Toby Hemenway (1952–2016)

Gaia's Garden is a general introduction to permaculture gardening. Other books on permaculture gardening have been interesting, but it was Hemenway's book which made me excited about my future garden. I fell in love with the idea of a garden that is both useful to humans and ecologically balanced. Permaculture gardening focuses on relationships rather than on individuals -- relationships between plants, animals, humans, soil, sun, water, and anything else that affects your garden. By paying attention to the way natural ecosystems strengthen themselves, we can design gardens that are more resilient to problems and require less work. Anyone interested in gardening should read this book.… (more)

Gaia’s Garden was inspirational! It got me excited about moving things around in my yard this year. We have two “traditional” row-style vegetable plots, and we will be trying no-till on one to begin with. We just planted a cherry tree a year ago and will implement the apple guild recommendations and see how it goes. It convinced us to save three different trees we were going to cut, so I can experiment with setting up guilds with them. Also gave me some good advice on a hedge row we have been musing on. I guess that is why it is valuable. It is inspiration but also gives you practical advice on how to put move your inspiration into reality. It also gives examples of diverse permaculture gardens put in place throughout the country, and why they work, which adds fuel to your ideas on how it can work in your yard.
However, I think you would be hard pressed to convince traditional-minded people that their yard needs to become a forest garden, whether it be the trees, or the eventuality of only perennial foods. I do not want one or two tomato plants under my walnut tree. I want tomato plants enough to be able to can all the tomato sauce I need to get my family through the winter in spaghetti and lasagna! I live in Zone 5, so a long cold winter is inevitable, and we cannot just eat toast and jelly with jelly I made from my fruit, or cherry pies. I need annual vegetables, in quantity for my growing children. Though to be fair, I am sure Hemenway would just say, find a way to add beds in a sustainable way! The book is nice because it is not dogmatic. We can have our trees and eat our tomatoes too. It also encourages a regenerative mindset of putting in and improving rather than taking away. This is something that should be more and more important to gardeners. At the same time, he makes the point (gently and without fanfare) near the end of the book that if you have to use a non-renewable resource once to get your regenerative garden into place, it’s probably worth it for the outcome in the long-run. Food grown at home, even if it is sprayed with a pesticide once a year, is still better than food from factory farms.… (more)