Start a mini farm on a quarter acre or less, provide 85 percent of the food for a family of four and earn an income. Mini Farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require. Even if you have never been a farmer or a gardener, this book covers everything you need to know to get started: buying and saving seeds, starting seedlings, establishing raised beds, soil fertility practices, composting, dealing with pest and disease problems, crop rotation, farm planning, and much more. Because self-sufficiency is the objective, subjects such as raising backyard chickens and home canning are also covered along with numerous methods for keeping costs down and production high. Materials, tools, and techniques are detailed with photographs, tables, diagrams, and illustrations.

The heart of a sustainable food system \n To ensure food security and restore the health of the planet, we need to move beyond industrial agriculture and return to the practice of small-scale, local farming. The Bioshelter Market Garden: A Permaculture Farm describes the creation of a sustainable food system through a detailed case study of the successful year-round organic market garden and permaculture design at Pennsylvania's Three Sisters Farm. \n At the heart of Three Sisters is its bioshelter ― a solar greenhouse which integrates growing facilities, poultry housing, a potting room, storage, kitchen facilities, compost bins, a reference library and classroom area. The Bioshelter Market Garden examines how the bioshelter promotes greater biodiversity and is an energy efficient method of extending crop production through Pennsylvania's cold winter months. Both visionary and practical, this fully illustrated book contains a wealth of information on the application of permaculture principles. Some of the topics covered include: \n\n Design and management of an intensive market garden farm \n Energy systems and bio-thermal resources \n Ecological soil management and pest control \n Wetlands usage \n Solar greenhouse design and management. \n\n Whatever your gardening experience and ambitions, this comprehensive manual is sure to inform and inspire. \n Darrell Frey is the owner and manager of Three Sisters Farm, a 5-acre permaculture farm, solar greenhouse and market garden located in Western Pennsylvania. Darrell writes extensively on permaculture design and ecological land use planning and has been a sustainable community development consultant and permaculture teacher for 25 years.

Holmgren's seminal work, drawing together and integrating 25 years of thinking and teaching to show a whole new way of understanding and action behind a simple set of design principles. Essential reading for permaculture designers and accessible to a wide range of critical thinkers. This 2017 revised edition is more accessible than the original, with redrawn graphics, corrected and amended text, new references and a newly designed layout that invites the reader into the world of whole systems thinking that is permaculture.

Permaculture One presents unique strategies for creating a food-producing system specifically suited to your needs, whether you garden in your backyard or engage in full-scale farming. By carefully designing a system around functional relationships between plant and animal species you can create a stable 'cultivated ecology' suited to local conditions. The book provides a catalog of 130 trees and plants useful to a permaculture system. The authors have based permaculture on the underlying philosophy 'of working with, rather than against nature' of protracted and thoughtful observation rather than protracted and thoughtless labor; and of looking at plants and animals in all their functions rather than treating any area as a single product system. Focusing throughout the book on providing for human needs while maintaining a deep respect for the finite resources of the earth. Mollison and Holmgren propose an alternative to the resource-hungry methods of commercial agriculture. 'Permaculture One' gives you the tools to begin at your own doorstep.

Sepp Holzer farms steep mountainsides in Austria 1,500 meters above sea level. His farm is an intricate network of terraces, raised beds, ponds, waterways and tracks, well covered with productive fruit trees and other vegetation, with the farmhouse neatly nestling amongst them. This is in dramatic contrast to his neighbors' spruce monocultures.In this book, Holzer shares the skill and knowledge acquired over his lifetime. He covers every aspect of his farming methods, not just how to create a holistic system on the farm itself, but how to make a living from it. Holzer writes about everything from the overall concepts, down to the practical details.In Sepp Holzer's Permaculturereaders will learn: \nHow he sets up a permaculture system The fruit varieties he has found best for permaculture growing How to construct terraces, ponds, and waterways How to build shelters for animals and how to work with them on the land How to cultivate edible mushrooms in the garden and on the farm and much more! \nHolzer offers a wealth of information for the gardener, smallholder or alternative farmer yet the book's greatest value is the attitudes it teaches. He reveals the thinking processes based on principles found in nature that create his productive systems. These can be applied anywhere.

“A useful and a wonderful resource whether you grow on a balcony, rooftop or in the ground.” —Yolanda Burrell, owner of Pollinate Farm and Garden Supply Once a fringe topic, permaculture is moving to the mainstream as organic gardeners discover the wisdom of a simple system that emphasizes the simple idea that by taking care of the earth, the earth takes care of you. The Vegetable Gardener's Guide to Permaculture is for home gardeners of every skill—with any size space—who want to live in harmony with nature to produce and share an abundant food supply with minimal effort. Christopher Shein highlights everything you need to know to start living off the land lightly. You’ll learn how to create rich, healthy, and low-cost soil, blend a functional food garden and decorative landscape, share the bounty with others, and much more.