Search results for ""Permanent Publications""

ideas and inspiration for those looking to reduce their household waste Is recycling really the answer to household waste? How do we eliminate microplastics from our wastewater? How do we avoid consumer goods that are designed to break? How do we stop the oceans being trashed? Towards Zero Waste offers practical tools for change in your own kitchen, on your weekly shop and around your home, as well as in the wider world. Feidhlim Harty explores how and why we need to go zero waste, firstly looking at where waste currently goes, and revealing the hidden world of food and product miles and embodied energy. He shares how to reduce waste room by room, at events, parties, during our travels, and at work. Having minimised waste for over two decades, Feidhlim and his family share their clever ideas to eliminate junk, buy wisely, free yourself from useless packaging, reduce not only your eco footprint but your household bills, compost all biodegradables, and reuse, repair and reroute. They share five simple steps to zero waste and inspire us to be active and push for change. There is a hunger now within society to address the root causes of plastic waste, right back to the point of oil and gas extraction. People want no part in adding to plastics in the oceans or spreading microplastics into our water, soils and food. Nor do they want to be subjected to the cynical betrayal of consumer built-in obsolescence. Patience with government policy and corporate greenwashing is wearing thin. Towards Zero Waste offers clear guidance for anyone wanting to actively be part of the solutions and not the problems.

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No dig organic gardening saves time and work. It requires an annual dressing of compost to help accelerate the improvement in soil structure and leads to higher fertility and less weeds. No dig experts, Charles Dowding and Stephanie Hafferty, explain how to set up a no dig garden. They describe how to: Make compost, enrich soil, harvest and prepare food and make natural beauty and clean ing products and garden preparations. These approaches work as well in small spaces as in large gardens. The Authors' combined experience gives you ways of growing, preparing and storing the plants you grow for many uses, including delicious vegetable feasts and many recipes and ideas for increasing self reliance, saving money, living sustainably and enjoying the pleasure of growing your own food, year round. Charles' advice is distilled from 35 years of growing vegetables intensively and efficiently; he is the acknowledged no dig guru and salad expert both in the UK and internationally. Stephanie, a kitchen gardener, grows in her small, productive home garden and allotment, and creates no dig gardens for restaurants and private estates.She presents truly delicious seasonal recipes, made from the vegetables anyone can grow. She also explains how to use common plants you can grow and forage for to make handmade preparation for the home and garden.

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Learn about the incredible range of useful shrubs for many different situations, large and small. World renown expert, Martin Crawford, includes common fruit bushes like currants and gooseberries, and many other less-known shrubs with edible fruits, nuts, leaves, or other parts. He takes us on a journey into the world of exotic spice trees, shrubs with medicinal parts, and plants that fix nitrogen to help fertilise other plants. All these can be grown in temperate climates, diversifying our diets, enabling us to design beautiful, productive gardens, as well as showing us how we can integrate agroforestry into our smallholdings and farms to create new income streams. Despite increasingly urgent calls from scientists, the not-fit-for-purpose economic and political systems we live in cannot be relied upon to implement the carbon emission reductions needed. This where we come into it: Whether we are farmer, gardener or plant dabbler, by planting shrubby plants that sequester carbon, we can minimise our carbon footprint and ideally live a carbon-negative life. On a broadscale, perennial and woody species are the way forward to reduce carbon emissions in agriculture. Woody crops sequester carbon in their biomass, but can also be grown in systems which allow for sequestration of large amounts of carbon into the soil.

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A forest garden is a place where nature and people meet halfway, between the canopy of trees and the soil underfoot. It doesn't have to look like a forest - what's important is that natural processes are allowed to unfold, to the benefit of plants, people and other creatures. For three decades experimental forest gardens have been planted in temperate cities and rural sites, in households, neighbourhoods, community gardens, parks, market gardens and plant nurseries. Forest Gardening In Practice is the first indepth review of forest gardening with living, best practice examples. It highlights the four core skills of forest gardeners: ecology, horticulture, design, cooperation. It is for hobby gardeners, smallholders, community gardeners and landscape professionals. Forest Gardening In Practice features: A history of forest gardening; Step-by step guide to creating your own edible ecosystem; 121 in-depth case studies of established forest gardens and edible landscapes in Europe and the USA; Chapters on integrating animals, learning, enterprises, working in community and public settings.

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In 2003 Ben Law captivated the nation by building his woodland house on Channel 4s Grand Designs programme, the home was later voted the most popular Grand Design ever by viewers. The presenter, Kevin McCloud, loved the project so much that he has written the foreword to this book! A Grand Designs Revisited programme was aired on British TV in October 2005. Full of stunning colour photographs, The Woodland House is a visual guide to how Ben built his outstandingly beautiful home in the woods. It is also a practical manual, and the story of a man realising a lifetimes dream to build one of the most sustainable and beautiful homes in Britain. The Woodland House gives details of the evolving design process, the identifying of materials, costings, project management and the actual building. It proves that low cost, low impact and high aesthetics can go hand in hand and that it is possible to build green and affordably. As the pre-eminent UK example of building with wood and renewable materials this will also appeal to the growing number of people with environmental and green interests, as well as to the building community

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Learn how to create your own no dig, organic garden with permaculture design and techniques. Vera's 15 years of experience as a no dig gardener provides a vast amount of knowledge on growing fruit, vegetables, herbs and flowers. The book is divided into two sections, container gardening and permaculture kitchen gardening. Part One shares knowledge especially useful to urban gardeners and those with little space. Part Two advises on starting and maintaining a garden. Vera's speciality is creating beautiful and delicious polycultures and she offers a range of examples to get you started and the knowledge to experiment. She also includes recipes for your fresh harvests. Chapters on making compost, building raised beds, and a monthly job guide make this useful for all levels of gardener. Vera demonstrates that gardens can look beautiful and be productive, and her advice and examples encourage us to look at our own growing spaces in a different light. We no longer need to hide our veggie patches; they can take centre stage. Why not incorporate cut flowers with herbs, brassicas and peas? Or plant a pottager garden? These examples will help people create edible paradises everywhere, like patios, balconies, windowsills, allotments, community and school gardens, front and back gardens and anywhere else we can grow.

