We’ve never heard a better idea than permaculture for solving global climate change, peak oil, pollution, food security, abundant water, and the rest of the world’s problems. Below are some of our favorite permaculture materials. Note that this is intended to be the cream of the crop, not a complete list.
If you watch all 5 of the featured videos below, you’ll have a very strong understanding of why permaculture matters.
If you only have time to watch one, this five minute video is literally the most inspiring thing we’ve ever seen (or you can watch the longer, more detailed version):
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Looking for an accessible permaculture movie to show to family and friends? This beautifully produced, short BBC film called “A Farm for the Future” is just the ticket. We like that it was made from the perspective of a skeptical farmer:
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For Michael Pollan or TED Talk fans, this is his 20 minute perspective on plants and permaculture:
Toby Hemenway, the author of the book Gaia’s Garden, gives an eloquent talk on how permaculture fits into the big picture:
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Do you need to “farm” in the city? Geoff Lawton is a wonderful tour guide of an inspiring urban permaculture system:
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More on Permaculture:
- For those in our area, you may want to join the SC Upstate Permaculture Society.
- What Permaculture isn’t — and is by Toby Hemenway
- FREE self-paced online Permaculture Design Course (PDC) from Regenerative Leadership Institute
- PDC Certification Overview free .pdf from the Permaculture Institute
- Free .pdf ebook 20 Principles of Permaculture
- Free .pdf ebook “Permaculture Techniques” by Bill Mollison
- How to hugelkultur your beds
- The popular and informative forums at permies.com
- Searchable Permaculture Plant Database for planning guilds
- Want to watch a free 40 hour “Introduction to Permaculture” college course at NC State University taught by Dr. Will Hooker, whose garden is pictured on the front cover of Gaia’s Garden? Here you go.
- BOOK: Gaia’s Garden by Toby Hemenway
- If you liked the above Toby Hemenway talk, here’s the equally engaging sequel.
- Center for Pattern Literacy (Toby Hemenway’s website with lots of free info)
- BOOKS: Edible Forest Gardens Volumes 1 & 2 by Dave Jacke
- BOOK: Permaculture: A Designers Manual by Bill Mollison
- Geoff Lawton at TEDx explaining what permaculture is
- Geoff Lawton explains how swales work
- Geoff Lawton’s website with free videos
- Geoff Lawton’s PRI Zaytuna Farm Tour
- Geoff Lawton teaches about the stages of a food forest
- Geoff Lawton small dam/pond installation
- Geoff Lawton’s Guide to Permaculture Design and Strategy: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four, & Part Five
- Geoff Lawton Q&A Sessions: Round One, Round Two A, Round Two B, Round Three, Round Four A, Round Four B,
- Permasolutions with lots of Geoff Lawton videos
- Mark Shepard’s Restoration Agriculture video
- Plants that don’t require babying are logical food. Learn how to forage weeds you can eat or let them grow in your landscape.
- John Liu’s Green Gold Documentary (greening the desert with permaculture)
- John Liu’s Whatifwechange.org (how to change the world)
- John Liu’s Hope in a Changing Planet
- Tony Lovell TEDx on Soil Carbon: Putting Carbon Back Where it Belongs – In the Earth
- Alan Savory TED Talk How to Fight Desertification and Reverse Climate Change
- Paul Stamet’s TED Talk 6 Ways Mushrooms Can Save the World
- Tradd Cotter’s TEDx on Mushrooms: Cultivating a Peace of Mind
- Free online documentary Permaculture: Green Gold
- PBS video What Plants Talk About
- “The Intelligent Plant” in The New Yorker
- Fractal Geometry predicting patterns in the forest
- David Attenborough’s Life in the Undergrowth clips
- Paul Wheaton’s YouTube permaculture channel
- How to Run a Permablitz video
- Seeds of Freedom film & website
- Incredible Edible Todmorden — an entire city turned into a food forest
- Documentary “The Secret of El Dorado (The discovery of biochar)
- USDA Soil Theater including “Ray the Soil Guy”
- Live Green Tennessee series Youtube channel
- Permaculture TV: Free Video Cooperative
- Permaculture Activist magazine
- Archived articles (for free) from Permaculture Activist magazine
- Agroforestry.net Overstory newsletter archive
- Permaculture magazine
- The Permaculture Research Institute of Australia
- The Permaculture Institute with Drylands Magazine
- Worldwide Permaculture Network
- Geoff Lawton message to Permaculture Centres Worldwide
- Farmer Managed Natural Restoration (FMNR)
- The Century of Self
- The Story of Stuff
- Useful Plants Nursery (permaculture nursery in NC)
- Free plant guilds ebook
- Free 56 page ebook Field Identification of the 50 Most Common Plant Families in Temperate Regions (includes agricultural, horticultural, and wild species)
