This book is the first, and most comprehensive, guide about plant guilds ever written, and covers in detail both what guilds are and how to design and construct them, complete with 

extensive color photography and design illustrations. Included is information on:

• What we can observe about natural plant guilds in the wild and the importance of observation;
• Detailed research on the structure of plant guilds, and a portrait of an oak tree (a guild unto itself);
• Animal interactions with plant guilds;
• Steps to guild design, construction, and dynamics: from assessment to design to implementation;
• Fifteen detailed plant guilds, five each from the three authors based on their unique perspectives;
• Guild project management: budgets, implementation, management, and maintenance.

Pre-Sale Special   $32.00 + 3.50 shipping.

Purchase at Southwoodscenter.com

Signed by Author/Designer/Illustrator Daniel Halsey

Book available and shipped  July 29th, 2014

“Integrated Forest Gardening makes the process of creating complex agro-ecosystems more understandable and achievable. It is a fine guide to designing forest garden and polycultural systems using Permaculture principles.”

--Martin Crawford, author of Creating a Forest Garden  


We stand at a new threshold. The history of food production has tended ever more narrowly towards monoculture, whereas a sustainable future can only be based on polyculture. But we're desperately short of knowledge on polycultures. While mainstream research still chases the chimera of fossil-fueled monoculture, a small band of visionaries is working to develop the knowledge we need to carry us forward to the future. Just such are the authors of this book and the wisdom it contains is part of that movement.

--Patrick Whitefield, permaculture teacher and author of The Earth Care Manual

 "Reading Integrated Forest Gardening was like taking a walk through a well-orchestrated whole systems design! As a plant enthusiast and systems thinker this book spoke my language. It is rare to find in one book such depth of user-friendly detail. It demystifies the mythical nature of the “Forest Garden’’ and brings its strategies to easy application. This book is a must for all plant lovers."

 --Jude Hobbs, Cascadia Permaculture 

 "For the design work we do at Midwest Permaculture, when we need experienced advice on planting systems we turn to the three gentlemen who collaborated on this impressive work.  The book is thorough, accessible, and timely.  So wish we had this insightful compilation when we first started.  It’s a gem!"
         --Bill and Becky Wilson, Midwest Permaculture

Integrated Forest Gardening fills a major gap in the canon of permaculture books, giving us, at last, a detailed guide to guild and polyculture design. No longer is this subject mysterious and daunting; in this book we now have specific instructions for designing and installing multi-species plant groups. Chapter 7, which describes 15 guilds and their plant members, is a golden nugget worth the price of the book alone. This is an essential book for all food foresters and ecological designers.

—Toby Hemenway, author of Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture  

“This is an intimate insight into the world of plant guilds. The authors have taken the broad land based overview and zoom the reader into the micro detail of these plant polycultures. Details of root structure, seeding patterns, and relationships with the surrounding environment have been carefully observed and are well laid out in the plant guild lists. This book is an important contribution to every permaculture designer’s library and will appeal to all those wishing to grow sustainable polycultures whether broadscale or in the garden.”

        --Ben Law, author The Woodland Way and Roundwood Timber Framing
 

 "This rich feast of nature love by three experienced and working permaculture designers pushes into the hard task of creating recombinant ecosystems, a field where few have gone before. The authors expose the logic and lore of working guilds, the symbiotic plant assemblies of productive landscapes. Full of design insight to the needs and opportunities of both plants and the people who live with them, Integrated Forest Gardening offers a panopy of example guilds, work procedures, and luscious images to inspire and guide the perennial food gardener onto a path of ecological renewal.”

        —Peter Bane, author of The Permaculture Handbook and publisher of Permaculture Activist magazine