(Part 2) Top products from r/Permaculture

There's an out-of-print book simply called "Passive Solar Energy." It's got lots of great information; I bet it will be just what you are looking for as far as the physics of solar energy and thermosiphoning (which is essentially "heated fluid rises because it's less dense than cooler fluid"). I'm an engineer and I really think that book gives you all you need to know to have a basic working knowledge of solar heat gain and how various systems of solar energy capture operate. Here's a list of books I have found helpful and/or interesting in regards to solar energy:

• Passive Solar Energy - The top link is a link to pdf's of the chapters of the book.
  
  
• The Passive Solar Energy Book - VERY in-depth on passive solar theory, design, and construction.
  
  
• Solar Air Heating Systems - Another design and construction book, specifically about solar air heating.
  
  
  
• The Solar Greenhouse Book - Name says it all. It's all about passive solar greenhouses.
  
  
• A Golden Thread - Really interesting book about how man has worked with the sun in building design through the history of civilization.
  
  
  For earthships/earth-sheltered homes, I recommend these books:
  
  
• Earth-Sheltered Housing Design - One of the most detailed and complete books on earth-sheltering available. Not earthships, but the same ideas apply.
  
  
• Earth-Sheltered Houses - Another essential book for earth-sheltering houses. Author has built several of his own and remains an authority in the subject as well as cordwood building, for which he has also written books.
  
  
• Earth-Sheltered Solar Greenhouses - Combines two subjects for a very Permaculture-appropriate building technique.
  
  
• Earthship Vol I and II - Needs no explaining.
  
  
  From my experience in university studying fluid dynamics, I recommend not going any deeper into the subject than what you would find in the solar energy books I listed above. The subject is math-heavy, and the academic study of the topic is not going to help you with what you are interested in with permaculture. It's kind of like studying the abstract physics/math of electromagnetism when all you want to do is wire a house.
  
  Hope this helps!

Try to get your hands on Edible Forest Gardens ( vol 1 and 2 ) by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. It's the premier work on Eastern North American ecological agroforestry.

Martin Crawford's work is also very applicable since he's in a humid zone 3-5 ish British climate. His book is an amazing resource.

The Bullock Brother's have done a lot of work in Cold climate permaculture but they're in Washinton so it's still more humid.

Great Plains ecology is an interesting biome though and I'm not sure there's been a lot of work done on food forestry in that particular climate. I know a fair amount of work has been done on perennial grasslands but it gets more complicated since you are dealing with elements of dryland design and cold climate design. Some tropical techniques for water retention aren't going to work since frost is going to be a factor. Probably the best technique would be to follow the ecology and design around coolees since that's where great plains deciduous forests tend to thrive.

1. Water is life. You want to keep as much water on your property as long as you can. Have you put in swales on contour or keylines to stop, spread, sink the water into the soil so the trees can benefit?
   
   
2. What is your soil like? Is it acidic or alkaline? Is it compacted? Eroded? Deficient in minerals? Is it more clay or loam or sandy? Have it tested. There are ways to improve the soil. If it's compacted, you can deep rip. If it's acidic, you can add lime and dolomite. If it's clay, adding gypsum will break up the clay. Pioneer trees can also help break up soil with their deep tap roots. Forests are usually alkaline while pastures are more acidic. Forests have more fungi where pastures have more bacteria. You can get a jump start on changing over the soil if you take some starch like rice to a forest, leave it on the ground for several days, collect it, and scatter it where you want the fungi to take over. There are things you can add to increase the soil microbes that are so beneficial: compost, compost tea, bio-fertilizers, and inoculates on seeds.
   
   
3. What do you want to accomplish with a forest? Are you wanting to use some of the trees as a wind block? Are you wanting to stop some of the soil erosion along the stream? Are you wanting food (fruit, nuts) or fodder for animals or fiber or timber for building or trees that bloom to feed bees or trees for coppice or trees for firewood or a mixture? If you know what you want, then you can consult some books and local permaculture groups for trees that will live in your site-specific conditions that provide the function you want.
   
   
4. For each tree, you'll want to plant multiple nitrogen-fixing support plants that you will sacrifice so that the desired tree has nutrients. Legume trees, shrubs, and ground covers add nitrogen to the soil that will feed the main trees. Over the course of several years, you'll chop and drop the nitrogen fixers several times. Besides adding nitrogen to the soil, they will also shade out grasses and other non-desirable plants until your trees are established. You can also mulch with straw to shade out pioneer plants you don't want. Timing is important. You want to plant at times that give the plants the best time to get established. You'll want to chop and drop the nitrogen-fixing support species when the rains come. You'll want to use the mulch and cover crops at the same time as you plant your trees to prevent weeds from taking over. You'll want to time when the trees produce food. You can plan some early crop, mid-season crop, and late crop varieties. Thinking about your timing carefully.
   
