The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture: Creating an Edible Ecosystem

Once a fringe topic, permaculture is moving to the mainstream as gardeners who are ready to take their organic gardening to the next level are discovering the wisdom of a simple system that emphasizes the idea that by taking care of the earth, the earth takes care of you.

The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture teaches gardeners of every skill — with any size space — how to live in harmony with both nature and neighbors to produce and share an abundant food supply with minimal effort. Permaculture teacher Christopher Shein highlights everything you need to know to start living off the land lightly, including how to create rich, healthy, and low-cost soil, blend a functional food garden and decorative landscape, share the bounty with others, and much more.

This inspiring, easy-to-follow, information-packed, practical guide will help you transform your garden into a food forest that feeds you for years to come.

"This handsomely designed, informative guide introduces both new and experienced gardeners to a system to transform their gardens and lawns into beautiful, edible landscapes. Schein, who owns a permaculture landscape business, covers basic permaculture concepts such as mapping sectors (the forces affecting a garden such as sun, wind, or a noisy neighbor), designing with zones (regions in the plot based on proximity and frequency of use), and creating polycultures — 'growing diverse plants together to create mutually beneficial relationships among them.' Schein explains basic organic gardening methods such as soil testing, composting, and tree planting, but takes them a step further with instructions for more esoteric elements such as compost tea and permaculture favorites like herb spirals, hugelkultur, and sheet mulching. He gives cultivation advice not only for familiar vegetables but also fruit and nut trees, unusual perennial vegetables, edible weeds, and mushrooms. The book is profusely illustrated with drawings and color photographs, some of them so oversize that the plants they depict look unfamiliar. Although a little sparse on theory, the book gives gardeners a wide variety of tools to begin to use the principles and techniques of this 'ancient yet cutting-edge technology.'(Jan.)" Publishers Weekly Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Christopher Shein has started dozens of community, school, and market gardens. He teaches permaculture at Merritt Community College where he helped develop the award-winning student farm. Shein also owns Wildheart Gardens, a permaculture landscape business that designs and builds sustainable gardens.