Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
by John Todd, Toby Hemenway
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Book Summary Information
Author: John Todd, Toby HemenwayEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2001-04-01
ISBN: 1890132527
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Chelsea Green
Book Reviews of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
Book Review: disappointingly slipshod
Summary: 2 Stars
As a dedicated organic gardener and lawn hater, I waited excitedly for this book to arrive. I knew I was going to love it. I had previously read Permaculture in a Nutshell and liked it. What a disappointment. Gaia's Garden annoyed me so much I couldn't make myself read past page 42, and I rarely can't finish a book. For one thing, short of a couple mentions of the contributions of organic gardening to the development of permaculture, the author presents the world as divided between permaculture and "reliance on resource gobbling poisonous chemicals". What about farms growing organically, which are increasing rapidly? What about community-supported agriculture? What about those of us who already grow a lot of our own food organically? Since these aren't the topic of the book, I don't expect the author to dwell on them, but he could at least acknowledge they exist. I found this alienating, and it lessened his credibility. The frequent anti-mainstream rhetoric really got on my nerves after a while, which surprised me because he was preaching to the converted. By the time I got to the mention of planting to protect from fire and the author's "neighbors, with their power mowers, chainsaws, pyromaniac children, and other incendiary devices," I was ready to give up. OK, maybe he really does have some scary and careless neighbors, but how likely is it that we all live by pyromaniacs? There are so many examples of the author not seeming to present reality or indulging in over-the-top rhetoric that it undermined the interesting information in the book. A major flaw was that important detail and examples were left out frequently, leaving one only able to question the conclusions or unable to figure out how to follow the author's advice. For example, the author mentions areas for growing firewood. Do we cut down the trees or use dropped limbs? Is he suggesting that we heat our homes with the wood to reduce electricity and gas use? If lots of people did this, what would be the effects of all the wood smoke in the air? He mentions that for every 1000 square feet of home, 1 acre of clearcut forest has our name on it. Is this just the building materials for the home, or does it also include the wood products we use in daily life? What else would be necessary for people in North America to have 70 percent of our lumber come from community woodlots, as in Switzerland. Surely we must need some infrastructure for this to work. Is my personally growing trees for lumber on my 1/3-acre suburban lot going to help right now? How can we work toward the goal if we don't know what all is involved? There's a drawing of a "typical [planting] zone layout for a 1/4 acre suburban lot." It doesn't include a garage or a driveway. Is he suggesting we remove the garage and driveway, or was this just carelessness? I wish the author and publisher would tone down the rhetoric, fill in the details, and publish a second edition of this book, because I really feel there's something to this idea. It just wasn't accessible from this book.
Summary of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture
Permaculture is a verbal marriage of "permanent" and "agriculture." Australian Bill Mollison pioneered its development. Key features include:Now, picture your backyard as one incredibly lush garden, filled with edible flowers, bursting with fruit and berries, and carpeted with scented herbs and tangy salad greens. The visual impact is of Monet's palette, a wash of color, texture, and hue. But this is no still life. 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--good ol' homo sapiens--are an integral part of the scene. Your garden tools are resting against a nearby tree, and have a slight patina of rust, because this garden requires so little maintenance. You recline into a hammock to admire your work. You have created a garden paradise.
This is no dream, but rather an ecological garden, which takes the principles of permaculture and applies them on a home-scale. There is nothing technical, intrusive, secretive, or expensive about this form of gardening. All that is required is some botanical knowledge (which is in this book) and a mindset that defines a backyard paradise as something other than a carpet of grass fed by MiracleGro.
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