Food Forests

I am trying to decide which of the following books I should invest in:

Creating a Forest Garden - Martin Crawford
How to Make a Forest Garden - Patrick Whitefield
Edible Forest Gardens - Dave Jacke

I am moving to Portland, OR and am looking at 1/2 acre or under.

If anyone has thoughts, opinions, etc. on any of these, I'd appreciate hearing it...

Thanks

I have both the Jacke books and the Crawford book. Jacke, vol 1, is a very good in-depth how-to-design book, and if I could only get one book, I think it would be that one. You can find lots of info online on any particular plant species that interests you, but I find that my own physical book is more necessary when thinking about design approaches. You can find the Jacke books on ebay, sold separately as well as a set.

I am sure that the Portland library will have all three of these, plus the Whitefield book. Maybe trying before you buy would help you make this decision.

Get them from the library and take extensive notes from all of them. Then, buy the one that you want most as a reference book.

I plan on buying Edible Forest Gardens as it was recommended by several people, one of which has done a farm.

You might try the out of print book Tree Crops by J. Russell Smith, along with some videos that walk you roughly through the idea of it.

Dr_Temp wrote:
You might try the out of print book Tree Crops by J. Russell Smith, along with some videos that walk you roughly through the idea of it.

Out of print but available. Also here.

soilandhealth.org has a lot of free e-books, mainly about holistic agriculture, holistic health and self-sufficient homestead living.

1953 printing is available here, along with 13GB of other data.

Interesting to read the tree crops book, see what he was talking about 80 years ago, what has changed and what is the same. Then think about where we would be if we had put resources into tree crops and permaculture instead of where the the resources have been put.

Edible forest gardens is a good 2 volume set but a lot of wordiness, I would rather recommend Gaia's Garden unless you are doing design work for other people..Gaia's Garden by  Toby Hemenway takes the info that is in other books and condenses it to useful one volume book

I got Jacke's Vol II from the library. Sadly had to return it as there was a wait list, so I ordered Vol 1 and 2 for myself. I also bought Gaia's Garden.

In my own opinion, the latter is best if you have a small plot of land, whereas if you have more land I think Jacke's book is better. I also liked the huge level of detail that Jacke goes into with respect to the design process. I found the exercise of establishing a hierarchy of values, goals, and criteria immensely helpful and am now embarking on the site mapping process.