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Septic Tank Options & Alternatives by Feidhlim Harty is a user-friendly guide through the maze of selecting an eco-friendly sewage treatment option for your home. With so many different treatment systems and technologies available, it can be a challenge to make the choice that really reflects your values and priorities. This book lists conventional and alternative sewage treatment systems and outlines the pros and cons of each in a straightforward and non-technical way. Septic Tank Options covers The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved systems, plus innovative sustainable solutions, and also proposes alternatives where site and soil conditions are suboptimal. This book is a must for anyone worried about how well their current system is working, for people undergoing inspections, or for those who know they need an upgrade but don't know where to start. It is an invaluable guide for architects and engineers who are guiding clients through the options available, and gives treatment options that may be less costly, less energy intensive and more eco-friendly than an inspector may propose. It covers: Initial check - assessing your current treatment situation, Making good - examining the potential for repairs and improvements, Taking stock - looking at your site characteristics, priorities and personal preferences, Options available - different treatment systems explained, Putting it into action - planning, implementation and maintenance. If you want to be proactive about getting your system working and make sure you have as eco-friendly and cost effective option as you can, then this holistic overview is the book to read.

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A handy, accessible guide to creating your own paradise plot where you can forage throughout the year Anna Locke condenses years of hands-on experience to walk you through the skills and techniques you need to design and plant a delicious, useful, and thriving garden in town or country that is also a haven for wildlife as well as for humans. She encourages us to see our gardens as part of a bigger, local food strategy that can help to generate abundance, health and resilience. This book provides: An overview of organic gardening techniques-great for the beginner A basic, accessible guide to designing your garden Insights into how to plant guilds and choose what is right for your space Valuable information on how 'weeds' can become harvests A choice of nutritious, seasonal plants for any sized plot Techniques to grow maximum food with minimal work Practices that reconnect you with Nature and enhance well-being Money saving tips to make a forager's garden available to anyone! The Forager's Garden demonstrates one of the easiest and most enjoyable ways possible to grow and harvest food.

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The Visionary Spirit offers a vision of hope which points to a new era of emancipatory living that Mick Collins calls the Transfromocene Age. In a masterfully crafted manual, Mick Collins draws on the wisdom and knowledge of the imaginal realm, where dreams, myth and synchronicity help us to re-align to the natural world and to our innate wholeness. He describes a transformative process, from the Anthropocene and our current scale of planetary destruction, to a new era of wisdom and balance. Drawing inspiration from diverse fields such as the sacred feminine, indigenous wisdom, daimons and near-death experiences, this book is enlivened by fascinating, real-life stories of people who have engaged in deep processes of psycho-spiritual change. The Visionary Spirit is a radical manifesto for soulful and creative living. At the end of each chapter there is an exercise, providing opportunities for experiential reflection, aiding the reader on their personal journey. This is not just a deep exploration of human transformation, it is a radical proposition for new ways of living creatively, spiritually, harmoniously and responsibly on planet Earth.

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Grow your own beautiful multilayered food forest in your own backyard. Pippa Chapman is an RHS trained gardener who designs, plants and maintains abundant, biodiverse, edible and beautiful forest gardens. Here she shares her practical tips for realistically transforming your own plot, whatever its size, and with limited time, money and resources. A forest garden doesn't have to be big; you can grow a productive edible paradise in pots and containers too. Pippa explains how to create multiple layers on a small-scale to maximise your growing area, using polycultures and guilds for healthy, low-maintenance food. She shares how to use perennials for structure and for year-round food, and how to incorporate flowers for beauty, wildlife and for the kitchen. Chapters on permaculture design and forest gardening give practical advice on how to plan and plant your own garden, with guilds and plant profiles to give real-life examples to help you get started. Useful tips on propagation and seed saving help keep plant costs low and a handy chapter on the soil-food web will help you understand your own soil and how to keep it healthy.

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Award winning author and self-sufficiency practitioner Liz Zorab takes readers on a highly entertaining and joyful celebration through the seasons. Following on from her hugely popular debut book, Grounded, Liz returns with The Seasoned Gardener, inviting you on a personal and yet totally relatable journey of growing and learning through the gardening year. Illustrated with a delicious selection of Liz's own photos, The Seasoned Gardener provides an abundance of friendly advice and hundreds of top tips on what to and what not to do as she inspires gardeners of all levels to have a go at growing tastier and healthier food for themselves and to benefit the natural world. The Seasoned Gardener inspires you to connect with your garden and surroundings and explains how the veg garden sits within the wider context of the landscape, highlighting the importance the seasons, weather, microclimates, water cycles and light levels play on growing successful and healthy crops. Liz's down-to-earth writing style has been likened to having a helpful neighbour chatting over the garden fence. Her enthusiasm is infectious, and every chapter is filled with plenty of advice on what to grow, when to seed and plant out, what pitfalls to avoid - having learned from her own mistakes - and how to be creative with what you have around you.

