I can’t explain how much I love this book.
The author, Michael Judd, sent me a copy and asked me to take a look at it. This kind of thing happens with some regularity, so I have this huge stack of books that are already in my “read and review” pile. I know if you’re a nerd like me, this sounds like the best possible problem in the world, but the truth is I feel terrible about just not having the time to tell the world about every book that comes over my desk.
So now I try to set realistic expectations when people tell me they want to send me a book. “I have kind of a long list of books to review, but sure, send it to me. No promises,” I told Michael.
What arrived was the best Permaculture book for true beginners I’ve yet seen. Edible Landscaping With A Permaculture Twist isn’t a definitive guide to permaculture. It doesn’t get poetic about the philosophy of multi-systems care that underlies a Permaculture system. It does not ask you to draw a complex schematic of your home topography before you take shovel to soil.
Instead, it provides clear, actionable techniques that you can use to bring some easy-care Permaculture style into your garden. You know how sometimes authors tell you too much and then you get kinda intimidated and don’t know where to begin? This happens a lot in Permaculture writing because Permaculture includes, like, everything. All the things get balanced and thoughtfully considered in a thriving Permaculture design.
How do you narrow “everything” down into something a beginner can really grok? How do you boil the the complexity of system-stacking and layering and watershed-style irrigation management and cooperative plant guild design and more into something that makes a beginner say, “hey, that looks fun! I can do that!”
This book has done it.
Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist managed to demystify things that have left me confused for years – like how and why to build swales on the contour of your ground and the big picture overview of what to stick together for a happy fruit tree guild.
For the Permacurious beginner like me, a giant table full of every possible nitrogen fixing shrub doesn’t actually help me to understand how to create my own successful guilds. A picture, a basic “recipe” and a list of a few proven guild companions to start with is just right.
This book is full of cheerfully presented but dead-useful advice, illustrations and photos that really help to clarify key Permaculture techniques and make that system of garden design seem eminently do-able at any scale. I really feel like Michael has managed to strip out everything that didn’t need to be in a practical Permaculture primer and capture everything that did.
I am currently planning to rework the perimeter beds around my patch of lawn (soon to be eco-lawn!) into something a little more food-foresty. The chapter on Uncommon Fruits has been so helpful – I feel like someone else has given me the cheat sheet of what to plant.
So, all in all, a great introduction to Permaculture techniques that will be especially useful to the beginning Permaculturist and folks (like me) who prefer a hands-on approach to learning and just want to jump in and see what happens.
This book will give you the info you need to jump into Permaculture successfully without bogging you down in details you probably don’t need to worry about yet (when it comes time to select that perfect nitrogen fixing shrub, the entire internet is there for you).
Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist has a fun, you-can-do-this tone and the book itself is of good production quality, with full-color printed, gloss pages throughout. The fact that there are periodic cocktail recipes in the book doesn’t hurt my estimation of it, either.
Highly recommended.
To give you an idea of what’s covered the book, it’s a easy-reading 143 pages long and covers herb spirals, rainwater harvesting, swales and rain gardens, growing specialty mushrooms, food forests, uncommon fruits, fruit tree care and pruning, grafting, hugelkultur, earthen ovens, how to make cob bricks, and a few thoughts on creating high-margin products from your edible landscape to make a homestead life more financially feasible.
Giveaway!
Michael, the author, is offering up three free copies of his book to readers of NW Edible. To enter to win, go like the Edible Landscaping with A Permaculture Twist page on Facebook (they post all kinds of good info on useful plants).
Then, come back here and comment on this post. Tell me what you’re most interested to learn about edible landscaping or permaculture and confirm that you like the Edible Landscaping page on Facebook. If you hate Facebook and are a social media conscientious objector, that’s fine too, just let me know.
