Gaia's garden : a guide to home-scale permaculture

Hemenway, Toby 1952- (Author).

Summary: Picture your backyard as a lush garden, filled with edible flowers, bursting with fruit and berries, and carpeted with scented herbs and tangy salad greens. The flowers nurture endangered pollinators. Bright-featured songbirds feed on abundant berries and gather twigs for their nests. The plants themselves are grouped in natural communities, where each species plays a role in building soil, deterring pests, storing nutrients, and luring beneficial insects. And finally, you are an integral part of the scene. Your garden tools have a slight patina of rust, because this garden requires so little maintenance. This is an ecological garden, which takes the principles of permaculture and applies them on a home scale. Key features of permaculture include: use of compatible perennials; non-invasive planting techniques; emphasis on biodiversity; specifically adaptable to local climate, landscape, and soil conditions; highly productive output of edibles.--From publisher description.

Item details

ISBN: 1890132527 (pbk. : alk. paper)
ISBN: 9781890132521 (pbk. : alk. paper)
Physical Description: print
xvi, 222 p. : ill ; 26 cm.
Publisher: White River Junction, Vt. : Chelsea Green Pub. Co., c2001.

Contents / Notes

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (p. 208-210) and index.
Formatted Contents Note:	Introducing the ecological garden -- A Gardener's ecology -- Designing the ecological garden -- Bringing the soil to life -- Catching, conserving, and using water -- Plants for many uses -- Bringing in the bees, birds, and other helpful animals -- Creating communities for the garden -- designing garden guilds -- Growing a good dorest -- Pop goes the garden.