Permaculture book recommendation

Hello. Can you suggest a good book to get started on permaculture? The kind that covers wide range of topics/comprehensive, for a beginner. Something good for 10 acres with mix of woods and cleared land.

Ann, welcome to the forum!

There are so many good permaculture books it is hard to recommend just one.

Though this is original one.  It is hard to come by though your local library may have a copy:

https://permies.com/wiki/20210/Permaculture-Designer-Manual-Bill-Mollison

Here are some suggestions:

https://permies.com/wiki/153863/permaculture-projects/Building-Permaculture-Property-Rob-Avis

https://permies.com/wiki/46579/Permaculture-Handbook-GARDEN-FARMING-Town

https://permies.com/wiki/46596/Permaculture-Nutshell-Patrick-Whitefield

You might want to check out the Book Review Grid:

https://permies.com/w/book-reviews

Anne Miller wrote:Ann, welcome to the forum!

There are so many good permaculture books it is hard to recommend just one.

Though this is original one.  It is hard to come by though your local library may have a copy:

https://permies.com/wiki/20210/Permaculture-Designer-Manual-Bill-Mollison

Here are some suggestions:

https://permies.com/wiki/153863/permaculture-projects/Building-Permaculture-Property-Rob-Avis

https://permies.com/wiki/46579/Permaculture-Handbook-GARDEN-FARMING-Town

https://permies.com/wiki/46596/Permaculture-Nutshell-Patrick-Whitefield

You might want to check out the Book Review Grid:

https://permies.com/w/book-reviews

Thanks.
I looked through Permaculture Designer Manual and it seems to be largely theoretical, not something I have time for right now.
I'm looking for more of a hands-on step-by-step stuff and more concise. Also focusing on US climates.
Hopefully other 3 books are more like that.
I looked through preview/table of contents of Building Permaculture Property and the stuff doesn't seem to be concrete... may be it's just the language in the Contents, but I don't see practical things advertised, more of philosophy type of stuff.
Garden Farming so far seems to be more practical.

Is there something specific that you are looking for?

Permaculture is a very broad term in that it contains the Zones you live in, the design patterns that nature provides, etc.

It is permanent agriculture.

The kind that covers wide range of topics/comprehensive, for a beginner. Something good for 10 acres with mix of woods and cleared land.

So maybe you are wanting something along the lines of a "Forest Garden" or a "Food Forest"?

The forums here are the best place to get hands-on step-by-step information and quick answers to your questions.

Leigh is a member of the forum and has written this book that might be of interest:

https://permies.com/wiki/133426/Acres-Dream-Book-Leigh-Tate

Anne Miller wrote:Is there something specific that you are looking for?

Permaculture is a very broad term in that it contains the Zones you live in, the design patterns that nature provides, etc.

It is permanent agriculture.

The kind that covers wide range of topics/comprehensive, for a beginner. Something good for 10 acres with mix of woods and cleared land.

So maybe you are wanting something along the lines of a "Forest Garden" or a "Food Forest"?

The forums here are the best place to get hands-on step-by-step information and quick answers to your questions.

Leigh is a member of the forum and has written this book that might be of interest:

https://permies.com/wiki/133426/Acres-Dream-Book-Leigh-Tate

By food forest/forest garden - do you mean gardening on forested property or diverse range of foods grown?
I'd be dealing with 10 acres where several are cleared, located in zone 7.
Forums seems to have details on very specific questions, but I want to read something more of a basics get-started book (just not the general philosophy book- I can read this part on free website).
I wonder if I should just read one of those "old country ways homesteading" books instead.
I just want to have organic food self-sufficiency using good practices, make a pond, a cellar, rain catchment for well backup, bees, a couple of goats and sheep, do some small-scale straw-bale building.
I grew up outside the States where life was more simple and familiar with some basics of living on small rural parcel in very cold climate, foraging there, but not familiar with dealing with much larger parcel and zone 7.
So far, I started on Garden Farming book that you recommended. I also got Back to Basics Complete Guide to Traditional Skills book.

Not a book recommendation, a publisher.

https://www.chelseagreen.com/

Once you’ve found the book you want, check if it’s ion their site.

Since 1984, Chelsea Green has been the leading publisher of books about organic farming, gardening, homesteading, integrative health, natural building, sustainable living, socially responsible business, and more. Now employee-owned.

food forest/forest garden - do you mean gardening on forested property or diverse range of foods grown?

When I first found the forum I was confused by those term.

This is how I now see them:

A forest garden can be gardening in amoung the trees or starting a new garden with plants among the new trees.