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What are the amazing healing effects of trees and shrubs? How does tree bark effectively reduce inflammation? How can fruits and leaves help recovery and build resilience? Discover therapeutic benefits of trees and shrubs, ranging from forest bathing to soothing remedies, from painkillers to stressbusters. Anne Stobart draws on her direct experience as a medical herbalist, and shares how to recognise useful trees and shrubs and then harvest and create a range of herbal supplies, from fir needles to jujube fruits. Anne includes profiles of 80 trees and shrubs suited to temperate climates with recommendations on their uses. Learn the abundant and sustainable sources of healing available from trees and shrubs and how they can be safely used within a range of settings, from gardens and food forests to woodlands and permaculture projects. Ideal for foragers, gardeners and growers, walkers and wilderness lovers, agroforesters and forest schoolers, and anyone interested in herbal medicine. The book is laid out in two parts. Part One introduces the potential of the medicinal forest for therapeutic use, remedies for common complaints, medicines for repair and recovery from illness, and how these healing plants can be grown and used for the health of people and planet. Anne explains the importance of reconnecting with medicinal trees and shrubs through sustainable use and the benefits for environmental concerns. Part Two incorporates a directory of 80 woody species, from large trees to small shrubs, offering a range of plants for any sized growing space. Each profile comes with illustrated and accessible content on identification and habitat, medicinal parts and uses, safety advice, suggested preparations alongside a suggested recipe for each medicinal tree or shrub.

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Living With The Earth is a three volume series bringing together years of hands-on organic growing experience and research from the world-renowned Bec Hellouin Farm in France. In 2006, Perrine and Charles Herve-Gruyer set out on a mission to discover a new form of agriculture that provides organic crops, creates healthy soil and brings meaningful employment to the local community. A combination of biointensive methods and permaculture design, which they have named 'ecoculture', and backed by scientific research, has resulted in a highly abundant market garden that sequesters carbon and frees up land for Nature. This beautifully illustrated, comprehensive first volume shows you how natural systems work, and explains how a wide range of simple and effective techniques can create ecologically diverse gardens or highly productive farms. The in-depth chapters on weather patterns, soil types and ecosystem services, give the reader a sound understanding of the environment they are growing in. The book covers everything you need to design a farm and implement a high-yielding food system from scratch, from understanding permaculture and its tools to the full design process, using the successful systems at Bec Hellouin as examples. Chapters on composting, mulching, fertilisers, green manures and working with beneficial microorganisms offer the reader a selection of tools for creating healthy soil within the farm ecosystem. This is a unique, groundbreaking book for gardeners, homesteaders, farmers, agronomists and permaculture designers.

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Beans are easy to grow, easy to cook, delicious, nourishing and beneficial for us and the planet. Growing your own beans not only helps you build healthy soil in your garden, it also provides you with a nutrient-rich diet. Beans can play a role in reducing the risk of obesity, diabetes, heart disease and cancer – they are good sources of protein, fibre, folate, iron and potassium – and they can reduce your carbon footprint and food miles as well! This fascinating book brings together Susan Young’s 10 years of experimentation with multiple varieties of beans. She clearly explains how to sow, grow, harvest, dry, store and cook them, and shares her six ‘must grow’ varieties. Go on a tasty culinary journey around the world and discover a range of colourful and historic beans, from the pink ‘Fagiolo di Lamon’ of Italy to the black and white ‘Bosnian Pole’ bean. Learn which varieties are best for eating fresh from the pod and those that are best for drying and storing for later use. Beans offer year-round nutritious meals, and dried beans can be the star of the show with their fabulous diversity of flavours, colours and textures.

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In How to Read the Landscape Patrick explains everything from the details, such as the signs which wild animals leave as their signatures and the meaning behind the shapes of different trees, to how whole landscapes, including woodland, grassland and moorland, fit together and function as a whole.

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This title contains plenty of delicious, healthy and wholesome exploitation-free recipes. It provides solution-based approaches to nurturing personal effectiveness and health. It discusses eco-friendly living, home and garden design, veganic food growing and community regeneration. Graham Burnett demonstrates how understanding universal patterns and principles, and applying these to our own gardens and lives, can make a very real difference to both our personal lives and the health of our planet. Interspersed with an abundance of delicious, healthy and wholesome exploitation-free recipes, Graham provides solutions-based approaches to nurturing personal effectiveness and health, eco-friendly living, home and garden design, veganic food growing, reafforestation strategies, forest gardening, reconnection with wild nature and community regeneration with plenty of practical ways to be well fed with not an animal dead!

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The permaculture classic that launched a new movement in edible, wildlife-friendly gardening! The Permaculture Garden shows you how to transform a yard or even the smallest space into a highly productive garden that works in harmony with nature. Learn how to: * Plan your garden layout for easy access and minimum labour * Save energy on unnecessary chores like digging and weeding with techniques like mulching and growing ground covers * Save money by using upcycled containers to create a beautiful space * Use successional cropping to produce year-round harvests and build healthy soil * Choose the best plants for different sites and enjoy the benefits of plant communities * Reduce your impact by saving energy and harvesting water * Discourage pests and diseases without using chemicals. Gardening expert and world-class permaculture teacher, Graham Bell, offers a wealth of practical advice including planning a garden from a bare plot, designing raised beds, creating ponds and streams, building terraces on slopes, constructing greenhouses and providing special areas for children or animals. Whether you are looking for just a few improvements or the beginnings of self-sufficiency, you can become a positive changemaker in your own back yard with this lively, practical guide.

