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Original Essays | October 17, 2009

Jessica Maxwell: IMG God's Tea Party

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My Catholic friend tilted her teacup like a fortune-teller. "You know," she said, "I think people who don't have God in their lives are like people... Continue »
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Permaculture: A Designers' Manual

by Bill Mollison

Permaculture: A Designers' Manual Cover

Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

This is the definitive Permaculture design manual in print since 1988. It is the textbook and curriculum for the 72-hour Certificate course in Permaculture Design. Written for teachers, students and designers, it follows on and greatly enlarges on the initial introductory texts, Permaculture One (1978) and Permaculture Two (1979) both of which are still in demand over twenty years after publication. Very little of the material found in this book is reproduced from the former texts. It covers design methodologies and strategies for both urban and rural applications, describing property design and natural farming techniques. Topics include:
  • design methods
  • understanding patterns in nature
  • climatic factors
  • water
  • soils
  • earthworks and their use in earth repair
  • techniques and design strategies for both urban and rural applications
  • the temperate climates
  • dry lands
  • cold climates
  • humid cool climates
  • humid tropics
  • trees and their energy transactions
  • aquaculture
  • waste management
  • energy efficient architecture
  • legal strategies and trusts
  • effective working groups
  • right livelihood
  • money and finance
  • ethical investment
  • bio-regional organisation
  • effective aid

Synopsis:

Permaculture (permanent agriculture) is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Without permanent agriculture there is no possibility of a stable social order.

Permaculture design is a system of assembling conceptual, material, and strategic components in a pattern which functions to benefit life in all its forms.

The philosophy behind permaculture is one of working with, rather than against, nature; of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless action; of looking at systems in all their functions rather than asking only one yield of them; and of allowing systems to demonstrate their own evolutions.

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About the Author

Bill Mollison is the Executive Director of the Permaculture Institute, which was established in 1979 to teach the practical design of sustainable soil, water, plant, and legal and economic systems to students worldwide.
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Table of Contents

Preface
Author's note
Permaculture defined and its use
Conventions used
Access to information
Cover story

Chapter 1, Introduction
Chapert 2, Concepts and Themes in Design
Chapter 3, Methods of Design
Chapter 4, Pattern Understanding
Chapter 5, Climatic Factors
Chapter 6, Trees and their Energy Transactions
Chapter 7, Water
Chapter 8, Soils
Chapter 9, Earthworking and Earth Resources
Chapter 10, The Humid Tropics
Chapter 11, Dryland Strategies
Chapter 12, Humid Cool to Cold Climates
Chapter 13, Aquaculture
Chapter 14, The Strategies of an Alternative Global Nation

Plant list by common name
Plant list by species name
Glossary
Resources
References
Index

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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Jorge, March 30, 2009 (view all comments by Jorge)
For those of us searching for an ecologically responsible lifestyle amid urban and suburban insanity, Bill Mollison has a real and exciting answer. This book is full of helpful advice presented in a very readable way. (The only problem might be getting stuck in the chapters on climates that don't concern you; just skip them until later!) The groundwork philosophy of permaculture is laid first, and the book moves from there to the practical business of actually designing one. The emphasis is on letting various plant and animal species work together as much as possible, to form a basically self-sustaining system from which people can reap a continual harvest, not only of food, but of interest and self-respect. What a prospect! It is certainly a very different one from what we young people have been taught to expect from life! This volume is much more complete in both the philosophy and the practice than were the original "Permaculture One" and "Permaculture Two." It is also much less focused on the Southern Hemisphere, which is helpful for North Americans trying to visualize their own permaculture. I can only hope that more people happen upon this book as I did and are themselves inspired to create a fulfilling life for themselves and their children.
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eternal-sapphie, February 8, 2009 (view all comments by eternal-sapphie)
I know of countless commentaries on the planet's woes, of eloquent descriptions of abuses, wrongs, and destruction, of explanations for why this or that happened or didn't happen, and why this or that person is bad and should be punished for his or her injustice. What is less common is a vision of what a stable, caring, and positively evolving humanity could look like on earth; of what cocreative, mutualistic relationships with our natural system could be.
Permaculture is one of these rarer, uplifting visionary concepts, and Permaculture: A Designer's Manual, by Bill Mollison, is its most complete and rounded written expression, in my opinion. Bill expresses philosophical ideas about our cooperative and cocreative potentials on earth. He explains in fair detail many ways to become self-sufficient in a stable, abundant, and evolving system, where we learn from nature since we are a integral part of it. Permaculture is a practical design system based on the principles of Caring For The Earth, Caring For People, and Conserving Energy And Resources to facilitate those aims. This book can be a guide for anyone wishing to live, or simply learn about, a caring, abundant present and future.
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780908228010
Subtitle:
A Designers' Manual
Author:
Mollison, Bill
Illustrator:
Jeeves, Andrew
Publisher:
Tagari Publications
Location:
Tyalgum, Australia
Subject:
Agriculture & Animal Husbandry
Subject:
Human ecology
Subject:
Agriculture - Agronomy
Subject:
Agricultural ecology
Subject:
Organic gardening
Subject:
Organic farming
Subject:
Agricultural engineering
Subject:
Permaculture
Copyright:
1996
Edition Description:
Bibliography: p. 568.
Series Volume:
191
Publication Date:
1996
Binding:
Trade Cloth
Language:
English
Illustrations:
Y
Pages:
xi, 576 p., 24 p. of plat
Dimensions:
10.96x8.60x1.50 in. 3.42 lbs.
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