   Resources:
   
   
   Creating a Forest Garden by Mark Crawford.
   
   Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier
   
   Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
   
   
   

Hi! I've spent the past few days watching some online videos offered for free as part of a sustainability conference for anyone interested in managing or working on small farms. The conference website: www.smallfarmsummit.org . (The conference has finished, however. I just wanted to provide the source of my information.) One of the participants, Zach Wolf, delivered a video called, "Your Relationship to Soil Fertility Management." At the end, he mentioned these texts as sources for more information and research:

• [Soil Science Simplified] (http://www.amazon.com/Soil-Science-Simplified-Neal-Eash/dp/0813818230)
  
  
• [The Art of Balancing Soil Nutrients: A Practical Guide to Interpreting Soil Tests] (http://www.amazon.com/Art-Balancing-Soil-Nutrients-Interpreting/dp/1601730322/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427136013&sr=1-1&keywords=The+art+of+balancing+soil+nutrients)
  
  
• [Marschner's Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants, Third Edition] (http://www.amazon.com/Marschners-Mineral-Nutrition-Higher-Plants/dp/0123849055/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1427136123&sr=1-1&keywords=mineral+nutrition+of+higher+plants)
  
  
• [The Soil Will Save Us: How Scientists, Farmers, and Foodies Are Healing the Soil to Save the Planet] (http://www.amazon.com/The-Soil-Will-Save-Scientists/dp/1609615549/ref=pd_rhf_dp_s_cp_3_9S4X?ie=UTF8&refRID=0X6WRFG59DYAVGMZW3WM)
  
  
• [The Farm as Ecosystem] (http://www.amazon.com/Farm-as-Ecosystem-Jerry-Brunetti/dp/1601730411/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1427390978&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Farm+as+an+Ecosystem)
  
  I haven't read any of them yet. I hope they are of some help to you. :)

2000 bags of shredded leaves, dumped all over your lawn. Kickstart that food forest!

I don't know if you have a greenhouse, but a small seed starting kit is timed nicely for Christmas. Some LED grow lights, a little rack system with a greenhouse tarp, maybe some seed starting trays, and some seeds of stuff she likes.

Black Friday Sales on grow lights

Indoor Greenhouse

What about indoor mushroom grow kits. Here are some vendors:

•Back to the Roots (Oakland, CA)

•Cascadia Mushrooms (Bellingham, WA)

•Far West Fungi (San Francisco, CA)

•Field & Forest Products (Peshtigo, WI)

• Gourmet Woodland Mushrooms (UK)

• Grow Mushrooms Canada (British Columbia, Canada)

• MycoTerra Farm (Westhampton, MA)

• MycoUprrhizal (Olympia, WA)

•Provisions Mushroom Farm: find them at the Olympia, WA Farmer's Market!

•SmugTown Mushrooms (Rochester, NY)

• Sno Valley Mushrooms (King County, WA)

Same thing, these may not be carbon negative by themselves, but they will make a LOT of mushrooms (if they like eating mushrooms), and can be really fun. Every mushroom they grow in their basement is a batch of mushrooms that didn't travel 1000 miles, with associated packaging, processing, etc carbon footprints.

If you have the time, Robert Gorden's book, "The Rise and Fall of American Growth" is pretty eye-opening. [1] He also talks about inequality as a major headwind to growth, and makes a compelling argument that the data show that biggest transformation – unmatched even by the personal computer and IT revolution – was bringing electricity and plumbing into the home.

Then there's the Princeton study that shows money can make people happier, but that the effect levels off at around $75k a year.

I think it was while reading Bill McKibben's book "Eaarth" [3] that I was surprised to discover that back in the 1970s, polling showed that Americans were actually pretty open to a different economic model – one more about sustainability and well-being than growth.

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1: https://www.amazon.com/Rise-Fall-American-Growth-Princeton/dp/153661825X

2: https://www.princeton.edu/~deaton/downloads/deaton_kahneman_high_income_improves_evaluation_August2010.pdf

3: https://www.amazon.com/Eaarth-Making-Life-Tough-Planet/dp/0312541198

Have you read a book called The Omnivore's Dilemma ? If not, i think it would help you in this project. In it there is a section that talks about Polyface farm, a poly culture farm that employs natural symbiotic relationships (between chickens, grass, and cows, for example) that a farmer can use to keep soil healthy, spend less of animal feed, and essentially use the land to its greatest potential. I highly recommend it.

1. I read a book called Paradise Lot that talked about a couple good sources of info on permaculture in the UK. First is Plants for a Future which is a neat database whose testing grounds are based in the UK. Second is a man named Martin Crawford, who has spent a lot of energy on designing temperate food dorests.
   