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The challenging times we live in show us that there is no going back to 'normal' life, but how do we step forward? Looby Macnamara, international thought leader and teacher, introduces 'Cultural Emergence', a framework and toolkit that enables us to design the world we want to live in. It activates healing and revolutionises our approach to creating life-sustaining and regenerative cultures. Drawing upon the lineages of indigenous wisdom, permaculture design and systems thinking, Cultural Emergence is a profoundly effective toolkit for creating a new understanding of culture. It shows us how to: * Expand our thinking and possibilities * Better understand where problems come from and, by using radical reflection on the root causes, create successful healing strategies * Embody the learning and effectively embed the changes in our lives into new ways of interacting and being * Build our individual and collective resilience in turbulent times and support ourselves to proactively adjust to transitions - whether they are personal life changes or collective challenges such as climate change * Use the tools to create the conditions for emergence, informing the creation of cultures of care, connection, peace, health, effectiveness and trust. Cultural Emergence is visionary, practical, wise and simple to use. It is a message of hope with tools for empowerment. Filled with stories of people around the world who have benefited using this approach, it inspires us with possibilities. It is a timely, much-needed book that has the potential to be useful to everyone and enable deep and radical transformation.

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Practical information on growing, harvesting and using medicinal trees and shrubs sustainably in a temperate climate, whether for self-sufficiency or profit The author draws on her direct experience of creating a medicinal forest garden in the UK to provide supplies for herbal medicine in practice. She provides advice on the design of new planting projects which can meet the needs of different users from small gardens to smallholdings and agroforestry. Includes: . How medicinal trees can contribute to health and the environment . Practical advice on designing with medicinal trees and shrubs using permaculture principles, as well as their propagation and establishment . Combinations of woody and other layers of medicinal plants suitable for creating a medicinal forest garden or inclusion in other growing projects . Management for a sustainable harvest including coppicing and pollarding of medicinal trees and shrubs . Key medicinal constituents of woody plants and research studies into their effects . How to harvest and preserve products from medicinal trees and shrubs effectively . Recipes for making a range of herbal health care products . Detailed monographs on medicinal trees and shrubs, providing fully referenced information about their medicinal potential and uses, alongside cultivation and harvest details AUTHOR: Anne Stobart is an experienced consultant medical herbalist and herb grower and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Exeter, UK. She is co-founder of Holt Wood Herbs, where she has transformed a conifer plantation into a medicinal forest garden. Anne has worked extensively in education, including leading a professional herbal medicine programme at Middlesex University in London, UK. Full-colour photographs throughout

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Since building his famous Woodland House from his own woodland, author Ben Law has evolved his own style of natural building, now tried and tested on many other builds across England. Ben has built houses, workshops, a classroom, lean-tos, a shop and a store to industrial specifications. Whilst this style’s origins can be found in traditional forms of building, Ben has developed an entirely new vernacular using many innovative ideas and techniques. Filled with detailed colour photographs and drawings, this unique and practical `how to’ book, is unquestionably a benchmark for sustainable building. Roundwood Timber Framing encourages communication between woodsmen, planners, architects and builders, and helps to close the loop between environmental conservation, use of renewable local resources and the regeneration and evolution of traditional skills, to create durable, ecological and beautiful buildings. Ben is a now a much admired figure. His previous books have sold extremely well and this book, with its highly original and fascinating contribution to design and build, is set to capture the public’s imagination and desire to increasingly learn traditional crafts.

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Wonderlands of bounty and beauty, orchards offer an abundance of fruit in a wildlife haven full of diversity. A well-managed orchard works with nature to provide maximum harvest for minimal effort. Wade Muggleton has distilled 20 years of orchard know-how into this practical handbook to help you plan, plant and manage your orchard, whatever your garden size or budget. With his expert guidance you can have an orchard on any plot-garden, yard, allotment or smallholding-and both maximise your harvest and minimise your outlay. The book covers: Rootstocks and fruit varieties Planting plans Maintenance strategies Pruning Propagation Eco-friendly pest and disease management Harvesting Storing Preserving the harvest The diversity, history and heritage of apples and other fruit trees is fascinating, and Wade's passion for them is infectious. Let him draw you into a world of apples and pears, walnuts and cobnuts, cherries and plums; of ancient varieties such as quince, medlar and mulberry; and even of juicy apricots, figs and peaches. Imagine having organic fruit all year round from your own little nature haven and use Wade's tried and tested experience to create your perfect orchard.

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Martin Crawford is an internationally acknowledged expert on growing perennial food systems. It features a selection of the 100 best trees to grow. It includes appendices with lists of suitable trees for specific situations. Martin Crawford has researched and experimented with tree crops for 25 years and has selected over 100 of the best trees producing fruits, nuts, edible leaves and other useful products that can be grown in Europe and North America. The appendices makes choosing trees for your situation easy, with lists of suitable trees for specific situations plus flow charts to guide you. If you want to know about and use the large diversity of tree crops that are available in temperate and continental climates, then this book is both fascinating and essential reading by an internationally acknowledged expert.

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This book introduces us to the author's top 80 perennial leafy green vegetables and will be of interest both to traditional vegetable and even ornamental gardeners. It includes recipes inspired by local traditional gastronomy. This book takes us on an original and inspiring adventure around the temperate world, introducing us to the author's top 80 perennial leafy green vegetables. We are taken underground gardening in Tokyo, beach gardening in the UK, and traditional roof gardening in the Norwegian mountains...There are stories of the wild foraging traditions of indigenous people in all continents: from the Maori of New Zealand and the rich food traditions of the Mediterranean peoples to the high altitude food plants of the Sherpas in the Himalayas. Around the World in 80 Plants will be of interest both to traditional vegetable and ornamental. A thorough description is given of each vegetable, its traditions, stories, cultivation, where to source seed and plants, and how to propagate it.Sprinkled with recipes inspired by local traditional gastronomy, this is a fascinating book, an entertaining adventure, and a real milestone in climate-friendly vegetable growing from a pioneering expert on the subject.