Fine print: Open to US residents only due to shipping costs. One entry per person, additional entires will be disqualified. Three winners will be chosen. Each winner will receive one copy of Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist. Contest open until Wednesday, March 12th, 8 PM PST. Winners will be emailed and will have 24 hours to respond to claim their prize or another winner will be chosen.
Purchase
If you are not a giveaway winner but want to get your hands on a copy of Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist, it’s available on Amazon (check out those reviews! I’m not the only one who loves this book!) or directly from the author. If you buy from Michael, he’ll sign your copy of the book and you’ll get the warm fuzzies of knowing more of your money is going directly to the work’s creator.
All images except cover shot courtesy Michael Judd, used with permission.
3
Thanks for reviewing this book–I’d love to read it. I really need to learn about intro fruit tree guilds, but that oven pic is pretty awesome, too. I liked the FB page.
I did indeed just like the page, and this book looks like a good one. I just ordered another permaculture primer because I am facing the daunting (and delicious) task of helping set up a whole garden from scratch for my father in law on his 40 acres, but this one looks more my speed!
I’d love to enter! Looks like a perfect book to help with my sad, sad backyard.
Liked it on Facebook, looks like they give out lots of useful info so good to have it in my feed now. I would love a book that takes some of the work out of figuring out what combinations of plants to plant, like you are lot of permaculture books seem to drown you in information, and so while I’ve loved the idea of doing something with a permaculture base in my garden I have felt too intimidated. This book sounds perfect for that.
Wow. This sounds like exactly the book I need. Totally new to permaculture and you’re right, its very daunting and I have no idea where to start. There’s almost too much information available.
Im from CA where drought is a problem. I am currently responsible for taking care of my mother in-laws home with a huge yard of water sucking grass. I love working in my veggie garden. I want to know what i can do to cut down on water. If i have to get rid of grass i want something in its place. If i put something in its place i want something useful, something that looks nice, something we can all enjoy…… Something edible!!! Im a fan on FB but thats not really a learning website so a book would be ideal…
I just liked the page…I’d also like to actually DO some of the good ideas. I need easy.
I am TOTALLY a “paralysis by analysis” type of person, and too much info is decidedly BAD for my productivity level. This book sounds perfect. I’d love to learn how to balance form and function in an area that is not traditionally a food-growing area – like the front foundation beds and entry of my house. I liked the ELWAPT page on FB! Thanks for the chance!
Liked his page on FB!
I’m in the process of redoing some of the “flower beds” the previous owner had done. I would love some fabulous ideas of making them edible, as that’s exactly what I planned on doing!
I am so anxious to add more permaculture to my garden. The concept makes so much sense, but I seem to have a difficult time actually putting it into practice. I liked the Edible Landscaping page on FB, and hope for once that I win! Thanks!
I live in British Columbia in the Vancouver suburbs. My home is one of the very few remaining on my street with trees. I have four on my lot and I refuse to cut them down. I want to start growing vegetables in my front yard under their canopy (this will really send my neighbours into a tizzy, lol); afer reading your review of this book I am inspired! Food forests? Mushrooms? Cocktail recipes? I’m in!!!
I’m a P-Patch gardener with one tiny (100sf) plot, and I’m always struggling with what to plant together to help build healthy soil in such a small space. (Liked the book on FB-now going back to read more!)
looking to add more color to my permaculture garden this summer, I’m sure FB will help with that
I went and liked the facebook page for Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist
I would like to know more about the edible landscaping and permaculture.
I liked the edible landscaping with a permaculture twist page (love that you gave an option for facebook objectors, lol). I’m excited to learn about permaculture because it sounds lower maintenance than conventional gardening and I’m all about low maintenance.
I have liked the fb page for quite sometime.
I would like to learn more about tree guilds and food forests in a more simple format.
thank you for the giveaway opportunity!
