of 5 stars An Amazing, in-Depth ReferenceMarch 25, 2010
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

It's no surprise to learn that Dave and Eric worked for seven years to write the Edible Forest Gardens books; the depth and breadth of permaculture knowledge that they present is incredible. Although I've heard some say that these books are not an easy read, I've found them to be fascinating, enjoyable and indispensable. I started my journey into permaculture with Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway, then decided to plant an edible forest in the back yard, so I purchased Volume 2 of Edible Forest Gardens, since it covers the practical consideration of forest gardening. I was so impressed with the book that I then purchased volume 1, which focuses on the ecological vision and theory for temperate climate permaculture. Highly recommended!

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Skip
5.0 out of 5 stars This two volume set is worth it's weight in silver bullion...... Really!December 16, 2013
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

The author, Dave Jacke, has nailed this topic cold. Informative, to the point, "hands on" useable information..... Simply the best book I've found on this topic.

Mr. Jacke's work is as good or better than Fukuoka, Louis Bromfield, Joel Salatin or Wendell Berry. This book will has become a how-to classic. A must have if your planning a premiculture project of your own.

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R. Lopez
5.0 out of 5 stars RE: expensive, but well worth itNovember 27, 2012
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I hesitated to spend so much money on these books. I find the information they contain to be the result of years of hard work by many people. They are prominently located on my reference shelf for easy access. If you are interested in Edible Forest Gardens, you will not be disappointed in the information they contain.

Forest Gardening is a lengthy endeavor. You won't get many chances to get it right, so better to do it right the first time.

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carlos
5.0 out of 5 stars you will enjoy all of the little and big drops of wisdom ...September 12, 2015
Format: HardcoverVerified Purchase

I am starting a business called Epic Edible Backyards, and researching permaculture and ways to maximize food production. This set of books has been on my reading list for a while and they were well worth the wait. For someone interested in ecology, nature, permaculture, and design, you will enjoy all of the little and big drops of wisdom in these books.

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Review: Edible Forest Gardens, vol 1: Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture

Posted on Oct 22, 2011 by sim

http://www.groundswell.fi/sim/2011/10/22/review-edible-forest-garden-vol-1-ecological-vision-and-theory-for-temperate-climate-permaculture/

The two-volume Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier is the last directly permaculture-related work on my reading list for now; I gather I have amassed enough knowledge on the topic for the time being after these two final books; it’s then time to do some thinking and action before further reading. This two-volume text is topically split with most of the theory in this first volume what this review is about – titled Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate-Climate Permaculture and more practical things in the second volume, titled Ecological Design And Practice For Temperate-Climate Permaculture

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One important thing to note is that despite the name, these books are not about creating “forests” per se, but mimicking the interconnectdness, sustainability and resilience of forests. It’s not about organic agriculture either; organic agriculture attempts to move agriculture toward the ‘nature’ end of the agriculture-nature continuum, maintaining high yields while reducing negative characteristics such as high rate of nutrient flux, high fragility, low resilience, low biodiversity, high amount of management effort required, high amounts of waste & pollution produced etc. Forest gardening, on the other hand, starts at nature’s end and attempts to increase yields while maintaining all of nature’s desirable characteristics (typically the opposites of that list).

Trees certainly play a role here, but are not the only plants of relevance – and you do not need acres and acres of land to implement the ideas. Instead the book specifically focuses on smaller-scale solutions and systems, often making the designs more applicable to real life than those in Mollison’s Permaculture Designers Manual that I recently read & reviewed (it should, however, also be pointed that this book covers a much narrower scope, but does so in more detail and with more up-to-date information).

To begin with, Edible Forest Gardens lays out some reasons why we should start radically re-thinking our food production; to mention just one interesting point is that when fossil fuel usage is included, traditional industrial agriculture often has a negative net energy production. That alone should ring some serious alarm bells.

The book covers a large number of fascinating details about soil structure and soil life (and how critically important it is to healthy ecosystems), social structure of forests and many other things. It also provides an overview to four perspectives on vegetation dynamics, starting with how the traditional linear succession and climax model and how it is not exactly true (I vaguely remember this linear succession model from school), then introducing three other theories; progressive succession to shifting-mosaic steady state, patch dynamics and a unified old field theory.

Previously I mentioned that quantifying yields is one aspect lacking in many permaculture materials; these books do provide some data on typical yields in different ecosystems; it’s interesting to note, for example, that agricultural land yields around 3000 kcal/m2/year, whereas temperate forests yield almost twice that and tropical forests and swamps even more in terms of raw net primary productivity (NPP). Nevertheless, more work on this area is still needed.

The text, while firmly under the permaculture umbrella, introduces only some permaculture principles (and omits others). Included are things such as polycultures and guilds, the latter which is defined here as “groups of species that partition resources or create networks of mutual support” – probably the tightest and best description of it I have seen so far.

In the sustainability discourse, there continues to be much talk and debate about suburbs and their fate. Many argue that suburbs cannot be maintained when fossil fuels become scarce and expensive (like argued in the documentary “End of suburbia“), while others quite convincingly claim we simply can’t afford to just abandon them either. This book takes a view that probably best aligns with my own thinking (and also aligns well with the permaculture edict of “the problem is the solution”) – that despite being generally poorly suited to dealing with energy decline, suburbs actually represent one of the best opportunities for sustainable design and living.

“There are more people with a little bit of land in these habitats than in any other. In the cities, people have far fewer opportunities to connect with any semblance of the natural world, much less to be self-supporting in any major way. Rural areas have too few people for high productivity without machinery driven by fossil fuels.”

There is no question that ultra-commutes, particularly with cars, will become difficult to maintain, but suburbs can provide a good basis for relocalization – and with good communication technology infrastructure, it should be possible for most knowledge-workers (those who primarily commute to begin with) to work remotely. This transition is probably easier in places like Melbourne where many suburbs are already relatively lively places filled with services and small local merchants, as opposed to many US suburbs where there is no local service-infrastructure and the little there is are shopping centers or strip malls.

The book ends with a “Top 100” species list, their growth environments (zones, sunlight preference), size, what they produce etc. There are also comprehensive reference and publications lists and a glossary at the end.

Much of this book is theory. Theory, for many people can be rather boring, which brings me to one of the best aspects of this book; it is very professionally written, well laid out with clear illustrations and in general is a joy to read. Mollison, for example, can at times be a bit rambling, but happily this work does not suffer from such superficial annoyances. The polished, well-researched presentation of interesting material makes Edible Forest Gardens yet another recommended book, but naturally only if you find the topic somewhat interesting.

I have a lot of books on my reading list right now, so getting to the Vol 2 of this great work may take some time. Nevertheless I’m really looking forward to that after the fascinating background in this first volume – next up, however, will be some more business and innovation-oriented books related to my day job.

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