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The Permaculture Way shows us how to consciously design a lifestyle which is low in environmental impact and highly productive. It demonstrates how to meet our needs, make the most of resources by minimizing waste and maximizing potential, and still leave the Earth richer than we found it.

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Packed with stunning colour photographs, The Woodland Year is an intimate month-by-month journey through Ben Law's yearly cycle of work, his naturally attuned lifestyle and his deep understanding of the wood in which he lives. Each month includes guest contributions from woodlanders in other parts of England and Wales. The Woodland Year provides a fascinating insight to every aspect of sustainable woodland management; the cycles of nature, seasonal tasks, wild food gathering, wine making, mouthwatering and useful recipes, coppice crafts, round pole timber frame eco-building (pioneered by Ben in the UK), nature conservation, species diversity, tree profiles and the use of horses for woodland work. This is a profound book that is both practical and poetic. It describes a way of life that is economically and ecologically viable and sets a new standard for managing our woods in a low impact, sustainable way. As such, it holds some of the fundamental keys to how we can achieve a lower carbon society. AUTHOR: Ben Law has always had a passion for healthy, biodiverse farms and woodlands. Having gained an Advanced National Certificate in Agriculture, Ben became a shepherd and set up a conservation landscaping business, specialising in ponds and wild flower meadows. Bens appearance on Channel 4's Grand Designs is the most watched in the series history, is the hosts and publics favourite episode and was one of the 25 programmes chosen to represent Channel 4's 25th anniversary. Ben visited the Amazon in the late 1980s looking for positive solutions to deforestation and on his return set up and directed the charity, The Forest Management Foundation, working primarily with community forestry in Papua New Guinea. He has also worked for Oxfam as a permaculture consultant. Ben was a founding member of the Forest Stewardship Council and has lived and worked at Prickly Nut Woods in West Sussex, UK, since 1991; training apprentices and running courses on sustainable woodland management, eco-building and permaculture design. He runs a specialist eco-building company, The Roundwood Timber Framing Company Limited. 318 colour photographs

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From the best-selling, award winning author of No Dig Organic Home and Garden, Stephanie Hafferty offers a pathway to low cost, zero waste and as plastic free living as possible. She shows you the advantages and pleasures of cooking seasonally and making organic products for you and your family's health and happiness. Learn how to be resourceful, creative and inspired by what is seasonal and close to hand for a 100% organic home. Make your own: *Main meals, sides, soups and salads *Store cupboard ingredients like flavoured salts, vinegars, herb mixes, essences *Drinks (including cordials, teas and liqueurs) *Soaps, balms, cleansers, toothpaste and much more!

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A comprehensive hands-on guide for builders - both self-builders and professionals - and an essential handbook for designers that includes many construction details. Straw bale buildings are warm in winter and cool in summer. The natural materials used create beautiful healthy homes that also have a low environmental impact. For self-builders, working with straw is affordable and enjoyable. In professional construction, a positive relationship between quality, price and long-term savings can easily be achieved. Straw bale is also especially suited to community-based projects as it generates curiosity and often needs groups of enthusiastic volunteers. This complete guide gives detailed descriptions about how straw bales react to different applications and enables anyone to design and build these natural homes in different climates. Included are: * Step-by-step instructions for many processes * Tips, tricks, advice and warnings * Over 600 photos, drawings and diagrams * Materials, tools and building techniques * Solutions to common problems * Plans for a practice straw bale building Since every build is unique (availability of materials, skills, budget, climate etc.), many different and varied building techniques are explained. Self-builders will learn a vast array of skills and the confidence to build on their own, while professionals will be enabled to successfully incorporate bale building into their portfolios.

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The Permaculture Guide to Reed Beds is a comprehensive overview of reed bed systems and treatment wetlands for household effluent treatment. Going from system selection and design to construction, planting and maintenance; this guide offers the reader a complete how-to manual for getting your own reed bed system up and running. Reed beds are an efficient, effective, low-energy filter system for protecting local groundwater and streams from septic tank effluent and greywater. This thorough book explains the background to wastewater treatment and water quality and describes how reed beds work to get wastewater clean again. Reed beds and treatment wetlands are well-established elements within permaculture design, and many of the permaculture principles are readily applied to them. This guide goes a step further than simply explaining how to design and build reed beds by providing greater insight into permaculture as a design tool and exploring how to maximize the yields, beneficial relationships, and sustainability of the reed bed and indeed the whole sewage treatment process within your site. Complete with an overview of planning guidelines for the UK and Ireland, The Permaculture Guide to Reed Beds is an invaluable resource for homeowners who want to build their own system. It is also an essential reference manual for permaculture designers, architects, engineers, landscape designers, planners and others with an interest in this area. Easy to follow and clearly set out, with beautiful line drawings to illustrate the text, this is a book you'll find both useful and inspiring.