   
2. I'd imagine a loooong time. So long a time that I think it would be good to have zero expectations. I have no experience in this subject though, so don't take my word on it. I myself am interested in the amount of space needed for self sufficiency, the books I've read (about... conventional gardening) reported around 4,000 ft^2 needed to grow half the food a small family would need. Perhaps you could designate this amount of land to gardening vegetables and the rest to developing a forest garden?
   
   3)I know absolutely nothing about this subject, you're on your own :)

From the Ground Up is not a book specifically about natural building but its a really thorough and holistic look at designing and building a home. Geared towards owner-builders.

I'm interested to hear about other suggestions that are good natural building resources too.

Anything by or editied by Craig Elevitch - he's Hawai'i based, so focuses mostly on tropical and subtropical trees, but the insights are valuable to anyone studying agroforestry.

i highly recommend The Overstory Book, which is collection of scientific articles on tree crops, including nutrient cycling, NFT's, intercropping etc etc etc.

not related to permaculture per se, but The Wild Trees is about folks exploring and studying the world's largest trees. very engaging and readable.

In addition to what others have said some of the book that have inspired my favorite building ideas are:

The Fifty Dollar and Up Underground House Book

wofati eco building

Any book on treehouses

Have you looked through the Green Building forum at permies.com?

I generally think that Permaculture is more about making the environment outside your house more sustainable and that any house will work in that case. Many people have tried to take similar lines of thought with home design but it really is outside the scope of Permaculture.

The closest I can merge the two is by building a semi underground house. I like the way Mike Oehler put it in the Underground house book:

> When completed, an Underground house is nearly invisible. Rather than looking at a ticky tacky box of painted lumber and roofing or a hunk of concrete and steel you see only grass, shrubs and trees. An underground house blends in with the surroundings. It does not compete with or try to dominate the environment... A U house blends in with nature while the other is constructed, usually, with a total disregard for the environment. Those few above ground structures which do merge with the surroundings are so unusual as to sometimes become world famous. Frank Lloyd Wright's Falling Water house in Pennsylvania is an example of one such. Yet, a good subsurface structure blends with nature even better than that.

Great potential! Install a small chicken coop and create a fertilizer factory for starters. Also, Paradise Lot is a book that could be very helpful given your location and yard size.

I have one of his best talks in my Permaculture Headliners playlists, which I link in these comments.

He is the first permie I ever heard anything of after my interest got piqued by Dirt: Erosion of Civilizations.

I used these two books: Finding & Buying Your Place in the Country and How to Be a Dirt-Smart Buyer of Country Property
The first one was better written and had good information. Both are long and worth reading.

I have always liked The Permaculture Home Garden by Linda Woodrow for small-scale permaculture. It has some unique ideas that I haven't seen anywhere else. There's also some good info on her blog.

You can probably get this book at your local library, or find a used copy on Amazon:https://www.amazon.com/Gardening-Mediterranean-Way-Waterwise-Drought-Tolerant/dp/0810956004/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1487451378&sr=1-1&keywords=gardening+the+mediterranean+way

http://www.amazon.com/The-Invention-Capitalism-Classical-Accumulation/dp/0822324911

Start digging.

https://www.amazon.com/Earthbag-Building-Tricks-Techniques-Natural/dp/0865715076

An unsurprising lack of actual textbooks on here. I recommend nature and properties of soils and Havlin's soil fertility. There are suggestions here that are homeopathic quackery and I suggest being skeptical.

Permaculture: A Designer's Manual is considered the bible for permaculture because of how comprehensive it is and how much information is packed into that book. It won't explain all of the effective strategies for different climates that we've developed over the last 30 years but I would definitely start there for the foundation. Then move on to books on topics that are specific to a particular topic within permaculture design.

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My Recommendations:

• Permaculture: A Designers Manual - https://www.permaculturedesignersmanual.com/product-page/permaculture-a-designers-manual
  
• Gaia's Garden - https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1603580298
  
• Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands and Beyond - https://www.amazon.com/Rainwater-Harvesting-Drylands-Beyond-2nd/dp/0977246434
  
• dirt: The Erosion of Civilizations - https://www.amazon.com/Dirt-Civilizations-David-R-Montgomery/dp/0520272900
  
• The New Wild: Why Invasive Species will be Nature's Salvation - https://www.amazon.com/New-Wild-Invasive-Species-Salvation/dp/0807039551
  
• The Worm Farmer’s Handbook: Mid- to Large-Scale Vermicomposting for Farms, Businesses, Municipalities, Schools, and Institutions - https://www.amazon.com/dp/1603587799/
  
• The Humanure Handbook, 4th Edition: Shit in a Nutshell - https://www.amazon.com/Humanure-Handbook-4th-Shit-Nutshell/dp/0964425882