Book Library

Maybe it seems odd that I have included a huge list of books here when you’ve just purchased my book which, you might think, should have done the job in the first place. But here’s the thing. I actually own all these books because there is no one book that can do the job of teaching and telling this story. It’s a big story.

I’m also addicted to books. But the books in this list are books that contain important and valuable information. Do you need them all? Hardly. But might you find a few gems that are just right for what you want to do with this whole idea? I do trust and believe you may.

I’ve organized them into subject categories for easy browsing. What I do know for certain is, there is not a single book on this list that will lie to you or lead you down a wrong path or try to sell you something. These books are all built on the real work of the people who wrote them, and I respect and admire every single one of them. I’ve tried to provide a little insight into each one – but by all means – read their book descriptions on the linked pages – and no, no affiliate links here, either. 😊

Living Soil

• The Complete Guide to Restoring Your Soil by Dale Strickler
  This is a super book, very straight-forward and full of simple practical things to know and do. Love the layout and big easy to see pages and direct style. One of my top choices. 
• The Biochar Revolution –  Transforming Agriculture and Environment – “Biochar may represent the single most important initiative for humanity’s environmental future” – edited by Paul Taylor
  Oh my, this is a tome. It’s great but DENSE and tiny print – be forewarned. It’s packed full of great stuff if you can manage it. 
• Dirt to Soil – One Family’s Journey into Regenerative Agriculture by Gabe Brown
  I love this book. Got it as an audible and listened to it a few times on long trips – and could do it again. SO much wisdom in this book. And good references to other important information, too. 
• The Farm as Ecosystem – Tapping Nature’s Reservoir – Biology, Geology, Diversity by Jerry Brunetti
  This book is really for farmers, but it’s so full of fascinating details and observations If you are interested in balancing the minerals in your soils, this is the book for you. 
• The Living Soll Handbook – The No-Till Growers Guide to Ecological Market Gardening by Jesse Frost
  This is an absolute by your side guidebook. I use it a lot. Keep it where you can get to it and review things as you build your knowledge. 
• The Regenerative Grower’s Guide to Garden Amendments – Using Locally Sourced Materials to Make Mineral and Biological Extracts and Ferments by Nigel Palmer
  While I love this book, I don’t always agree with his conclusions and I wished he had more precise measurements in some of his recipes. I built my own, after all, but felt like some parts were made more complex than they needed to be and some were too simplistic. Funny. Guess I’m too picky. I do love the book. I have owned it since it came out. 
• No-Till Intensive Vegetable Culture – Pesticide-Free Methods for Restoring Soil and Growing Nutrient-Rich, High-Yielding Crops by Bryan O’Hara
  Love this ‘hands on how I did it from organic to no till’ intensive vegetable culture is inspiring and thought provoking. It’s another one to keep around for those days when you want to dig deeper into how things are working on your land. 
• The Worm Farmers Handbook – Mid- to Large-Scale Vermicomposting for Farms, Businesses, Municipalities, Schools and Institutions by Rhonda Sherman
  You have to be pretty serious about worms to want to read this whole book. But I am, and I had a friend who built a real worm castings production facility, so I was overly curious. 
• Teaming with Microbes – The Organic Gardener’s Guide to the Soil Food Web by Jeff Lowenfels & Wayne Lewis
  This 2010 book was the ‘shot heard around the world’ in the realm of soil microbial life and the health of our plants, food and ourselves. It’s the book that took those of us coming from the long term organic and holistic approach solidly into new territory as the science showed the damage chemicals do to the microbial world of our soils.

Biodynamic Agriculture

• Agriculture by Rudolf Steiner
  This book might take you a lifetime to understand, but it will be worth it. Just dip in every now and again when you have time to contemplate. 
• What is Biodynamics? – A Way to Heal and Revitalize the Earth by Rudolf Steiner
  This book is a compilation of Steiner’s 8 lectures on agriculture, with a brilliant forward by Hugh Cortney, who is one of my personal heroes of biodynamic agriculture. I have also added some links in the video section to some of Hugh’s interviews and work. He was an absolute master. 
• Biodynamics for the Home Garden – Everything you need to Know to Grow Amazing Food the Biodynamic Way by Peter Proctor
  This might be a good place to start for those new to the topic. 
• Biodynamics for Beginners: Principles and Practice by Hugh Courtney
  Hugh Courtney was a marvel of personally held experiential wisdom in the practice of  biodynamics. His success in transforming farms and outcomes was legendary and his depth of understanding was unmatched. 
• The Biodynamic Farm – Developing a Holistic Organism by Karl-Ernst Osthaus
  I love this book. Read it every now and again to remind myself. 
• A Biodynamic Manual – Practical Instructions for Farmers and Gardeners by Pierre Masson
  This is a real have it on handbook for anyone serious about biodynamic practices. 
• Grasp the Nettle – Making Biodynamic Farming and Gardening Work by Peter Proctor
  So many great insights in this book. Be willing to go deep. 
• The Maria Thun Biodynamic Almanac by Maria and Matthias Thun
  Yes, we get this book each year so we have the working calendar, now it is published by her grandchildren, and they are still coming up in their knowledge, but they have a wealth of great material from their father and grandmother to build on.

