Edible Forest Gardens Volume 1 Ecological VI

Edible Forest Gardens is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates. Volume I lays out the vision of the forest garden and explains the basic ecological principles that make it work. In Volume II, Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier move on to practical considerations:concrete ways to design, establish, and maintain your own forest garden. Along the way they present case studies and examples, as well as tables, illustrations, and a uniquely valuable "plant matrix" that lists hundreds of the best edible and useful species.
Taken together, the two volumes of Edible Forest Gardens offer an advanced course in ecological gardening--one that will forever change the way you look at plants and your environment.

Already a popular growing method in Australia, permaculture is gaining ground in America, and Edible Forest Gardens is the authoritative sourcebook for designing amazingly productive permaculture gardens in a temperate climate. Edible Forest Gardens is a groundbreaking two-volume work that spells out and explores the key concepts of forest ecology and applies them to the needs of natural gardeners in temperate climates. Volume I lays out the vision of the forest garden and explains the basic ecological principles that make it work. The two volumes of Edible Forest Gardens offer an advanced course in ecological gardening?one that will forever change the way you look at plants and your environment.

Dave Jacke has been a student of ecology and design since the 1970s, and has run his own ecological design firm--Dynamics Ecological Design--since 1984. Dave is an engaging and passionate teacher of ecological design and permaculture, and a meticulous designer. He has consulted on, designed, built, and planted landscapes, homes, farms, and communities in the many parts of the United States, as well as overseas, but mainly in the Northeast. A cofounder of Land Trust at Gap Mountain in Jaffrey, NH, he homesteaded there for a number of years. He holds a B.A. in Environmental Studies from Simon's Rock College (1980) and a M.A. in Landscape Design from the Conway School of Landscape Design (1984). You may reach Dave at dave@edibleforestgardens.com.

List of Tables and Figures
Preface
Introduction: An Invitation to Adventure
What Is an Edible Forest Garden?
Gardening LIKE the Forest vs. Gardening IN the Forest
Where Can You Grow a Forest Garden?
The Garden of Eden: It Sounds Great, But Is It Practical?
An Invitation to Adventure
Part One: Context and Vision
1: The Forest and the Trees
The Primal Forest: A Remembrance
Gardening the Forest
Forest Remnants
Feature Article 1: Natives and Exotics: Definitions and Questions
Suburban Ecology
Gardening in the Industrial Image
Lessons Learned
Box 1-1: Shifting the Burden to the Intervenor
2: Visions of Paradise
Study of the Household: Ecology Defined
Tales of Mimicry

Advantages of Forest Mimicry
The Limitations of Forest Mimics
Spanning the Gamut: Images of Forest Gardens
Goals of Forest Gardening
Revision--the Garden of Eden?
Box 2-1: The Principle of Functional Interconnection
Case Study 1: Charlie's Garden
Part Two: Ecology: Form and Function in the Forest Garden
3: The Five Elements of Forest Architecture
Vegetation Layers
Feature Article 2: With All These Layers, What Do I Grow in the Shade?
Soil Horizons
Density
Patterning
Diversity
Summary
Box 3-1: The Principle of Relative Location
Case Study 2: Robert's Garden
4: Social Structure: Niches, Relationships and Communities
Species, Species Niches, and Species Relationships
Multi-Species Interactions: Frameworks of Social Structure
Feature Article 3: Natives and Exotics, Opportunists and Invasives
Social Structure Design: Strategies and Anchors
Chapter Summary
Box 4-1: Niche Analysis: Everybody Does It
Box 4-2: The Principle of Multiple Functions
Box 4-3: The Principle of Stress and Harmony
Box 4-4: The Competitive Exclusion Principle
Box 4-5: The Cropping Principle
Box 4-6: The Principle of Redundancy
Box 4-7: The Polyculture Partitioning Principle
Box 4-8: Ecological Analogs
5: Making A Living In The Dark: Structures of the Underground Economy
The Anatomy of Self-Renewing Fertility
Feature Article 4: Parent Materials: The Soil's Nutritional Constitution
Plant Roots: Engines of the Underground Economy
The Soil Food Web
Summary: Dabbling In The Underground Economy
Box 5-1: The Concept of Limiting Factors
Box 5-2: Specific Replant Disease
6: Succession: Four Perspectives on Vegetation Dynamics
Classical Linear Succession and Climax
Progressive Succession to Shifting Mosaic Steady State
Patch Dynamics: Out of Line and Out of Balance
A "Unified Oldfield Theory": Successional Causes
Feature Article 5: "Invasive" Plants and the Unified Oldfield Theory
Succession Design: Using the Four Models
Summary: The Simultaneity of the Four Models
Box 6-1: The Principle of Allocation
Box 6-2: The Law of Vegetation Dynamics
Box 6-3: The Law of Dynamic Tolerance
Case Study 3: E.F. Schumacher Forest Garden
Conclusion: Elements, Dynamics, and Desired Conditions
Appendices
Appendix 1: Forest Gardening's "Top 100" Species
Appendix 2: Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Appendix 3: Publications and Organizations
Bibliography
Glossary
General Index