That might no be the exact definition, just how I perceive the term

A food forest I something anyone can do in their own backyard.  Again my perception.

Maybe some book on "homesteading" might be along the lines of what you are looking for.

To me, "Homesteading" is gardening and raising animals.

I think Leigh's book is something along that line of thinking.

Anne Miller wrote:

food forest/forest garden - do you mean gardening on forested property or diverse range of foods grown?

When I first found the forum I was confused by those term.

This is how I now see them:

A forest garden can be gardening in amoung the trees or starting a new garden with plants among the new trees.

That might no be the exact definition, just how I perceive the term

A food forest I something anyone can do in their own backyard.  Again my perception.

Maybe some book on "homesteading" might be along the lines of what you are looking for.

To me, "Homesteading" is gardening and raising animals.

I think Leigh's book is something along that line of thinking.

I guess good to start with a couple of good homesteading "manual" type books.
(not interested in throwing money at a bunch of books, honestly, $25/piece for e-book...my ancestors lived off the land without books, I also have access to small farmers forum in my native language, those people literally live very simple and don't have money either mostly, so they're creative...but it's in very cold climate)
Back to Basics that I mentioned must be good, a lady living alone on her big property in the Ozarks had recommended it to me and I bought Kindle version for $17.
I also bought Welcome to the Farm/Elliott Homestead for $17.
I just want to read 3-4 good books and get the rest of the info online.
The Leigh book is something I'd definitely be interested in reading later down the road, the reviews say it's more of a documenting personal journey type of book. It's not the same as what I deal with as it's about a couple.

One thing I'm interested in no-till agricultural method and in general any skill that minimize use of mechanized things. In part because this is hard to obtain in remote area where I'll be or unaffordable.

Welcome to permies, Ann!

I would recommend Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway. I think that might give you the broad overview but with a lot of practical specifics you are looking for. Published, no surprise, by Chelsea Green.

Keep in mind that permaculture can be defined as an ethical design science. It creates really productive natural landscapes by studying and using nature's own operating system. So nature ends up doing a lot of the work for you. To be able to do this, you do need to study the theory a bit, or alternatively spend some years observing how nature does things, really closely. Then you can design things in a way that nature will "naturally" produce good results, a high-productivity landscape for you that gives you and a lot of other species what they need with a minimum of fuss and work on your part once things are well established.

So I'd advise you to get Toby's book and sit down with a cup of tea and let some stuff sink in, and of course, run out and start experimenting with some of the stuff on your land. It will make you see things differently and give you a bunch of ideas you wouldn't have had otherwise, I'm sure.

Also, once you get comfortable here, you might want to fill out your profile with a general location and climate information so people on permies can see that info at a glance and help you better. Permaculture has solutions for every climate, and people here live all over the place, so if they know about the conditions you're dealing with they can offer better advice. I know here you've said you're in Zone 7, but if you put it in your profile that info will travel with you to any thread you want to participate in.

Dave de Basque wrote:Welcome to permies, Ann!

I would recommend Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway. I think that might give you the broad overview but with a lot of practical specifics you are looking for. Published, no surprise, by Chelsea Green.

I see, thanks. Yes, seems like a practical guide from quickly looking over, will read it too.

By the way, regarding what a "food forest" is...

In permaculture, we tend to focus a lot on trees. One reason is that nature created a lot of really biologically diverse forests all over the place before humans arrived. The ones made by nature rather than us are very stable systems that are beautiful and incredibly productive, producing all kinds of food and shelter for lots of species.

Also, unlike lettuce and tomatoes, you don't need to replant a forest every year, so a forest can be productive without being a lot of work. (This is the same reason we like to find as many perennial species as we can for our gardens instead of annual species. Less soil disturbance is good for the natural systems, and it's also less work if you don't need to replant every year!)

Of course, we as humans, have our needs and likes, so maybe just any old forest of trees is not what we want. So we can create a forest filled with diverse species that give us lots of food in various layers, very tall fruit and nut trees, understory trees, berry bushes and shrubs, ground cover plants, tubers and underground plants, and vines that can go up the trees. All designed so each of the elements gets the amount of sun, water, wind, and soil fertility it needs to thrive. So it can look like a natural forest and work like a natural forest, but it provides loads of food because you designed it that way. Throw in some support species to fix nitrogen in the soil, attreact beneficial species, and produce various kinds of timber for you to use for energy and to build things, and you've really got a great productive homestead based partly on this great forest design.

If you can take a good New Zealand accent, you might like this video from Robert and Robyn Guyton, who created a small but really great permaculture food forest about 25 or 30 years ago in a harsh, windy Zone 8 climate.