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

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.)