A call for better Permaculture Literature

There are a large number of permaculture books out there, and honestly, few are very helpful. Practical information is sorely lacking. Most are case studies that waste the first few chapters "preaching to the choir" about why we should be involved in permaculture and what exactly it is. The authors also repeat themselves incessantly. Many will restate the same sentence over and over throughout the entire book. It is almost as if they feel the need to fill up space. Even these "case studies" are short on details. They need far more specifics on thought process and decision making. Yes, yes you put a swale there and then planted shrubs and trees on the berm. That does not tell me anything. Tell me why you did not plant the shrubs and trees below the berm rather than on it? Why did you locate the swale there? What caused you to chose those species specifically? Why that guild? What are your results? What have you learned? If you did it over would you try anything differently?

Permaculture is still relatively young and new to our generation. You can say that we are discovering things that our ancestors knew, but it is really so much more than that. We also have information and species available to us that they never did. Granted they also had some that we no longer have. Permaculture principles are mostly based on scientific fact (observation, experimentation, reproduction of results). Of course along the way many false assumptions regarding cause and effect have, and will continue to be made.

Permaculture knowledge is very fractured. Some individuals, who have never written a thing have, are likely to have learned a great many things that no one else knows.

During the design process, systems efficiency is key. On so many levels permaculture is only attractive and workable if it is better. It should make your life better. You should be healthier, work less (because you are fighting nature less), and enjoy life more.

I would love to see an "advanced" permaculture design book written that has a hand full of authors that review several permaculture designs and offer their opinions on what might work better. These authors would have to be familiar with the property. You could get say three different opinions on each design with an example of what they would do differently. The suggestions could at first be individual, then a collaborative design. They key is in the "why." Also this book would skip the "Fluff." Instead it would reference other works which explain the basics (of which there are so many to choose.)

With any plan or design you have to make sacrifices. You cannot have it all. Some things have to be less efficient than others so that the most important tasks are more efficient. This is true of any design and so it goes with permaculture. There is no one best answer for all. However the more we are exposed to the genius of others and their "whys" the more wisdom we have when making our own ideal designs.

I for one would be willing to pay a lot fo money for such a book. I expect others would as well.

Diego

She is not a self-described permie, but Paul Wheaton has described her as such and I have been reading her before my own permaculture awakening and continue to do so because she is a permie regardless.


I'm speaking of Carol Deppe and NOT her Tao of Gardening or even The Resilient Gardener which is utterly superb, but BREED YOUR OWN VEGETABLE VARIETIES will knock your socks off. She's a geneticist who has a PhD in Biology from Harvard. Parts of it are very advanced, graduate school level at least in my perspective. NOTHING in any permaculture book touches it in terms of genetics & plant breeding. It's a MUST HAVE. I've read it twice, but parts are still beyond me because I can't quite visualize the math yet. I'll get there

Do you mean to include Mollison's works as not advanced? I see his work as advanced but not too hard at any point. I think reading his sources would be superb. Have you gone through and read the texts he references? Some are quite pricey since they are so rare. I really want to read Steven Vogel's Life in Moving Fluids: the physical biology of flow! That's something I would like to ponder more. Every chapter has a listing of books like this. Have you read them all and found them wanting? I'd be very disturbed if they were.

I've read and paged through a number of permaculture books. I think they are great as an 'intro to gardening' but very few of them go into the level of detail or sophistication to teach someone who is already competent much more of anything. There are of course exceptions, but clearly there need to be more!

Matt Powers wrote:She is not a self-described permie, but Paul Wheaton has described her as such and I have been reading her before my own permaculture awakening and continue to do so because she is a permie regardless.


I'm speaking of Carol Deppe and NOT her Tao of Gardening or even The Resilient Gardener which is utterly superb, but BREED YOUR OWN VEGETABLE VARIETIES will knock your socks off. She's a geneticist who has a PhD in Biology from Harvard. Parts of it are very advanced, graduate school level at least in my perspective. NOTHING in any permaculture book touches it in terms of genetics & plant breeding. It's a MUST HAVE. I've read it twice, but parts are still beyond me because I can't quite visualize the math yet. I'll get there

Do you mean to include Mollison's works as not advanced? I see his work as advanced but not too hard at any point. I think reading his sources would be superb. Have you gone through and read the texts he references? Some are quite pricey since they are so rare. I really want to read Steven Vogel's Life in Moving Fluids: the physical biology of flow! That's something I would like to ponder more. Every chapter has a listing of books like this. Have you read them all and found them wanting? I'd be very disturbed if they were.

Thanks for the book suggestion, I just ordered it. No, I was not referring to Mollison's work or his sources. I was referring to many books since then. Mollison's work was publish quite some time ago (late 80s.). We have learned so much since then. I have not read most of his sources, but I have read a fair amount of Tree Crops. Again this book was written long ago.

I am all for new publications, but the information has to be new as well. Give us something novel. Give us something unique. How many Introduction to Permaculture books do we need?

Thanks again for the book suggestion. It sounds great.

Diego

Landon Sunrich wrote:I've read and paged through a number of permaculture books. I think they are great as an 'intro to gardening' but very few of them go into the level of detail or sophistication to teach someone who is already competent much more of anything. There are of course exceptions, but clearly there need to be more!

I completely agree!

Diego