Permaculture

• Earth Users Guide to Permaculture by Rosemary Morrow
  This is another classic and good starting place for beginners. 
• Permaculture Design Companion – A Practical Workbook for Integrating People & Places by Jasmine Dale
  This is what it says. It really IS a design companion for you to use actively as you build a project. We have used it for more than one project on our place. It goes the distance. 
• Sepp Holzer’s Permaculture – A practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening by Sepp Holzer
  If you’ve spent any time hanging out around Paul Wheaton and Permies you know who Sepp Holzer is – and his amazing ideas and implementations are something to strive toward. You’ll never get there, most likely, but it is fun to try! 
• Gaia’s Garden – A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemenway
  The book stat started it all way back in 2001 when Toby Hemenway got us thinking about sheet mulching, interplanting and all manner of other permaculture-like things. If you don’t have it, go find a used copy at HPB (hpb.com)  – you really should have it. 
• The Vegetable Gardener’s Guide to Permaculture – Creating an Edible Ecosystem by Christopher Shein
  This is another BIG book – and it’s full of color pictures – so yummy – and great ideas for anyone stepping into this world of permaculture vegetable gardens – how can you resist?! 
• The Resilient Farm and Homestead – An Innovative Permaculture and Whole Systems Design Approach by Ben Falk
  What can I say? I love Ben Falk. I love his videos and own a few of his video courses. Seems like people always want to borrow them!! His amazing natural buildings make me swoon. But this book? Oh man. It’s a treasure trove of things you didn’t know you didn’t know. And lots of them are pretty darn important to know!

Self-Sufficiency

• Mini Farming – Self-sufficiency on 1/4 Acre by Brett Markham
  I cannot say I agree with everything in this book, but who cares? It’s a powerful and important book for anyone serious about the topic. And it will teach you tons. 
• Five Acres and Independence – A Handbook for Small Farm Management by M.G. Kains
  This is one of those old classics that might seem a bit off topic to some in these times, but is full of gems. 
• Will Bonsall’s Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening – Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables, Grains, and Perennial Food Crops with Minimal Fossil Fuel and Animal Inputs by Will Bonsall
  This book is radical. In every very good way that matters to us in the world right now. He has locked it all into place here and he has done it all himself as a farmer – if you want to really take control and feed yourself, start here.

Trees, Agroforestry, etc.

Of course we have a bias here, being a nursery and in love with trees. But if you love trees and want more of them in your garden and world, these might interest you as well.

• Trees for Gardens, Orchards, and Permaculture by Martin Crawford
  If you’re serious about threes, this is your book Plus it’s gorgeous and you could just fall into it and stay there for a good long while. 
• The Holistic Orchard – Tree Fruits and Berries the Biological Way by Micheal Phillips
  This is the book to have if you’re addicted to growing your own fruit orchards. It’s all built on the holistic approach of keeping the entire garden and orchard humming with life and health. Another gorgeous book. 
• Coppice Agroforestry – Tending Trees for Product, Profit, & Woodland Ecology by Mark Krawczyk
  This is one of those quirky books that makes you want to do things you never considered. Like coppicing trees and changing the landscape. 
• Silvopasture – A Guide to Managing Grazing Animals, Forage Crops, and Trees in a Temperate Farm Ecosystem by Steve Gabriel
  We don’t raise animals, but if we did this is how we would do it. I’ve been following this idea and design system for many years, so when this book came out in 2018 I had to have it. Now if only I had a lifetime to start over and do all of this. But I know a lot of folks who do, and I love that! 
• Trees of Power – Ten Essential Arboreal Allies by Akiva Silver
  This is the book that started us on the path of growing a nursery. We jumped in with both feet the first year and took Akiva’s class on abundant propagation. That was it. We’ve never looked back. Akiva tells it like it is, from his own point of view. And it’s brilliant. 
• Tree Crops – A Permanent Agriculture by J. Russell Smith
  This is the original book that got EVERYONE started, way back in 1929. If you are thinking of agro-forestry or forest gardens or tree crops, you should have a copy of this book. And read it a few times. Akiva Silver read it, and look what happened to him, and then us, and so many others. 
• Arboretum America – A Philosophy of the Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
  If you ever wanted to know some deep tree knowledge about the trees of America, this is your book. It is deep and includes everything you need to determine which trees to grow and how, and so much more. She wants us to replant the forest, and so do we. 
• The Global Forest by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
  This is the deep dive into what trees do for the world and for us humans in every way – from their medicinal properties to their life-giving processes which support all of life on the planet. This is an inspiring and gorgeous book.

