Getting Started In Permaculture: 50 Practical Projects to Build and Design Productive Gardens [Paperback]

Ross Mars (Author), Jenny Mars (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 17, 2007

Permaculture experts Ross and Jenny Mars outline the steps to transform your garden into a productive living system. Modeled upon the development of Candlelight Farm, and illustrated with photographs, this guide encourages the reader to make positive steps towards reconciling human impact with nature - following the permaculture ideal.
Permaculture is based on the ethics of caring for people and our planet. It is about growing your own healthy food, being resourceful and environmentally responsible. Permaculture concepts and ideas can be applied successfully from small suburban units to large farming properties.
Getting Started in Permaculture delivers step-by-step knowledge for a variety of useful projects including: making herb fertilizers, compost, organic sprays for pest control, and much, much more. It also includes how to recycle your soft drink bottles, waste paper, and tires in a number of useful projects such as ponds, fruit fly traps, retailing walls, and solar stills.
As part of Permanent Publications Simple Living Series, this practical and accessible guide for gardeners of all skill levels serves as an ideal introduction to the world of permaculture.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ross Mars is an experienced permaculture teacher, designer and consultant. He is a qualified high school teacher and has been actively involved in permaculture education in schools. He is the author of the well known text The Basics of Permaculture Design and has also produced an educational video on energy efficient housing called Passive Solar Design of Buildings.

Jennifer Mars is well known in Western Australia as a permaculture educator. She is a primary school teacher who has contributed to the promotion of permaculture and sustainable living in both urban and rural areas. Jenny and Ross are in the process of developing their property in Hovea as a permaculutre demonstration site.

Product Details

• Paperback: 102 pages
• Publisher: Permanent Publications (October 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 185623035X
• ISBN-13: 978-1856230353
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #81,406 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars 50 projects for your garden, November 11, 2007

By 

A. M. Gladding (Coastal Mountains, Northern CA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting Started In Permaculture: 50 Practical Projects to Build and Design Productive Gardens (Paperback)

After a brief discussion of what permaculture is and hopes to accomplish, the authors present 50 projects for your garden. Some of them are common garden structures and some are aimed at reusing tires and plastic soda bottles. Retaining wall, ponds, planting mounds from used tires. Waterers, slug traps for plastic bottles, newspaper planting pots. Making compost, liquid fetilizers, hot houses, cold frames, shade houses. A section on making paper, soap, and cleaners.

Not an indepth discussion of permaculture, but a basic get started projects book.

15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Over 50 Lightweight/vauge projects you probably won't use, January 24, 2011

By 

E. Charpentier - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Getting Started In Permaculture: 50 Practical Projects to Build and Design Productive Gardens (Paperback)

50 projects? Well maybe there are, but many are incomplete with quick once overs or include something of an eye sore like taking a tire and filling it with food and calling it a feed trough for chickens. Or how about stacking tires up to make flower beds, there's another project listed...

One project is organic pest control then mashes some bullets in then doesn't go into all the specific ingredients needed, amounts, and misc prep making an useless.

Each project should be numbered for easy reference, there are no chapters or groupings. Almost every page has bullet after bullet. Would help to have numbered bullets for directions and then bullets just for notes.

If you've read any other books on permaculture, you've probably hit on most of this. I am very disappointed with this book. You want a real book to start with? Check out Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great introduction to Permaculture, February 14, 2009

By 

bythebrook (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Getting Started In Permaculture: 50 Practical Projects to Build and Design Productive Gardens (Paperback)

Rather than tackling the Designer's Manual or even Permaculture in a Nutshell, go to this little book for a great hands-on approach to what Permaculture is about. You'll be able to complete a few of the projects that afternoon.