I’m not able to start a garden this spring as I’ll be moving the middle of May, transitioning back to graduate school for horticulture. So, in lieu of actually planting, I’m reading up on all sorts of gardening techniques and ideas. I live in the arid high plains of the west, and rain gardens and bioswales/native water retention plantings are becoming more and more common with the fluctuating rainfalls we’ve had in recent years. From what I’ve read about this book, it’d be an excellent resource for myself, the people who come to attend my various gardening-themed workshops I run, and friends who work for the city and are busy putting in these types of gardens in municipal parking lots and around buildings.
I’ve liked the page on FB. Usually I would be loath to do that in order to enter a contest but that is a page that I think I would have clicked Like on no matter what. Our yard is definitely in need of some permaculture love in it. It is pretty sterile looking even with 8 raised beds and 5 chickens.
Wonderful! I’m a permies fan and am looking to expand my perennials to include more edibles. With 2 kids in the house using computers a book really comes in handy .
This looks like a great place to start for someone like me. After years of traveling I am finally settling down and have a blank slate of a yard to begin with. I liked the FB page, too.
Oooh, I am really pleased to hear about this book and be following them on fb. I have read a lot of permaculture books (all with hopes we someday own property) and often find them overwhelming. Inspiring, but overwhelming. They tend to leave me relieved that I can’t yet go that route. To have one that makes it more accessible would be wonderful.
My dream is to have a 100% sustainable farm (probably about 10 acres) with an orchard, huge vegetable garden, a pond, chickens, and maybe a couple cows and goats. I love growing my own food, but I also love the beauty of all of the plants that we can eat. Aesthetics is just as important to me as food production!
And I just liked the Edible Landscaping with a Permaculture Twist page on Facebook!
I would love to learn more about multiple uses/benefits of our everyday landscaping plants. Plus, I really need some inspiration and look forward to the pics included in the book! We’ve been renting a house for the past year that is xeriscaped (insert my sad face here) and can’t wait to move into a home where I can get my hands in the dirt again!
We just purchased a house with a yard, and I can’t wait to dig in! I’d love some guidance on how to get started. Looking forward to the updates I’ll get from FB.
I am a Certified Master Gardener and was wondering what Permaculture was since I had heard of it but never read anything… we had some training on Permaculture and a I took a field trip to a Permaculture Garden and found out I have been practicing it without knowing! Love the ideas in permaculture and looking to expand it’s use in my little Urban Farm 🙂 Looks like a lovely book! Back to the garden, the sun is out!
Liked on FB but what I really like is the idea of some simple guide to take the scare out of the whole endeavor. I’ve been reading permaculture since stumbling on Robert Hart’s Forest Farming in a used bookstore decades ago. I’ve worked through Mollison and Hemenway, even taken a class. Sketched my topography. Listed possible guilds. But all I’ve made happen is a front yard salad bed and some fruit trees with clover and interspersed Siberian pea. Like you said – permaculture is just so huge I get paralyzed. I just want to make a yard that feeds my family with perennials and increases its own fertility and health without constant outpour of resources by me. Could this book be the guide that will get me learning by shovel and sweat and living results?
I hope so.
I would love to find a way to produce more on my land. I don’t like how the city I live in tries to regulate everything people do.
P.S. – I love that outdoor oven!
I have a new home and I am trying to incorporate as much edible plants as possible, but it would be nice to have some good advice and guide lines so I do it right the first time. 🙂
Liked it on Facebook. I have a stormwater swale slicing through the front acre of my property and would love to learn about permaculture concepts that could help better manage this area.
I am interested in learning more about cooperative plant guild design. I am also interested in the watershed irrigation technique you mentioned as well as Uncommon Fruits. I want to see if chokeberries are in there and how they would possibly do in Zone 5.
Super excited to see her Ideas. I love permaculture, and am planning on building an outdoor kitchen…..
Liked on facebook… and very interested in this book! I’d love to have a pretty, edible backyard (once I finally have a backyard of my own) and have been trying to absorb every bit of information I can get my hands on!