Other

• The New Organic Grower – A Master’s Manual of Tools and Techniques for the Home and Market Gardener by Eliot Coleman
  It’s Eliot Coleman, what more can I say? I think we own every book he has written. So much knowledge in one human being. 
• Four-Season Harvest – Organic Vegetables from your Home Garden All Year Long by Eliot Coleman
  Here’s how to go from a warm weather gardener to a year ‘round gardener. And he does it with such simple tools – he’s all about frugality and simplicity. 
• The Winter Harvest Handbook – Year-Round Vegetable Production Using Deep-Organic Techniques and Unheated Greenhouses by Eliot Coleman
  See what I mean? We own them all! 
• The Intelligent Gardener – Growing Nutrient-Dense Food by Steve Solomon
  This is the classic from the founder of Territorial Seeds – and being he was from our biozone, of course we had to learn from him, he know how to grow here. 
• Growing Vegetable West of the Cascades – The Complete Guide to Organic Gardening by Steve Solomon
  This is the one we had to have because we DO live west of the Cascades. And our soil is clay. And the rains wash out all our minerals, yeah, that. 
• The Minimalist Gardener by Patrick Whitefield
  I love this book. It’s so SMART and so full of insights and practical ideas that we can likely spend the rest of our lives just exploring new implementations of them. Oh, and lots of awesome photos to lean into. 
• The Market Gardener – A successful Grower’s Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming by Jean-Martin Fortier
  I never want to be a market gardener, but these guys are a real inspiration and there is a lot of great information in here for improving your yields and raising great crops. 
• Seed to Seed – Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners by Suzanne Ashworth
  This is the book for those who want to start saving seed and seeing what new traits they can promote in open pollinated crops saved through careful selection each year. A worthy project, for sure. This book makes me think of Siskiyou Seed where they do this as a way of life. 
• Wild Remedies – How to Forage Healing Foods and Craft Your Own Herbal Medicine by Rosalee de la Forêt & Emily Han
  You might say this is a little ‘off topic’ but honestly, we are as intrigued and engaged in our wild and weed plants as we are in what we cultivate. We laugh at ourselves as we transplant baby Hawthorn trees when creating a new nursery bed. After all, it’s not like we need more of them! This book can help you take full advantage of the plants you didn’t put into the garden, but which offer spectacular health, healing and flavor, regardless. 
• The Garden Awakening – Designs to Nurture Our Land & Ourselves by Mary Reynolds
  Ah, the book detailing the garden’s transformation when allowed to express itself in all its natural glory – from the famous garden designer turned renegade re-wilder – don’t miss it. 
• Earth Ponds – The Country Pond Maker’s Guide to Building, Maintenance and Restoration by Tim Matson
  We read this before we put in our ponds. If you want ponds, you might want to read it too. 
• Free-Range Chicken Gardens – How to Create a Beautiful, Chicken-Friendly Yard by Jessi Bloom
  I love this book and this concept. I am not sure I will ever really experience it the way she has, but I do love it. 
• The Scythe Book – Mowing Hay, Cutting Weeds and Harvesting Small Grains with Hand Tools by David Tresemer
  We are all about hand tools, silent tools and efficient tools. We LOVE our scythe and sickle and broadfork. We also love this book. I bought my husband the scythe for his birthday some 12 years ago, and we use it more than just about any other tool on our farm. Early morning sessions are a small piece of heaven. But you need to know how to use it. This will teach you. 
• Liquid Gold – The Lore and Logic of Using Urine to Grow Plants by Carol Steinfeld
  This book is amazing and weird as heck. But it really is amazing and it’s all true. Plus it’s illustrated by a man who was an incredible underground architect and good friend of my late mother. When I saw that I had to have it. And I’m so glad I do. 
• The Carbon Farming Solution – A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security by Eric Toensmeier
  Well, you want to know what to do to take us where we CAN go and restore our planet to the brilliant living glorious garden worldwide? Here you go. This is the book for the next steps to take and how to take them. 
• A Garden for Life – The Natural Approach to Designing, Planting, and Maintaining a North Temperate Garden by Diana Beresford-Kroeger
  This is Diana’s book on how to build and design your garden to support the landscape and environment that will support you back. 
• Who Really Feeds the World?: The Failures of Agribusiness and the Promise of Agroecology – Vandana Shiva
  Small farmers really feed the world, is the answer. And this is the book to read to understand where we are and how we must confront the power systems which are claiming to feed the world while destroying our soils, soil life and climate. This is a powerful book and a definite must read if you want to understand the issues and the realities facing us. 
• Terra Viva – My Life in a Biodiversity of Movements by Vandana Shiva
  This is the book everyone should know because it will take the stories of the world she has lived through and make it clear what the real challenges to a healthy and vibrant future are – and they may not be what you think. 
• Weeds – Control without Poisons by Charles Walters
  This book and this man should be at the top of my books and authors list of all time. What Charles Walters gave the world is immeasurable and this book is just one small piece of it. But this book is pure gold. If you have ever had ‘weeds’ that made you feel like you might be crazy, fear not. There is hope and help. Walters will teach you why you have them and how to change the soil to solve the problem, and also what they are telling you. 
• A Precautionary Tale – How One Small Town Banned Pesticides, Preserved Its Food Heritage and Inspired a Movement by Philip Ackerman-Leist
  Love this book. If only we could see towns everywhere do this. 
• The Myths of Safe Pesticides by André Leu
  More of the evidence you might need to truly grasp the pesticide reality. 
• Beyond the War on Invasive Species – A Permaculture Approach to Ecosystem Restoration by Tao Orion
  This book is authored by our friend and permaculture consultant Tao Orion. It is a new way of thinking about ‘invasive’ in the world of plants and we are right on board with her. Important reading. 
• Against the Grain: How Agriculture Has Hijacked Civilization by Richard Manning
  This book is a radical’s radical of a book. It does deep, and it shakes you around. But it gives you plenty to think about. 
• 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
  I first heard of this book from Ray Archuleta. It will stop your brain. It will also open your mind. It is a small miracle that it exists. I, for one, am grateful that it does. Maybe it will help more of us see what has been hidden by our socially adjusted point of view. 
• What Bees Want: Beekeeping as Nature Intended by Jacqueline Freeman
  This book is from our favorite beekeeper of all time, Jacqueline Freeman. Her wisdom and insight into bees is astounding. We have been reading her books since the first one appeared thanks to Paul Wheaton’s introduction over at Permies. She is an inspiration. 
• Song of Increase by Jacqueline Freeman
  This is Jacqueline’s first book, which, if you are like us, will completely reframe your entire world when it comes to bees. We have been keeping bees in Warre’ hives now for well over a decade, not for honey, but as a sanctuary for the bees and pollinators for al the gardens. A lot of our plantings are informed by what will provide nectar and pollen for them. 
• The Secret Life of Plants – A fascinating Account of the Physical, Emotional, and Spiritual Relations between Plants and Man by Peter Tompkins & Christopher Bird
  This is the book that started it all for me, back in 1973. It became the basis of an experiment I conducted for an AP science class in high school. But more than that, it was the first window into a world I had no idea existed. 
• The Secret Life of Plants – PDF Version This is one of my favorite books of all time. This pdf makes it possible to read it online. There is now an Audible version as well, which can be very difficult to listen to in large chunks, but it’s great to be able to listen to it if you have trouble reading small print like I do.
   
