Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale Permaculture |  | Author: Toby Hemenway
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing
Category: Book
List Price: $29.95
Buy New: $18.75
as of 9/3/2010 16:50 CDT details
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Seller: pbshop
Rating:  32 reviews
Sales Rank: 6,526
Media: Paperback
Edition: 2
Pages: 313
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.8
Dimensions (in): 10 x 7.9 x 0.6
ISBN: 1603580298
Dewey Decimal Number: 635.048
EAN: 9781603580298
ASIN: 1603580298
Publication Date: May 19, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The first edition of Gaia’s Garden, sparked the imagination of America’s home gardeners, introducing permaculture’s central message: Working with Nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening—which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants—can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it’s fun and easy to create a “backyard ecosystem” by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:- Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
- Catching and conserving water in the landscape
- Providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
- Growing an edible “forest” that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods
This revised and updated edition also features a new chapter on urban permaculture, designed especially for people in cities and suburbs who have very limited growing space. Whatever size yard or garden you have to work with, you can apply basic permaculture principles to make it more diverse, more natural, more productive, and more beautiful. Best of all, once it’s established, an ecological garden will reduce or eliminate most of the backbreaking work that’s needed to maintain the typical lawn and garden.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
Lots of info with tables, glorious tables! September 7, 2009
44 out of 44 found this review helpful
What I really love about this book is how much Mr. Hemenway goes into the *reasons* that these methods work. Call me obsessive, but I like authors to provide a good reason their techniques work and not just say "OMG, look at this harvest, just do exactly what I do!" Mr. Hememway gives us beautiful, well-though out tables of different nutrients certain plants accumulate, what kinds of bugs they attract, plants that can tolerate drought or provide mulch on the spot, plants that have "spiky" roots that break up tough top-soil and plants that can provide structure or shade to other plants. It's about using the attributes of different vegetation to do the work for you in a way that doesn't adversely impact the land. Armed with this information, you can create your own "guilds" and areas of companion plants that work best for your location. Outside of a textbook, this is the most complete information on gardening I have ever come across. The author even presents the downsides of the methods in, what I feel, is a very even-handed manner. No one style fits every need and Mr. Hemenway addresses that. This is my favorite gardening book, period.
Create a Sustainable Garden Using Less Input and More Diversity for Better Yields. July 19, 2009
subeterranean (Central Florida)
33 out of 34 found this review helpful
This book is a wealth of information. It teaches how to design and grow a home garden using permaculture and ecological gardening techniques. These techniques are designed to minimize input regarding fertilizers, pesticides and time, by imitating nature. Nature shows us that many different species of plants perform better together than one species. In permaculture each plant has more than one purpose. Not only will the plant provide food, but it may also shade another plant or attract beneficial insects. In Gaia's Garden you'll learn how to implement these ideas to create your own sustainable food forest.
Great Introduction May 26, 2009
Christian Remington
25 out of 29 found this review helpful
In my opinion, this is the best introduction to permaculture. It is very well written in a style that is easy to read and understand. There are, also, many color photographs and illustrations throughout the work. The author makes a point to direct the reader to the bibliography for further study of any subject covered throughout. Thank you Toby!
Gaia's Garden July 17, 2009
Reni (Memphis, TN USA)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Wonderful book which opened my eyes to different possibilities! Even saw some examples of Huegelkultur at an outdoor farm house museum in Graz, Austria this summer, something which was described in the "Gaia's Garden" book. This mound of brush, compost, and dirt was successfully growing a variety of veggies. "Gaia's Garden" encourages innovative thinking as I begin to explore what varieties of fruiting plants are available from around the world and which may work on my particular suburban lot. Recommending this book to many of my gardening family & friends who are working on developing a healthy food production ecology in their own back yards.
The best book on permaculture today January 25, 2010
Paul Wheaton (missoula, montana)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I have read nearly every permaculture book written, and I have visited with thousands of people about permaculture. I have to say that this is the book I recommend the most often, but it is also the book I quote the most.
If a person is going to get just one permaculture book, this is the book to get.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 32
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