[.ca] Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture (ISBN 1890132527)

Gardening for Joy:
This book has brought some fantastic ideas into my garden. The book presents some new ideas that have opened up some wonderful possibilities in my whole yard. I deeply enjoyed that the book neither addresses only those with vast horticultural degrees nor speaks only to novices. The author succinctly makes his point and backs it with interesting and insightful expamples. I have been gardening organically for over 25 years and can handle most problems with a bit of effort. This book has changed my view and greatly decreased the amount of time needed to maintain my garden. Rather than responding to the problems as they occur, it gives ingenious ways to head them off or to turn them into positives. I highly recommend this book to anyone who needs new ideas for their garden, regardless of size.

Frustratingly Inconsistent!:
This book does a great job of summarizing the concepts in Mollison's "Permaculture." It also contains good tables on plants for various purposes and a good resource list. But it has a very BIG flaw! Hemenway is supposedly telling us how to design a permaculture space at the home scale, yet nowhere can I find that he has any concern for his neighbors. He thinks only of his OWN yard and ignores the fact that at such a small scale, what you plant to protect YOUR yard may have serious consequences for your NEIGHBOR's yard. Please THINK and TALK to your neighbors at the design stage, BEFORE you block their sun or views. I know from hard experience. I live in a passive solar house and my neighbor to the south planted a row of Ponderosa pines along his north boundary to protect against wind. When those trees get larger, they will block my view of the mountains, but more importantly, they will block the sun from my passive solar house and most of my property ALL winter! Please remember that permaculture means not only relating to the land and food animals, but, just as importantly, to your neigbors!! Designing for all is MUCH more complex than Hemenway lets on!

inadequate on invasives:
The author says, You can't fight invasives, so don't bother trying. And don't worry about planting invasives such as bamboo, just keep an eye on them so they don't get out of hand. Invasives are one of the leading causes of species extinction. If the philosophy of the book is to help the biosphere through local action, this glib attitude toward invasives is counterproductive. I would still recomend the book, since it is concise and combines a handful of techniques into a powerful synthesis, but don't just accept the author's view of exotic species before checking out a book on native gardening for your region. I think it is still possible to employ these permaculture ideas while favoring the natives and keeping a close watch on invasives, which can wreak havoc on the neighborhood long after you're gone.

accessible permaculture to homescale gardeners:
Gaia's Garden presents revolutionary gardening ideas and plans for the homescale garden. It has opened my mind to the myriad possibilities of growing with nature rather than against her. Thank you to Hemenway, Todd, and the many pioneers in this field.

What an inspiring book!:
This book gives a wonderful introduction to permaculture. I had absolutely no idea what it was before reading the book. A one-sentence definition is worse than none. It is exciting to read about how the various parts of a garden interconnect. I love the various shapes he suggest, such as keyhole gardens. I especially liked the way he guides you through the process of creating guilds. And it is good to know I can use all those plants I had to eliminate when planning a traditional garden. That is one of the nicest features of these gardens. I have to admit the title is offputting. I thought this was some New Age system. Fortunately I read the reviews at this site, so that when I saw the book, I decided to give it a try. It is a very, down-to-earth, convincing book. Nothing New Age about it. I am excited and want to get started using some of these ideas.