• Secrets of the Soil – New Solutions for Restoring our Planet by Peter Tompkins and Christopher Bird
  If you’re ready to really go down the rabbit hole, this is the book to get there. Most folks will turn it aside as ‘too far out’ just like Secret Life of Plants, but I do believe that in the not-too-distant future we will discover all of these ‘nonscientific’ methods can be ascribed to an altogether different level of understanding. 
• Perelandra Garden Workbook – A Complete Guide to Gardening with Nature Intelligences by Machaelle Small Wright
  This book, too, falls into the category of ‘outside of the norm’ in ways most cannot and do not want to tread. However, these methods, too, have been a part of my repertoire for well over 3 decades now, and I cannot deny their efficacy. Certainly the students of Machaelle Small Wright, and the many followers of her work over the past four decades attest to its power. But for most of us, it’s further than we can stretch our belief to go. 

The Free Digitized Library

The Free Digitized Library for books out of print, hard to find etc. This is a great resource, but it requires submitting for a passcode to get access to a book and each book is delivered in a massive series of individual pdf files – easy to access, but a bit slow going. On the other hand, when books are not able to be found otherwise, it is a Godsend.

• Albrecht, William A.: Assorted scientific papers and miscellaneous publications
• The Living Soil by Lady Eve Balfour
• 9,600 Miles Through The U.S.A. In A Station Wagon by Lady Eve Balfour
• Towards a Sustainable Agriculture – 1977 Speech by Lady Eve Balfour