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Grow your own seasonal food in a low maintenance, nature-friendly garden that feels like a woodland glade. Scottish plant expert Alan Carter shows you how to plan and plant a temperate forest garden for any sized plot-from a small terrace garden to an allotment or smallholding. Learn how to successfully layer root crops, fruit, perennial vegetables and edible shrubs below tree crops, cultivating an edible garden that doesn't look like a traditional vegetable plot. A forest garden is wildlife friendly, provides nutrient-dense and often unusual food through every season, and requires minimal work to maintain. The first part of this in-depth, practical guide explains how a forest garden works, how to map your climate and design your own plot, and how to manage it with mulching, weeding and pruning. What's not to like about Alan's motto of "the more you pick, the more you get," and intriguing concepts such as the Panda Principle? The second half of the book is a detailed directory of more than 170 plants and fungi suitable for a wide range of temperate climates, complete with growing, harvesting and cooking tips based on over a decade of Alan's own experience. Learn how to incorporate traditional fruit and vegetable crops, such as strawberries and beans, into your forest garden, and how to weave in more unusual crops, such as shiitake mushrooms and ferns. Techniques from agro-ecology bring regenerative farming into the backyard, helping you to work towards greater self-sufficiency. Useful tips on seed saving and propagation help keep plant costs low, and there is practical advice on soil health, compost-essential for all no dig, organic gardeners-and pests and disease. A Food Forest in Your Garden will help you create your own productive forest gardens even in cooler climates.

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This book explores ways to address personal, social and environmental concerns in simple practical steps in our daily lives. It explains how individuals and communities can work together to achieve positive change. It discusses the current political and mainstream paradigms and where they are leading us. The thoughts and actions of people past and present have determined the current state of our planet. If we change our thinking, we can change the health of our own lives, and also the future state of our world. 7 Ways to Think Differently explores ways to address personal, social and environmental concerns in simple practical steps in our daily lives, helping us to make incremental, achievable changes. As well as addressing our internal landscapes, Looby explains how individuals and communities can work together to achieve positive change. She also explores the current political and mainstream paradigms and where they are leading us.

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In Building A Low Impact Roundhouse Tony Wrench shares his many years of experience, his skills and techniques, his ups and downs, always in a witty and inspiring manner. The book covers the process of visualising and designing a house through to the practical side of lifting the living roof, infilling the walls, laying out rooms and adding renewable, autonomous technology. Building A Low Impact Roundhouse has become a classic text. Tonys home and lifestyle have attracted the interest of the media and he and his partner continue to inspire many individuals and communities to seek out ways of living more sustainably. Now in its fourth edition, with a fascinating 2014 update. Tony also includes sections on the physical design and writes about the lifestyle required for living in a roundhouse. He offers advice on roofs, floors, walls, compost toilets, wood stoves, kitchens, windows and on planning permission. There are additional photographs of life in and around the dwelling and illustrations from the construction plans for one of the UK's most unique of homes. This true and captivating story covers the realisation of a lifetime s dream as well as being a practical how to manual for anyone who loves the idea of low impact living and wants to self-build an affordable, organic home.

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This is the best-selling book written by the co-founder of the Fairtrade movement, Francisco Van der Hoff Boersma. It tells the fascinating story of how Fairtrade began and how it has evolved as a potent solution to rural poverty. It offers practical and tested solutions to alleviate global poverty and a vision of world-dignity and self-reliance. This 'little yellow book' is a charter for everyone who is looking to create an alternative, more equitable and harmonious world. Written by the co-founder of Fairtrade movement, Francisco Van der Hoff Boersma, it uses models of Fairtrade and small-scale organic farming to explain why Fairtrade farmers don't need all the money and luxury that is deemed so important in the West to thrive. By earning a fair wage for their produce and through hard work, they can create inclusive, vibrant communities of people who are interconnected, valued and celebrated. The author also tells the fascinating story of how Fairtrade began and how it has evolved as a potent solution to rural poverty.This best-selling book is an inspiring account of the campesino movement that offers practical and tested solutions to alleviate global poverty and a vision of world-dignity and self- reliance.

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This book explains everything you need to know to grow a low maintenance edible polyculture. Do you dream of a low maintenance perennial garden that is full to the brim of perennial vegetables that you don't have to keep replanting, but only have a small space? Do you struggle with too little time for gardening or controlling the pests and diseases that eat your crops? Do you want to grow unusual vegetable varieties? You can do all of this with Edible Perennial Gardening. Anni Kelsey has meticulously researched the little known subject of edible perennials and selected her favourite, tasty varieties. She explains how to source and propagate different vegetables, which plants work well together in a polyculture, and what you can plant in small, shady or semi-shady beds as well as in sunny areas.

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That we need money to live like it or not is a self-evident truism. Right? Not anymore. Drawing on almost three years of experience as The Moneyless Man, ex-businessman Mark Boyle not only demystifies money and the system that binds us to it, he also explains how liberating, easy and enjoyable it is to live with less of it. In this book, Mark takes us on an exploration that goes deeper into the thinking that pushed him to make the decision to go moneyless, and the philosophy he developed along the way. Bursting with radical new perspectives on some of the vital, yet often unquestioned, pillars of economic theory and what it really means to be 'sustainable' as well as creative and practical solutions for how we can live more with less Boyle offers us one of the world s most thought-provoking voices on economic and ecological ideas. Mark's original, witty style will help simplify and diversify your personal economy, freeing you from the invisible ties that limit you, and making you more resilient to financial shocks. The Moneyless Manifesto will enable you to start your journey into a new world.

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The way we currently produce our food is damaging both to ourselves and our planet: we need to create gardens, woodlands and farms which are in harmony with nature. Though all natural ecosystems provide excellent examples to follow, Plants For a Future specifically focuses on edible species, suggesting a wide variety of easily grown perennials and self-seeding annuals which produce delicious and healthy food. Describing edible and other useful plants, both native to Britain and Europe, and from other temperate areas around the world, Plants For a Future includes those suitable for: the ornamental garden, the lawn, shady areas, ponds, walls, hedges, agroforestry and conservation. It offers alternative methods of growing these plants in ways that are in harmony with the local environment and can help to improve the overall health of the planet. In his thoroughly useful book, Ken Fern shares his experiments and successes in growing herbs, vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees. Packed with information, personal anecdotes and detailed appendices and indexes, this pioneering book takes gardening, conservation and ecology into a new dimension.