- Uses of comfrey and types of comfrey
- The “Pristine Myth” paper
- Comparisons of nitrogen fixing plants
- How to Use Pee in Your Garden
- Paul Wheaton’s Dandelions in Permaculture video
- Find or report proven foraging sites in your area at Falling Fruit
- Schumacher Center for a New Economics publications archive
- Stories from an Appalachian Community (land use lecture)
- Permaculture in Action 2013 class video
- Folks in the Upstate (South Carolina sustainability network)
- Leaves & Faces (SC Upstate Permaculture Society blog)
- More to come
More for the bookshelf:
- Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison
- Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening by Sepp Holzer
- 20 Principles of Permaculture by Permaculture in Action (small free ebook)
- Mycellium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World by Paul Stamets
- Teaming with Microbes: the Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels
- Water Storage: Tanks, Cisterns, Aquifers, and Ponds for Domestic Supply, Fire, and Emergency Use by Art Ludwig
- Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond Volumes 1 & 2 by Brad Lancaster
- How to Create an Oasis With Greywater: Choosing, Building, and Using Greywater Systems by Art Ludwig
- Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together by Sylvia Bernstein
- Ecology of the Planted Aquarium by Diana Walstad (helps with understanding any ecosystem)
- Perennial Vegetables: From Artichokes to Zuiki Taro, A Gardener’s Guide to Over 100 Delicious and Easy to Grow Edibles by Eric Toensmeier
- The Humanure Handbook by Joseph C. Jenkins
- Insects and Gardens: In Pursuit of a Garden Ecology by Eric Grissell
- The Cob Builders Handbook: You Can Sculpt Your Own Home by Becky Bee
- Build Your Own Earth Oven, 3rd Edition by Kiko Denzer
- Cooking with Sunshine: The Complete Guide to Solar Cuisine with 150 Easy Sun-Cooked Recipes by Lorraine Anderson
- Serious Straw Bale: A Home Construction Guide for All Climates by Michael Bergeron
- Seed to Seed: Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth
- Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties: The Gardener’s & Farmer’s Guide to Plant Breeding and Seed Saving by Carol Deppe
- Nature’s Garden: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
- The Forager’s Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants by Samuel Thayer
- Selu: Seeking the Mother Corn’s Wisdom by Marilou Awiakta
- Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora
- Growing Gourmet and Edible Mushrooms by Paul Stamets
- The Fungal Pharmacy: The Complete Guide to Medicinal Mushrooms and Lichens of North America by Robert Rogers
- Garden Insects of North America: The Ultimate Guide to Backyard Bugs by Whitney Cranshaw
- Landscaping with Fruits and Vegetables by Fred Hagy
- The Apple Grower: Guide for the Organic Orchardist by Michael Phillips
- Weeds: Guardians of the Soil by Joseph A. Cocannouer
- Root Cellaring: Natural Cold Storage of Fruits and Vegetables by Mike Bubel
- Wild Fermentation: The Flavor, Nutrition, and Craft of Live-Culture Foods by Sandor Ellix Katz
- The Art of Fermentation: An In-Depth Exploration of Essential Concepts and Processes From Around the World by Sandor Ellix Katz
- Putting Food By: Fifth Edition by Ruth Hertzberg
- Canning for a New Generation: Bold, Fresh Flavors for the Modern Pantry by Liana Krissoff
- Making More Plants: The Art, Science, and Joy of Propagation by Ken Druse
- The Chicken Health Handbook by Gail Damerow
- The Small-Scale Poultry Flock: An All-Natural Approach to Raising Chickens and Other Fowl for Home and Market Growers by Harvey Ussery
- The Practical Beekeeper Volumes I, II, & III by Michael Bush
- Lost Crops of the Incas: Little Known Plants of the Andes with Promise for Worldwide Cultivation by the Office of International Affairs (online version)
- The Handbook of Nature Study by Anna Botsford Comstock
- Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder by Richard Louv
- The Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life by Barbara Kingsolver
- One Straw Revolution by Masanobu Fukuoka, or you can click here for a free .pdf of this title.
- Sowing Seeds in the Desert: Natural Farming, Global Restoration, and Ultimate Food Security by Masanobu Fukuoka
- Another Kind of Garden by Jean Pain (free .pdf copy)
- Silent Spring by Rachel Carson
- 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus by Charles C. Mann
- Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond
- Ishmael by Daniel Quinn
- Stone Age Economics by Marshall Sahlins
- The Sibley Guide to Birds by David Allen Sibley
- Spiders of the Carolinas by L.L. Gaddy (if you are in our area)
- Amphibians and Reptiles of the Carolinas and Virginia by Beane, Braswell, Mitchell, Palmer (if you are in our area)
- Acres USA Books & Video Store
We’ll be adding more videos, websites, and book recommendations to the list as time goes by. Feel free to send us suggestions.
