Books Treasured & Useful:

[Heather K]

Observation is one of the best methods of learning:

Watching & Being With nature in the wild & in our community landscapes.

 

Also useful is helping an experienced organic gardener/farmer/builder, as there is always something human hands can help with and a second set of eyes and brain can assist with.

But for those of us who are visual learners & avid readers, books are a treasure!

I'm often asked what books I recommend, and have written this discussion in response.

( Let us know which books have been helpful to you.)

 

Heather K's Books Treasured & Useful:

One Straw Revolution – An Introduction to Natural Farming – Masanobu Fukuoka

The Man Who Planted Trees (The Man Who Planted Hope & Grew Happiness)– Jean Giono 1954

Edible Forest Gardens- Ecological Design & Practice for Temperate Climate Permaculture – Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier

How to Grow More Vegetables -John Jeavons

The Organic Gardener's Complete Guide to Vegetables & Fruits (Rodale Press)

The Findhorn Garden

Winter Gardening in the Maritime Northwest – Binda Colebrook

Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades – Steve Solomon

essays & books by author & Farmer Wendell Berry

books by Helen & Scott Nearing

Maritime Northwest Vegetable Gardening Almanac (1987) – Binda Colebrook

The Self-Sufficient Life and How To Live It – John Semour

Earth Users Guide to Permaculture – Rosemary Morrow

The Earthcare Manual– Patrick Whitefield (permaculture handbook for temperate climates)

Food Not Lawns- How to turn you yard into a garden & your neighborhood into a community-HC Flores

Greenhouse Gardener's Companion – Growing food & Flowers in Your Greenhouse or Sunspace – Shane Smith

Building & Using Our Sun-Heated Greenhouse -Grow vegetables all year round – Helen & Scott Nearing

Worms Eat My Garbage

Humanure Handbook

Create an Oasis with Greywater- Art Ludwig

Identifying & Harvesting Edible & Medicinal Plants in Wild (& Not So Wild) Places

         – Steve Brill with Evelyn Dean

The Herbalist's Way -the Art & Practice of Healing with Plant Medicines

          – Nancy & Michael Phillips

The Lost Language of Plants – the ecological importance of plant medicines to life on earth

          – Stephen Harrod Buhner

Bringing Nature Home- How Native Plants Sustain Wildlife in Our Gardens(?) – Doug Tallamy

A Field guide to Edible Wild Plants (eastern/central n.america)-Lee Allen Peterson

Perennial Vegetables -Eric Toensmeier

Uncommmon Fruits for Every Garden – Lee Reich

Seed to Seed – Suzanne Asheworth

The New Seed-Starters Handbook – Nancy Bubel

The Ruth Stout No-Work Garden Book – Ruth Stout & Richard Clemence

Getting the Most From Your Garden – (Rodale Press)

How to Make a Forest Garden – Patrick Whitefield

The New Organic Grower – Eliot Coleman

Western Garden Book

Right Plant, right Place – Nicola Ferguson

Culture and Horticulture (basic book on biodynamic methods & philosophy)

Weeds and What They Tell – Joseph A. Cocannouer

The Soul of Soil – a guide to ecological soil management – Grace Gershuny & Joseph Smillie

Mycelium Running-How mushrooms can help save the world – Paul Stamets

Rodales Color Handbook of Garden Insects

Kinship with All Life – J. Allen Boone

Behaving As If The God in All Life Mattered – Machaell Small Wright

Noah's Garden (?)

The Natural Way of Farming – Masanobu Fukuoka

Natural Beekeeping

Small-Scale Grain Raising – Gene Logsdon

Organic Orcharding – Gene Logsdon

The Organic Rose Garden – Liz Druitt

Garden Way's Guide to Food Drying – Phyllis Hobson

Root Cellaring (?)

The Hand-Sculpted House – Evans & Smith

Pacific Seaweeds – Louis Druehl

Plants of the Pacific Northwest Coast – Pojar & Mackinnon

Edible & Medicinal Plants of the West -Gregory L. Tilford

Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West – Micheal Moore

The Secret Life of Soil

Seeing Nature – Paul Krafel

Introduction to Permaculture – Mollison & Slay

Permaculture: A Designer's Manual – Mollison

Four Season Harvest – Eliot Coleman

Designing & Maintaining Your Edible Landscape Naturally – Robert Kourik (1986)

Books on my wish list:

 

Permaculture – Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainable – David Holmgren

A Pattern Language – Christopher Alexander

Common Sense Forestry – Hans Morsbach

West Coast Food Forestry – Rain Tenaqiya

Ecoforestry – Alan Drengson & Duncan Taylor, eds

Ecological Aquaculture- Laurence Hutchinson

Small Scale Aquaculture – Steven Van gorder

Insects & Gardens : In Pursuitof a garden Ecology – eric Grissell

All Flesh Is Grass – the pleasures & promises of pasture farming – Gene Lodgdon

The Earth Manual: How to Workon Wild Land Without Taming It – Malcolm Margolin

Botany in a Day -the patterns method of plant identification – Thomas J. Elpel

Wild Fermentation – Sandor Ellix Katz

The Solar food Dryer: how to Make & Use Your Own High-Performance Sun-Powered food Dehydrator - Eben Fodor

Nourishing Traditions – Fallonn & Enig

The Village Herbalist – Nancy & Michael Phillips

Microhydro- Clean Power from Water – Scott Davis

Stone House: A guide to self-building with slipforms – Tomm Stanley

The Basics of Permaculture Design - - Ross Mars

Introduccion a la Permacultura (espanol edition)- Mollison & Slay

(We could use some recommendations on books caring for farm animals or harvesting wild animals for those who use aimal nourishment medicinally, and recommended building & energy books)

Some of the other TW sub-groups also have book resources related to their groups, and can be added later.

 

We can all add to and share our favorite books related to the broad topic of caring for the earth,

on permaculture principles & methods, and on basic nourishment through farming/gardening/wildcrafting.

(Until I start a blog with a fuller book/library/resource list, this is an unedited draft of those I often recommend.)

(Another group discussion that lists Online Resources for videos & libraries is at: )

https://transitionwhatcom.ning.com/group/organic/forum/topics/online-resources-books-videos

 

[Heidi M]

Wow, Heather, thanks! What a job well done!
Okay, here's a few that have been most inspiring and instructive for me and in support of our relationship with the plant world:

Gaia's Garden - Toby Hemenway - gave me the best intro to permaculture principles applied
Books by Russell Link, a Northwest writer who addresses wild critter-friendly "landscaping"
Susun Weed - Healing Wise - for loving some "common" medicinal "weeds" (chickweed dandelion burdock etc) and figuring out how to nurture them as a result of reading this
Victoria Boutenko - Green for Life - addresses the unique value and abundance of greens in our diet

[Elizabeth W]

Heather, this is a tremendous list. thank you for taking the time to post and sharing!

[jasmin liepa]

and when do you have time to garden? (-: