FLORA GENERAL PERMACULTURE –

The first edition of Gaia’s Garden sparked the imagination of home gardeners, introducing permaculture&;s central message: Working with Nature, not against her, results in more beautiful, abundant, and forgiving gardens. This extensively revised and expanded second edition broadens the reach and depth of the permaculture approach for urban and suburban growers.

Many people mistakenly think that ecological gardening which involves growing a wide range of edible and other useful plants;can take place only on a large, multiacre scale. As Hemenway demonstrates, it is fun and easy to create a &;backyard ecosystem&; by assembling communities of plants that can work cooperatively and perform a variety of functions, including:

• Building and maintaining soil fertility and structure
• Catching and conserving water in the landscape
• Providing habitat for beneficial insects, birds, and animals
• Growing an edible forest that yields seasonal fruits, nuts, and other foods

This revised and updated edition also features a new chapter on urban permaculture, designed especially for people in cities and suburbs who have very limited growing space. Whatever size yard or garden you have to work with, you can apply basic permaculture principles to make it more diverse, more natural, more productive, and more beautiful. Best of all, once it is established, an ecological garden will reduce or eliminate most of the backbreaking work that is needed to maintain the typical lawn and garden.

“The world didn’t come with an operating manual, so it’s a good thing that some wise people have from time to time written them. Gaia’s Garden is one of the more important, a book that will be absolutely necessary in the world ahead.”–-Bill McKibben, author of Deep Economy and Hope, Human and Wild

“Permaculture gardens are no longer a thing of the future. They are here to stay and flourish. Gaia’s Garden is enlightening and required reading for all people who desire to make their home’s landscape healthy, sustainable, and healing.”–Robert Kourik, author of Designing and Maintaining Your Edible Landscape–Naturally

“Gaia’s Garden is simply the best permaculture book ever written, and is in the running for best gardening book ever written. No one should be without it.”–-Sharon Astyk, author of Depletion and Abundance: Life on the New Home Front

“Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden will be recorded in history as a milestone for gardeners and landscapers–a fusion of the practical and the visionary–using the natural intelligence of Earth’s symbiotic communities to strengthen and sustain ecosystems in which humans are a partner, not a competitor. An amazing achievement showing how we can and must live in harmony with nature!”–Paul Stamets, author of Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

pp. xi, 314 #011225 2nd Revised Edition