Integrated forest gardening The complete guide to polycultures and plant guilds in permaculture systems

Focusing on the guild concept, Weiseman, Halsey, and Ruddock expand on previous books on forest gardening, such as Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier's two-volume Edible Forest Gardens (2005; vol. 1, CH, Jan'06, 43-2794); Martin Crawford's Creating a Forest Garden, (CH, Dec'10, 48-2070); and Robert Hart's Forest Gardening (1991, rev. ed., 1996). A guild is a symbiotic community of plants and animals that coexist and support each other. The authors bring together their diverse experiences to broaden readers' view of the creation and maintenance of these communities. Each species in a guild has a unique context and inherent ecological functions. By intentionally crafting guild communities, gardeners can develop assemblages that meet the needs of the individual species in the guild as well as provide for the ecosystem services needed in the bigger environment. The authors describe the process of assessing context and yields to inform species selection. The text is comprehensive for designers, including information on designing for positive animal and insect interactions while discouraging pests. Information is provided on how to develop a project, including budgeting, implementation stages, and long-term management. Drawings, charts, and pictures help readers visualize these multifunctional landscapes and frame how they could develop their own examples. The book ends with 15 case studies. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All levels/libraries. --Marisha Auerbach, Oregon State University

Weiseman, Halsey, and Ruddock define integrated forest gardening as the "integration of all aspects of a land base into the development of healthy food, medicinal, and utility landscapes," giving equal importance to the built environment, the waste stream, animals, plants, and stones. Drawing on their extensive design, consultation, and teaching experience, these three Midwestern permaculturalists discuss plant guilds ("a beneficial grouping of plants that support one another in all their many functions") and their design, optimal species integration, and plant propagation; profile four trees, which are the centerpieces of polycultures; outline the process of implementing a forest-garden design; and detail fifteen plant-guild case studies across hardiness zones 3-9, illustrated with helpful anecdotes. Despite a few detours (for example, a section on indoor air-cleaning plants) and oddities (would anyone really want an all-poisonous guild including poison ivy and poison sumac?), this passionate and practical manual gives landscapers, landscape architects, and householders enough in-depth information and methodology to begin their own experiments with an emerging, ecologically sensitive alternative to conventional horticulture. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.