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A practical workbook to apply permaculture to any project from start to finish, this is a step-by-step guide for integrating places and people, buildings and ecosystems. The Permaculture Design Companion is a tried and tested process to creating a coherent, relevant and engaging design. Based on over 20 years of experience, this design guide has been used to teach over 1000 people. Many have gone on to establish thriving permaculture smallholdings, build their own natural homes and ethical businesses, and create productive urban food gardens. It is a thorough and effective design tool, suitable for absolute beginners and advanced practice. The process can be used for small to large projects, in urban spaces or the countryside--whatever your situation. This unique resource combines analysis, creativity and inner work. It will inspire you to design with nature, bring clarity and organisation to your ideas, and provide the momentum and support to make your designs become reality. AUTHOR: Jasmine's permaculture journey began 20 years ago; she has been teaching design and practical skills to regenerate land and create ecologically sound homes through grassroots solutions since 2006. Her practical experience is rooted in many years of transforming bare fields into biodiverse, edible landscapes; natural building and living a One Planet footprint.

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This book will teach you everything you need to know about feeding your garden, orchard or smallholding with homemade and chemical-free `teas'. It is packed with recipes for creating nutrient-rich, healthy soil, to give you healthy plants and ecosystems. Author, Eric Fisher, provides an in depth history of organic agriculture and the rise in chemical inputs. He then goes on to explore the importance of nutrients, their cycles and the structure of soil. This enables the reader to truly understand their soil and own ecosystem, so they can manage it properly. Once we understand how soil and nutrients work, it is easier to diagnose the problems and find a natural remedy. Eric provides recipes for a wide range of compost teas that can remedy many different problems, as well as for natural pesticides and insecticides. Eric shows the reader how to use the plants growing around them to create these `teas', using aerobic and anaerobic processes, as well as how to grow specific plants to encourage beneficial insects for healthy ecosystems. Eric's aim is for growers to feel confident in diagnosing plant disease and pest problems, and then be able to create the right remedy for the problem. If we can care for the health of our plants and soil without using chemicals, we can save money, encourage others to do the same, and show agri-business that their chemical inputs are not necessary.

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Discover the joys of keeping The Biotime Log! Biotime, or biological time, runs at a very different pace and rhythm to human time. It can be observed by recording events in the natural world. These can be as varied as the day the first spring bulb opens, the last frost before summer, or the first sighting of a species of bird or insect in a new habitat. These events can be part of a larger natural rhythm, like the turning of the seasons, or an indicator of slow changes in an ecosystem, like unusual weather patterns or an increase of average temperatures. This helps gardeners, nature watchers. On a larger scale, we can also reflect on our own biological rhythms relating to the waxing and waning of the moon and the seasons and beyond! The Biotime Log provides a sound introduction to biotime and how to keep your own log. This is useful for: *Gardeners to plan new plantings and crops protection *Nature lovers to record natural rhythms like the annual migration of birds *Ecologists to log new volunteer species in the local ecosystem *For health and wellbeing, to record our own biological rhythms relating to the waxing and waning of the moon and the seasons. Beautifully illustrated, this ready-made book in which you can note your day-to-day observations will last for years. There are no days or years, just the dates of each month with two days allocated to each page. This allows you to record events by first adding the year at the beginning of each of your entries. Over time you build a picture that you can refer to year on year to compare your observations. Create your own fascinating record of your local environment and its rhythms and mysteries! Your observation will deepen your connection with the natural world around you, your understanding of its cycles, and your appreciation of your local ecosystems.

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“An invaluable resource” Huw Richards If you want to grow your own food, become more self sufficient, zero waste or eco friendly, or even go fully off grid, Liz Zorab is the perfect guide to help you explore the world of green living and permaculture. Grounded is the story of her gardening journey: from bare field to bountiful feast; from poor soil to fertile abundance; from rookie errors to successful sustainability. Liz and her husband, Mr J, transformed a tired 0.8 acre field into a fertile homestead that provides 80% of their food and drink – with enough left over to stock a community veggie box scheme! An inspiring blend of practical tips and ideas with personal narrative and a good smattering of humour, Grounded will show you how to: ` Fill your garden without emptying your pocket ` Make the most of the space you have ` Be creative with resources ` Achieve more without exhausting yourself ` Become more resilient ` Enjoy the process as much as the results This is a tale of courage and imagination that will inspire you to grow your own productive paradise and live your dreams.

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This critically acclaimed and definitive permaculture design book was the inspiration that BBC2's Brigit Strawbridge (of Its Not Easy Being Green) needed to attend her first permaculture design course with Patrick Whitefield, setting her and her family off on a voyage of discovery which is helping to introduce and inspire others. Already hailed in the UK, Europe and America as definitive, and reprinted by popular demand, The Earth Care Manual offers an inspirational yet practical vision of a sustainable future invaluable to those new to the subject as well as to the experienced practitioner. The permaculture movement started in the 1970s as a sustainable alternative to modern industrial agriculture, taking its inspiration from natural ecosystems. It initially placed an emphasis on gardening, with proponents of permaculture since expanding on its principles; addressing all subjects vital to sustainability, from building and community design to food, energy, water, microclimate and shelter. All of these topics and more are addressed in The Earth Care Manual, demonstrating that permaculture is an interconnecting framework linking a diversity of green ideas.Its aims are a low input, high output efficient use of resources, and genuine sustainability. The Earth Care Manual gives a vision of a sustainable future and the practical steps we can take towards it, both large and small, urban and rural. Written by Patrick Whitefield, one of Europes foremost teachers and practitioners of temperate permaculture, it explains in depth how to apply permaculture to any situation, from the smallest of buildings or apartments, to houses, gardens, orchards, farms and woodlands.

