Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
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Book Reviews of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
Book Review: My favorite gardening book!
Summary: 5 Stars
I really should buy another copy, because I lend mine out so frequently and hate to be without it for long. This book has it all - organic gardening, cover cropping, sustainable growing methods... I particularly love the tables & charts on which flowers will attract which types of beneficial insects, the advantages of different cover crops, and what plants will provide good forage/food for chickens and other small animals. The story and photos of the "desert oasis" garden in New Mexico are inspiring.
Gaia's garden is easily readable and contains ideas for sustainable gardening and edible landscaping for any size lot. It's a wonderful inspiration for the new gardener, as well as a handy reference for the more experienced. I'm not a new gardener by any means, but refer to this book frequently. My one acre is in the early stages yet (we moved in less than a year ago), but I'm confident in my plan, thanks to this terrific book.
Book Review: Wonderful!
Summary: 5 Stars
Wow, this is a way better book than I was expecting. Startlingly relevant to what I was wanting, in fact, but not something I was looking for, because I didn't think there were any books out there like this.
The book introduces itself by talking about how most gardens just feel like an artificial mimicry of nature, with their orderly hedges, manicured lawns, and grid-like rows of flowers. Then there are some rare, special gardens that feel like they are part of nature. The difference is that the latter gardens have designed to be an ecological microcosm.
There's still a minimal amount of human interference involved, such as providing the beginnings upon which nature can build, and occasionally guiding and controlling some things so they don't get out of hand. You plan the garden not only by what colors and forms are appealing to the human eye (as artificial-looking gardens are designed) but also which plants are good "companions" to one another. Since it's a complete microcosm, animals are involved: wild birds and mammals are attracted by the plants and seeds you have there, and also predators of those animals who control their populations, and so on, so that balance is acheived without having to poison or shut out any of those animals. It's awkward to sum up all the many ideas and anecdotes involved with it, but it's an excellent book, and exactly what I was wanting.
What caught me by surprise was that it also talked about domestic animals... including chickens. It summarizes how "chicken tractors" work. (I've read about those before; basically you just have the birds scratch, weed, and till the soil of a certain patch of land, and then when that spot's done you move the birds on to the next area.) It goes on to tell the sorts of plants that are edible for chickens that you can have planted around them!
I might have to buy this. There's a lot of good stuff in it, beside that.
The funny thing is, I only checked it out because I thought it would have pretty pictures. (The sort you really start to want in the winter.) I wasn't expecting anything so intuitive.
Book Review: Not comprehensive, but great nonetheless
Summary: 5 Stars
The comment about it being inadequate on invasives has a point, but then again I wouldn't take this book as a be-all, end-all on designing your garden. It's really a jumping off point in integrating not just your plants, but your soil and water use to be as efficient and sustainable as possible. It gets you thinking about the web of relationships between pests, beneficial insects, soil bacteria, worms, plants, and so on. You will want to learn more about individual plant species from another book. If you live in the West, there's the Sunset book of course, and if you happen to live in CA, or another mediterranean climate, there's the East Bay Municipal Utility District garden book that is really quite spectatular.
But I digress. This book is well worth a read if you are new to permaculture or not. I read mine all the time to get ideas. I have a small yard so I can't use every idea in the book, but I can use some and really it's not just about gardening. It's about living more sustainably, which is something we can all try to do more of. I can honestly say this book changed my life.
Book Review: inadequate on invasives
Summary: 3 Stars
The author says, You can't fight invasives, so don't bother trying. And don't worry about planting invasives such as bamboo, just keep an eye on them so they don't get out of hand. Invasives are one of the leading causes of species extinction. If the philosophy of the book is to help the biosphere through local action, this glib attitude toward invasives is counterproductive. I would still recomend the book, since it is concise and combines a handful of techniques into a powerful synthesis, but don't just accept the author's view of exotic species before checking out a book on native gardening for your region. I think it is still possible to employ these permaculture ideas while favoring the natives and keeping a close watch on invasives, which can wreak havoc on the neighborhood long after you're gone.Book Review: What an inspiring book!
Summary: 5 Stars
This book gives a wonderful introduction to permaculture. I had absolutely no idea what it was before reading the book. A one-sentence definition is worse than none. It is exciting to read about how the various parts of a garden interconnect.I love the various shapes he suggest, such as keyhole gardens. I especially liked the way he guides you through the process of creating guilds. And it is good to know I can use all those plants I had to eliminate when planning a traditional garden. That is one of the nicest features of these gardens.
I have to admit the title is offputting. I thought this was some New Age system. Fortunately I read the reviews at this site, so that when I saw the book, I decided to give it a try. It is a very, down-to-earth, convincing book. Nothing New Age about it. I am excited and want to get started using some of these ideas.