My husband may be wishing that I had never requested a review copy of Edible Landscaping With a Permaculture Twist because it was so inspiring that I have all sorts of plans for our flood-prone front yard, which means more work for him. I’ve read a few books on permaculture in the past, but none got me as fired up as this one. Maybe it’s because he focused on landscaping. Being the practical person that I am, I never would have wanted to read this book if it did not have the word “edible” in the title, even though I’ve been frustrated for years with our front yard.
The book doesn’t contain a ton of new ideas, but the strength of this book lies in the packaging of the information. When reading permaculture books in the past, it never occurred to me that they could solve our landscaping problems. Frankly, I didn’t feel like I had time to even think about our landscaping problems because I have food to grow, goats to milk, soap to make, and other important stuff. Landscaping is for suburbanites who don’t have a real life. Well, maybe not!
The really cool thing about author Michael Judd is that he works with lots of suburbanites who are interested in creating edible landscape. And when you look at the beautiful pictures in the book, you can see that you would not have neighbors complaining about your “vegetable garden” if you used his techniques. His designs could stand up to scrutiny in the snazziest neighborhoods, even though they are incredibly practical and sustainable.
Starter swale
The first thing that got me excited was in chapter 2 when he gives plans for what he calls a starter swale. Swales are used to catch water that is then stored in the ground and consumed by plants as needed. But most permaculture books just show you the big, long swales that look like you’d need heavy equipment to build. A starter swale, however, can easily be done by the average person. If you have a downspout on your house, this can work for you! About ten to fifteen feet from the downspout on your house, dig a trench that’s five or six feet long and shaped like a smiley face so that it catches the rain from the downspout. The dirt that you dig out goes on the bottom of the smiley face, and that will be a natural raised bed where you plant whatever you want to grow. Judd predicts that after you see how well it works as a self-watering bed, you’ll be creating another and another.
Book contents
The book also contains chapters on how to create an herb spiral, growing mushrooms, food forests, unusual fruits that work well in a permaculture landscape, hugelkultur, and building earthen ovens. At less than 150 pages with lots of beautiful photos and drawings, it’s a quick read.
Hey! this sounds like the book for me! And as you’ve not written anything about non-US of A residents not being able to enter, I’ll give it a try. My pond is drying out, my energy is going up, and I want to eat what I grow. Or dye with it or put it in my soap 😉
I live in Denmark with only family and chicken, no goats, pigs or ohter livestock, but I love readng of your adventures.
Very curious how a swale garden would withstand the heavy rain in the PNW!
“Game”….
I’d love to add permaculture to our yard, we have flower beds and a veggie garden, but I’ve been trying to convince my family to plant edibles everywhere! Maybe this will help convince them.
I would like the book for me. I also thought permaculture was large scale, heavy equipment, too overwhelming to tackle. It would be interesting to see how it works on a small scale.
This book would be a gift for my husband to help find ideas for our garden area. So, in actuality it would be a gift for me:)
This book would be for my husband and me.
I’m always in the market for new ideas, and this book sounds like it would have many! So…this book would be for me (but I’d totally share my knowledge!).
We bought land that has nothing on it. Well, trees and cactus. Haha! I need ALL of the help I can get! 😉
I have been reading permaculture books and want to start implementing some permaculture strategies on our property. This sound like a great resources. Thank you for the give away.
I would love this book. We’re on the original family homestead and our son is the 5th generation here. We have 8 acres of bare land and need to know what to do with it! I have so many ideas but no clue how or where to start.
This book sounds like it would be a great addition to my gardening library. Thank you for sharing this opportunity!
I would love to have this book! I am getting ready to redesign our entire yard with permaculture food forest and edible landscaping the theme. I imagine this would be indispensable! Thanks for the opportunity! 🙂
This sounds fabulous! I’ve been doing some research online but this sounds like it will have everything I need in one place and has lots of great reviews! Fingers crossed it’s lucky enough to come live with me in the UK
This sounds like exactly what I need! Our landscaping has seen better days and an edible landscape is something I’d hoped to achieve with it. The hard part is getting started and knowing what to add in. This book can fit that bill and even give me methods to pass along to loved ones looking to do the same!
I would love to win this book for my daughter & myself. She just purchased a large farm, 200 acres, to carry on the farming heritage. My family has farmed land for 200 yrs. starting in Ireland & moving here to the states.
I will be lucky enough to be at her side farming as I was with my father when he was still alive.
We want to do everything we can naturally to benefit us & the land.
It sounds like this book covers a lot of useful topics – preserving rainfall by the use of swales and berms is the most interesting topic to me, especially helpful in dealing with climate change.
This will be for me 🙂
Thanks for the review! I love learning about edible wild plants.
I’d love to include this in my library. Sounds like a great book.
I would love to win this book. It will join others in my library. My sister and I pick one project a month from one of the books and try it out. If we win this book we will be doing the swale project to start.