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The combination of cheap, easily available materials, margin for error, suitability for amateurs and flexibility in terms of size and shape, make ferrocement tanks an ideal choice for anyone looking for long-term water security on a budget, and they work well in all but the harshest environment. With hands-on experience, the authors provide a detailed guide to enable confident and safe construction by anyone interested in building their own ferrocement tank. Felicity and Daniel share their reasons for choosing these tanks, how they calculated their water needs and how they constructed and maintain their tanks that cater for all their needs. With our weather patterns drastically shifting between drought and flood due to the climate change, it is vital to have reserves of water to rely on. Felicity and Daniel self-built their own house and included water tanks. They achieved water security for less than the cost of joining the local water network! Whether you are creating your own off-grid home, or want to reduce your carbon footprint and reliance on mains water, the ferrocement tank offers a simple, achievable and robust DIY solution.

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How to Permaculture Your Life is a resource book for anyone who wants to live a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle. It discusses: some of the most nutritious food and fodder plants, how to build gardens and improve our soils, strategies for rural properties, how to harvest, store, conserve and reuse water and energy, and much more!

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This is the first book to explore how to use permaculture design and principles for people - to restore personal, social and planetary well-being. People & Permaculture widens the definition of permaculture from being mainly about land-based systems to include our own lives, relationships and society. This book provides a framework to help each of us improve our ability to care for ourselves, our friends, families and for the Earth. It is also a clear guide for those who may be new to permaculture, who may not even have a garden, but who wish to be involved in making changes to their lives and living more creative, low carbon lives. People & Permaculture transforms the context of permaculture making it relevant to everyone. Including over 50 practical activities, People & Permaculture empowers readers with tried and tested tools to initiate positive change in their lives. It is a hands-on yet powerful guide to creating a sustainable world.

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Grow your own fruit and vegetables, herbs, salads and sprouts, and then turn your produce into delicious, no-fuss vegan meals that are healthy for you and the planet. Father and daughter team, Piers Warren and Ella Bee Glendining, share successful growing techniques and seasonal recipes, plus years of experience of animal-free, healthy living. They show you how to: * Grow your own food * Garden without animal products * Grow more challenging but delicious crops * Produce food all year with practical growing techniques * Store any excess to keep you going through the leaner months * Cook your produce with a selection of satisfying and delicious recipes Discover the fun and huge sense of satisfaction that comes from cooking something you have produced yourself. Grow and eat for a more ethical, healthy and sustainable world!

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In Volume 2, they dive deep into the detail in a comprehensive manual of growing fruit and vegetables on a small farm and market garden scale. Subjects include:* growing methods* soil preparation* plant densities and crop associations* irrigation and harvesting* growing year-round* vegetables, micro greens, tree crops and forest gard

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A book for everyone who loves trees and woodlands...This 2015 edition of the 2001 classic is written from the heart by an innovative woodsman who is deeply committed to sustainability, this radical book presents an immensely practical alternative to conventional woodland management. Through his personal experience, Ben Law clearly demonstrates how you can create biodiverse, healthy environments, yield a great variety of value added products, provide secure livelihoods for woodland workers and farmers, and benefit the local community. He argues the case for a new approach to planning, encouraging the creation of permaculture woodlands for the benefit of people, the local environment and the global climate.

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More than ever, people across the planet want deep and meaningful change. From those campaigning for social justice and ecological sustainability, to those who want to protect animals, indigenous cultures and those in poverty, millions are realising that another world is not only possible, but absolutely essential. Yet despite the creative and determined efforts of so many, our crises deepen. A politico-economic system, increasingly benefiting a small elite, has brought us to the brink of climate catastrophe, ransacking ecosystems and unravelling communities, forcing us into unhealthy ways of life that conflict with our deepest yearnings. The problem may no longer be a lack of will - but a dogmatic adherence to laws and cultural narratives designed to keep things just the way they are. In this incendiary book, best-selling author Mark Boyle explores, with terrible beauty, the uncharted depths of these challenges, and how we might face them with dignity, great heart and potency.Drawing on inspiration from the natural world, he sets out the case for the rewilding of our political landscapes, calling for solidarity between reformers, revolutionaries and resisters for the creation of a world worth sustaining. His uncompromising and surprising conclusions could revolutionise the way we face the challenges of our time.

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With interest in natural skincare rocketing and Blend-It-Yourself Skincare listed among the Top 5 Trends for 2018, there is a thirst for straight-forward information and simple guidance that helps those seeking a natural lifestyle to take control of their own skincare and ingredients. Vital Skincare helps you understand why it is vital to look after your skin, to know the vital products and practices for healthy skin and learn how to add vitality to your skin and routines using the natural ingredients that grow around you. This is not a beauty book! Vital Skincare will help you to: Take control of your own skincare and be confident in your choices, feel and look your best every day, naturally, work with the body you have, in the time you have available, limit the pollutants and alien chemicals in your body and the environment, be more in tune with the natural world in the way you live and with the products you use and learn a natural approach that doesn't cost the earth. By appreciating the many roles skin performs and understanding its natural system you can love and look after your skin simply. Using fresh, local ingredients brings nature into your daily routines to help make you happier, healthier and smarter. It's never too early or too late to start knowing your skin.

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