Integrated Forest Gardening: The Complete Guide to Polycultures and Plant Guilds in Permaculture Systems

If you want a plan of how to polyculture & create a forest garden, this is it. The plan. Illustrated and easy to understand. It gives you examples. It's a very concise book. Great compliment to a permaculturalist, forest gardeners, or homesteaders library. I am using it to start my mini backyard forest garden.

There is some good info in the book I haven’t seen elsewhere but I had hoped for more guild description so I could better understand integrating more food and medicine into my mature forest. frankly, I got bored of the drafting theme for a natural setting and gave the book to my library.

Adds content to expertise provided by B. C. Mollison, David Holmgren, and the late Toby Hemenway.

Despite having a lot of interesting and useful information, I found Integrated Forest Gardening unorganized and not comprehensive on any specific topic or system. I had high hopes of learning from the book, but have been disappointed after several attempts. It may be, as the back cover contends, the most comprehensive book on putting together plant guilds, but still it falls short of being instructive on the subject.Much of the content is background on the basic considerations for planning plantings (e.g., studying one’s biome, observation, insect and animal interactions, layers of a food forest). Eventually, it goes on to profile specific plants (e.g., oak trees, comfrey) from a permaculture perspective, but in a seemingly random and often anecdotal way. The polyculture case studies at the end lack context (“Why would a professional or hobbyist plant this regime?”) and don’t go into detail about the interactions between specific plants.The book does present a structure and an approach to planning polycultures, but I wouldn’t buy the book for that.The book’s prose is solid — not all authors do that well, and so I appreciate it. But topics can vary widely from one paragraph to the next. Sections vary greatly in length and detail (11 pages on oaks, followed by two pages on pines, with only a brief aside on pines’ acidifying effect on soil), seemingly depending on the authors’ knowledge of a topic.Having read many permaculture books recently, it’s hard to see where this book fits and who it’s for. For example, Bill Mollison’s Permaculture Designer’s Manual is too technical and theoretical for the casual reader, and so one can turn to Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden for specific guidance on applying permaculture principles to a home garden. I tried to read Integrated Forest Gardening before I took my permaculture design course and found it too theoretical, and when I tried to read it after my PDC I found it redundant.Also, it wasn’t an issue for me since I live in the U.S., but it’s very helpful to be explicit about what biome, region, and country the author is writing from as well as about. While the theory of plant guilds may work the same in temperate zones, the tropics, or deserts, I would imagine readers on other continents would be frustrated by not being familiar with the plants profiled in the book.I don’t wish to slam the authors, but I do hope to give some feedback in hopes of improving dialog for the sake of helping people learn this vital information. There are some exceptional permaculturalists in the world, many of whom have been compelled to write books because…I don’t know…that’s what the others are doing? There are recreational/inspirational books, there are reference books, there are design/systems manuals…Integrated Forest Gardening is a little bit of all these things, but not enough so in any one category that I’ll keep it on my bookshelf. Fingers crossed for the second edition!

I admit that it's probably a good book for early beginners and people who just passed their PDC, and who don't have any other book. If you're on a budget, and are searching for THE ONE book that will tell most of what you need on Food Forest, you can maybe go for this one.It can be read as an introduction to the topic, before reading Edible Forest Gardening (those ones will require more time and money, for sure).Most of if (the 6 first chapters) have been written before in a few other books published very recently, and is just part of the regular PDC program.The last chapter (n#7) with the guilds examples - praised as the most interesting - contain no pictures (so those examples are all theoretical ?) and contain a few mistakes (so yes, it is probably theoretical, although the very 1rst one is described as being a real life example) such as recommending planting comfrey in Texas (poor comfrey in hot hot summer looks sooOOoo sad, and needs constant irrigation) a mistake I personally made in south France, and won't do again. Same for asian pear; not the best choice for Texas - think of peaches, figs, mesquite, some apple varieties...etc But Asian pear for Texas ? :-/Oh well, I guess you'd say that "it depends"..Even worse, they recommend planting Lily of the Valley as a medicinal plant (good luck guys, - see you in the after-life !) when forgetting basic ones, such as rosemary, thyme etc... The guild called "poison guild" could be a good idea (if called "medicinal guild", for example), but here, it's just odd, and even potentially dangerous for over-enthusiastic readers(unless you're some kind of "Borgia permie").I'll pass on the short description of comfrey copy/pasted on 2 or 3 pages, and again summed up in at least 1 other page.I was obviously disappointed, and it sucks, because I know the authors are great people and had the best intentions (sorry guys, it's just my personal opinion !).Anyway... Certainly, lots of people will be more interested than I was, but I would not recommend it for whoever already read Bill Mollison, Dave Jacke and Ben Falk, or the excellent Peter Bane.

Was gift for our son. He said this was the absolute best gift!!! So much knowledge on this book!!

With much of the info coming directly from Permaculture, a designers manual by Bill Mollison, this book gives a simplified account of explanation of forest gardening and some permaculture techniques. It is easy to read and understand. A great book with terrific photos.

This is well written and covers background, purpose and ideas. But it is even more applicable for those who want to dig in and get started now! I loved it! It seems particularly well suited for the Midwest but of value to anyone seeking to understand permaculture from both principles to hands on "what to do" process.

Very informative and easy to follow

Very informative for anyone interested in permaculture design. so much information about each species of plants so valuable especially to the novice but also for experienced gardeners that might not know this information.See Geoff Lawton interviewing him on a video on Geoff Lawton.com where he really elaborates on permaculture design and programs on the computer for this.Must read for planning food forests.

I got through 75 pages and lost interest - in a subject that I really like. Perhaps I will pick it up again and find the last chapters better, but what I read has really been said so much better elsewhere (ex. Dave Jacke).

If you are interesting in starting a food Forrest big or small this is the book for you.