As a relative newcomer to permaculture, gaining knowledge for me is a must.  I’ve always been frugal and concerned for Mother Earth, but this is the first time since leaving high school that I actually have the opportunity and intention to put at least five years of work into a set amount of acreage.  And although I plan to spend a year of the next five in Alaska, by setting fruit trees and hugelkultur (mound) gardening up, I can leave my property in the hands of someone else with just the care for perennials and animals once I have my bases established.

Forever the insomniac, my Nook is always at my bedside and ready for searches for new books and magazines to bring into my library.  One of my favorites is The Permaculture Handbook by Peter Bane.  Published in 2012, it has the knowledge of a permaculture pioneer with modern reflections on legal and other variables affecting modern organic farming and sustainability and forest farming.

My biggest take in the first year of farming my land?  Knowing how to begin and not getting too dedicated to a specific process.  While I of course have big dreams, Bane stresses keeping things close to the property’s existing buildings in the first years so as to keep the work close at hand.  And he says, if things do get left undone, don’t worry.  The seasons and other factors will start and stop projects as you develop, learn, change and grow with the process.

So, when you check it out, don’t get sticker shock!  The book is about $35 but it is also over 600 pages of in-depth knowledge from a renowned permaculturist and educator.

A second book in my favorites is The Basics of Permaculture Design by Ross Mars.  Although published earlier (1996), Mars focuses more on basics of sustainability within 160+ page length.

So get to it!  It’s never a better time than today to learn, practice and live the permaculture lifestyle.