I need this! I am about to start all over landscaping at a new house, AND we’re currently creating an edible landscape plan for my kids’ newly built school! Liked them on facebook, too, of course!
The herb spiral caught my attention – I want to know more about that.
Went to the facebook page but I don’t have facebook to get a win there so hopefully get a win here.
Thanks for bringing this to our collective attention.
Liked their page. I’ll be happy to see their posts.
Especially interested in advise on alternative fruit trees and shrubs. They all sound fabulous in the vendor catalogues. Would love good advice on which are the most succesful/best to start with.
We are finally ready to focus on our landscaping and would LOVE to incorporate any and all permaculture influences possible in the cold and dreary new england climate in which we reside. And Liked on Facebook…I need to just delete all of my friends – they get in the way of the good pages’ posts 🙂
Liked the post on FB. I live in a rental with a huge yard, so easy, low cost permaculture techniques are exactly what I am looking for. We also don’t have a fence, so natural barriers to discourage critters from messing with plants is of concern as well. Looking forward to checking out Michael’s book!
I liked it. Not going to look at it until I’m done with chores tonight, no sense in sabotaging myself. I’m still trying to figure out how to have my yard not look like a tangled mess so maybe this book will have a magic bullet for me…
I liked the Facebook page. I’m definitely interested in learning more about guilds and fruit trees. Even if I don’t win, I’ll likely buy this book.
I am reletively new to edible gardening – I’m a whiz as far as flowers go! This year we already have a ton of pepper starts – from mild to super hot – and cucumbers growing in the window by the wood stove. It’s nice to see green! This book looks like it needs to become a part of our growing gardening library! And I like his FB page – lots of great photos!
How I would love that book! Learning from words and drawings is fine, but beautiful, colored pictures is the best–right next to having a Master take you by the hand in your own garden/food forest to be.
I’d love to learn more about guilds as I’m not sure I have a good handle on it. I like Edible Landscaping on Facebook and look forward to future posts there.
FB Page liked!
I’m on 60 acres of mixed forest/orchard/pasture land – an old homestead. I’m new to the land and am looking for exciting ways to help nurture it. This book sounds like it would be an amazing addition to my shelf and could inspire many projects! (If I win a copy, I hereby promise to document any/all of these projects and can share with ya’ll what I’m up to!)
Here’s to exciting new books!
Oh gosh… This looks to be exactly the book I need. Trying to permaculture our new 5 acre homestead with two littleuns under 4 demand a concise and hands on approach. As much as I would love to delve into the concepts of permaculture in depth I simply don’t have the time. I’m caught in this limbo between getting things done or doing nothing at all because I don’t have the knowledge to do things exactly right, if that makes sense? This book looks like it might bridge that gap. Thanks so much for the awesome giveaway!
This looks like a great idea generator for the garden! We have raised beds and grow a fair variety of foods we like, but we would also like to branch out and try new things. I’m especially interested in ways of diverting rainfall and putting it to good use. A little pest control info would be good, and plant guilds, for sure, just to name a couple!
I definitely liked it on FB!
We have 2 main areas on our yard that we want to plant with a mix of fruit trees and berries so I’d love to see more about practical guilds. Guilds that actually look nice in the landscape. Comfrey isn’t really my thing, if you know what I mean.
Have liked on facebook and would love to set up some herb spirals!
I keep planting edibles and am doing so rather by instinct….need to get even more information about permaculture planning before it’s too late! “Liked” the FB page and look forward to reading some informative posts. Thanks for letting us know about this connection.
This looks wonderful! In our family, there’s always a tug-of-war going on between the Flowers vs. Veggies camp, and that’s why I love your blog. Here in the dry dry Southwest one always has to consider water conservation seriously, for either kind of crop, and any way to get those roots down deep and permanent is a help towards a more sustainable garden – especially at 7000 ft elevation and a zone 5 climate. There’s so much to learn, but thank goodness for the folks who have forged ahead and give us novices a leg up.