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I'm asking for reviews rather than giving them...

Can anyone recommend great books on Permaculture?

Is 'The Earth Care Manual: A Permaculture Handbook for Britain and Other Temperate Countries - Patrick Whitefield' at £38 on Amazon worth the price? Is 'Permaculture in a Nutshell' at a fiver a better buy for the beginner?

Any others...?

I've got Bill Mollisons Permaculture Design Manual - brilliant book, but not written with a temperate climate in mind - and bl**dy expensive.

I've also got a short book called something like Getting started in Permaculture by a husband and wife team (just had lunch and I'm feeling too lazy to look in the bookcase!). Again interesting, but too small to have much info.

You can get a lot of articles from the permaculture magazine on Google.

If you are a permaculture beginner, then just get Permaculture in a Nutshell. It covers all the basics and gives you a feel of permaculture. The Earth Care Manual, is brilliant and definitely worth the price but it is very much in detail and only really worth it if you know a bit about permaculture already and want to deepen that knowledge.

I also like Graham Bells Permaculture Garden, absolutely brilliant (think its about £15), really simple explanations and full of great ideas.

Otherwise, the Permaculture Magazine website http://www.permaculture-magazine.co.uk has lots of sample articles and its a great magazine if you do decide to subscribe (you get a discount on the shop too if you're a subscriber)

Dear mybarnconversion,

Are they really charging a fiver for "Permaculture in a Nutshell" these days? It's a good booklet but there's not £5 worth of information there. Try Mollison and Holmgreen "Permaculture One" published by Tagari. It's not specificly for temperate climates but does explain principles that can be adapted and applied. Also the Permaculture magazine (Link earlier in this thread) and vast numbers of websites available through your search engine.

Good luck with it,

Love and Peace
Jim

Hey MBC!

Deepnding on the amount of land you have, Linda Woodrow's The Permaculture Home Garden is good. Aussie, but would be reasonable applicable.

Nev

Thanks all - great advice as ever, a 'visit' to Amazon is on the cards ... ;)

Before you go to amazon check out booksprice.co.uk (I think that's right), it compares several sites and tells you where would be the cheapest for you (inc postage), I think you can also include secondhand in your search, I often find that the book depository works out better for me (but maybe cos they do "free" postage and i live in spain!), worth a look just to know there are other options. I'm sure when I looked up the big permaculture manual, it was cheaper on a few other sites.

If you are into Permaculture you can't go far wrong with Bill Mollison and David Holmgren's books.
However, if you are buying online make sure that you visit a book price comparison site, as they vary quite a lot!!!(but are worth it.)

If anyone has the earthcare manual, is there a chapter on designing a forest garden? would you be able to scan it for me ? All in the spirit of not buying anything new you understand!

Another

Earth Users Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow. It's Australian, simply written and easy to read and understand, lots of diagrams, a great beginner's book

And anothery. Introduction to Permaculture, Mollison and Slay

Oh, and David Holmgren's Permaculture: Principles and Pathways Beyond Sustainability.