Which books have fellow permaculturists found invaluable in their search for living the permaculture dream? I am going to purchase: The designers manual by Bill Mollison I also thought Gaia's garden would be a good book, any thoughts. Thanks in advance
Earth Users Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow. Get the later edition. The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow (if you have a garden that is).
Thanks pebble, I'll look those up. I have a 42 square metre garden, I plan to put a food forest on the front footpath, the only issue is that I have powerlines above, so I'll need to watch the height of what I put there. Other than that the block is either covered by cement, bitumen, a huge shed and the house.
This might help-- a list of over 200 relevant books, please add to it if you want. https://www.amazon.com/gp/registry/wishlist/3FZHYE9WJDY0P/ref=lst_llp_wl-head https://amzn.com/w/2YAS2LS7N26CQ
Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison was the game changer for me, a great book. I've read many since then but some standouts have been Linda Woodrow's The Permaculture Home Garden, Alanna Moore's Backyard Poultry Naturally and The Straw Bale House by Athena & Bill Steen. I've just received David Holmgren's Principles & Pathways and Masanobu Fukuoka's One Straw Revolution in the post so will be getting stuck into those next! hooray for reading! Dan
Thanks michaelangelica Dannyboy when you read David Holmgren's book, Principles and pathways let me know how you found reading it. I borrowed it from the library and found it very hard to read, any hints on how to get the best out of the book?
G'day grassroots Read it slowly; read from it often; and if need be, read it with a dictionary (google?) beside you in order to better understand the terms/themes that you might be unfamiliar with. I would also recommend that you explore the following: Future Scenarios Permaculture Principles Finally, for a 'practical introduction' to all of the concepts that Holmgren discusses in Pathways, try reading the following: The Holistic Life Cheerio, Marko.
Will do grassroots. I forgot to mention The Humanure Handbook by Joseph Jenkins which is a very fine read indeed (and free!)
100 Best Permaculture & Homesteading Books: The Ultimate Reading List for Sustainable Hi Folks! Last year I created this reading list with 100 recommended books 100 Best Permaculture & Homesteading Books: The Ultimate Reading List for Sustainable Living You will find here links to over 60 Free eBook previews and full eBooks..
'tree crops a permanent agriculture ' it is from this that bill gets his yield data ie.lots of usda science from a period when science was simple positive and benificial and we have to achieve a yield "The secret lives of trees' by Colin Tudge is a great read i wanna read more david holmgren Fukowaka changed my life ;now i have a kama i cant be stopped
Some oldies... The Living Soil (1943) by Lady Eve Balfour Weeds Guardians of the Soil (1950)- by Joseph A. Cocannouer
As a learner gardener and permaculturist I am reading Botany for Gardeners by Brian Capon. It is a bit heavy in places but I am taking my time and it explains really well how plants and trees work. There is a sample of available on Google Books.
A good list of title to start from ... at least I did Here is my Top 10 list of books that I find well suited for my purpose of getting started: 1. Masanobu Fukuoka - The One-Straw Revolution 2. Masanobu Fukuoka - The natural Way of Farming 3. Mollison Bill - Permaculture Design Course 4. Howard Louise - Earths green carpet 5. Yeomans P. A. - The Keyline Plan 6. Yeomans P. A. - The challenge of Landscape 7. Smith Russel - Tree crops - a permanent agriculture 8. Hart Robert and Sholto Douglas - Forest farming 9. Hensel Julius - Bread from stones 10. Rodale J. I. - The organic front
Great to see you here Sophie - means I get the chance to thank you for your fabulous list. Top 5 books I recommend to my PDC students: The Earthusers Guide to Permaculture, Morrow. This is Rowe Morrow's PDC in book form. Rowe taught me and now I teach using this book as the main reference. Its readable and comprehensive. One of the very best. One Magic Square, Houbein. A great Zone 1 book. I challenge any thinking person to read Lolo Houbein's chapter on growing food and her own story of famine in WWII without being moved ensure their own food security. Gaia's Garden, Hemenway. Outstanding, lovely food forest info and great for smaller properties. Most plant selections more relevant to Nth America How to Make a Forest Garden, Whitefield. Excellent temperate forest garden info, good plans, thorough explanations of how and why forest gardens work. Very readable. The Wilderness Garden, Jackie French. Talks about "groves" rather than guilds and steadfastly refuses to mention permaculture, but its a bloody good permie book nonetheless. French is always great to read. Good for retrofitting. Written by someone who has been there, done that. And because I can't stop at 5: Permaculture Design: A Step by Step Guide, Aranya. Excellent design book, very practical. Great PDC companion Food Not Lawns, Flores. Good community info Smart Permaculture Design, Allen - permaculture porn: fabulous pictures Future Scenarios, Holmgren. I find Holmgren challenging to read (I'm a research scientist by trade and reading Holmgren always feels a bit like work), but this book is very accessible. That is, if it doesn't frighten the bejesus out of you first. Society's lack of recognition of work like this is depressing. Back from the Brink, Andrews. I live on a floodplain. This book helped me understand my landscape and design for it. Danielle
Hmm, I forgot The Basics of Permaculture Design by Ross Mars. Really nice, concise book, packed with info. Great illustrations (line drawings, no photos), excellent urban/suburban treatment and really good info for dry climate permaculture - a nice antidote to all the "cool temperate utopia" books. Probably belongs in my top five. Can I make it number four and a half? D
Check out Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist by Michael Judd: https://ecologiadesign.com/2013/07/03/new-book-on-edible-landscaping-by-ecologia/ Each chapter lays out the steps for completing Michael's favorite designs: herb spirals, swales and rain gardens, growing gourmet mushrooms, food forests, uncommon fruits, hugelkultur, and earthen ovens. What makes this book special is that it's extremely approachable. When you read it, you just want to get outside and do it. Tons of color photos and diagrams. Here's a review I found really helpful: https://www.thepermaculturepodcast.com/2014/review-edible-landscaping/. There are also reviews on Amazon. Other books that I have found most helpful so far include Gaia's Garden, Sepp Holzer's Permaculture, Edible Forest Gardens, and Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Volume 2.
Hey Sophia, Iw as looking forward to checking out your list but the link seems to be broken. A couple of my faves, though not Permaculture specific, are: The Good Life (the story of Helen & Scott Nearing - also check out the fabulous video of the same name with film clips of their later years) Small Is Beautiful "economics as if people mattered" by B.F. Schumacher. The Barefoot Architect (low tech building for tropical environments) Alone in the Wilderness (video about a guy carving out a homestead in Alaska and self filmed in Super 8- here is a link to a 9 minute preview:https://www.permies.com/t/1102/green-building/Wilderness-Story-Dick-Proenneke) The Self Sufficient Life and How To Live It (by John Seymore. This is a nice, beautifully illustrated coffee table book by one of the Grandpa's of sustainability with lots of information, but admittedly, not a ton of detail). And also, of course Mollison & Holgren's work, but DO START with "Introduction to Permaculture", NOT "The Designer's Manual" which can be quite intimidating. Happy reading/viewing!
