Growing a Permaculture Food Forest: How to Create a Garden Ecosystem You Only Plant Once But Can Harvest for Years

by Caleb Warnock

Planting your own garden can cut down your grocery bill, but few people have the time to cultivate a big harvest every year. Self-sufficiency expert Caleb Warnock shares his expertise in creating a permaculture food a garden that you plant once and then leave in the hands of Mother Nature for years to come. Best of all, this natural, sustainable, and low-maintanance garden can succeed in any climate, and  Growing a Permaculture Food Forest can show you how. This compact guidebook Seasonal planting and constant weeding are things of the past! With a permaculture food forest, you can feed your family with homegrown vegetables without all the fuss.

Genres: Gardening

74 pages, Paperback

Published October 10, 2017

Reviews

[Anita · Rating 2 out of 5]

A very short book on something I was interested in. Unfortunately it left me with many more questions than answers. A very shallow overview without even a few examples or possible plans. This is more an extended explanation/advertisement than a how-to of a food forest.

[Rena Phung · Rating 1 out of 5]

Heartily recommend permaculture but not this book! It is mostly a sales pitch for the author’s heirloom seeds business! If you wanna learn about permaculture try “Gaia’s Garden” by Toby Hemenway instead.

[Joanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is helpful for specific varieties of plants to grow in a food forest and is a quick overview of starting a food forest. I got it a long time ago and this is my second time reading it through. There are other books that go into layout and layering of the plants but this author basically says that’s not necessary to plant a food forest. Other books I have looked through don’t go into as much detail about specific varieties, cross pollination, a plant variety dying out and how to keep it from dying out. This book explains these things more.

This book is missing the actual detailed process of planting a food forest. For example: should cardboard (or other weed barrier) be put down first and then compost/wood chips before doing the actual planting? Should I just start planting wherever I want my food forest? I’d look for other books or YouTube videos for this info.

[Megan Shaner · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is very thin on information and scope.

Although the author lists plants suitable for a food forest, I wish he had included the scientific name of each to help readers source the plants/seeds. What is a Belgian winter leek, anyway? Internet search did not return any results.

Several times the author writes that “(such-and-such) is beyond the scope of this book.” At only 60 pages about food forests, there certainly was plenty of room to expand on these topics. (Pages 61-64 are a list of the author’s other books, and page 65 is about the publishing company and its social media accounts).

I’m glad I borrowed this book from the local library instead of buying it, although the 2-month wait for it to arrive via inter-library loan made this read disappointing — what a letdown.

[Jo · Rating 3 out of 5]

A tiny wee book that felt quite incomplete. A quick guide to growing a self-sustaining food forest. I’m pretty sure I’m going to need to get another book to actually follow through on the (very cool) concept. Or go to this guy’s website and buy his seeds, which hopefully will come with more instructions. The book is more of a thick brochure to advertise his seed business and his other books. But the idea of the food forest is intriguing so I wasn’t totally turned off. I might read his book on Mormon pioneer self sufficiency skills (hoping it’s not religious).

[Jenna Lenhardt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great intro book to get you thinking about what to plant

[Lexi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great introduction to the concept of food forests.

[Silvio · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book leaves many questions open, but it does provide simple and practical first steps and inspiration and knowledge

[Lisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and sweet, my favorite type of guide book!

[Kim McCoy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Barely an overview of a food forest. I wish there was more in depth information and some photos.

[Alyssa Y · Rating 2 out of 5]

Quick read. Nice little pocketbook that let’s you know the ABSOLUTE basics that you can look more deeply into later. Biggest complaint is that it seems like it was written only to promote his website.