Landscape Site

Gaias Garden A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture

Gaias Garden A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture

Hemenway, a permaculture expert and associate editor of The Permaculture Activist, explains how gardens can function as ecosystems, describes the basic parts of an ecological garden (soil, water, plants, and animals), and shows how to create backyard ecosystems through guilds. Guilds, the author tells us, are groups of plants that function as an ecosystem to provide products for humans, create cover and food for wildlife, nourish the soil, conserve water, and repel pests. A simple example of a guild is the “three sisters” (corn, beans, and squash); corn stalks provide a trellis for beans, the beans supply nitrogen to the soil, and the squash leaves inhibit weeds and conserve water. While Hemenway’s ideas are intriguing, creating guilds specific to an area involves extensive research, which involves either observing plant communities in the wild or using books or university contacts. In addition, the author doesn’t sufficiently explain how to incorporate the many sun-loving vegetables and flowers into guilds, which are often shade-oriented. Recommended only for botanical and academic libraries. Sue O’Brien, Downers Grove P.L., IL
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Old Idea… new to me!
I found this book to be a delightfully inspirational blend of stories, facts and a common sense approach to the home garden environment, although, I would not use this book as a definitive “how to guide”.

I think this books main value is in its provocative manner. I read it, and two weeks later have started a plethora of mini permaculture experiments. I searched around my home to find my “micro-environments” and have started to identify my “weeds” to see what they can tell me about my soil conditions. I even found a “weed” growing plentifully in my backyard, was actually an herb!

I recommend this book especially for those new or just beginning to explore the wide world of the home garden.

5 Stars Great Read
I haven’t made my way through the whole book yet, but what a great start - good organization, fabulous ideas and examples, nice mix of philosophy and method, more than ample motivation and inspiration to start my own food forest!

5 Stars Eye-Opening
Maybe I’m naive and uninformed, but I found this book eye-opening. I did read it a couple years ago now, but its ideas and principles were fascinating to me. Much of what it recommends, I was already doing, because most of my gardening techniques come from foggy memories of my grandmothers and their gardens. Because both my grandmothers were pretty poor (dirt poor?), they couldn’t afford pesticides or herbicides or irrigation or manicured lawns. So, they built up beautiful gardens with crush planting and recycling of resources and careful siting of particular plants. They knew their space and their plants, and they never wasted anything. I try to do what they did and expand on it through what I can learn from books. This book gave me a lot in terms of principles for what I do and why I do it. What I maybe understood on an intuitive level or didn’t understand at all but just did, this book provided a foundation for and then built further on that foundation. I’m always in search of more books of this type — that address how a home-owner can use some of the principles of permaculture and ideas for minimizing work and human input in the garden through more “natural” methods of gardening. Too few books seem to try to tackle such issues on a small scale for single homes. This book was a great start. So, if you didn’t have grandmothers like mine but you’re interested in learning how to make the most of your garden with the least human input, start with this book.

5 Stars got my money’s worth in one season, for just one technique from this book
The Library journal review does a huge disservice to this book.

Imagine a beautiful, highly productive, virtually weed-free,

drought-resistant, inexpensive, low-maintenance and ecologically sound

garden bed in your yard. It sounds impossible, but it is very simple

and only requires a few hours to create this fall, no digging required.

You can put to use the bounty of leaves and/or pine needles that are

provided for free to almost every suburbanite in the fall. This

is the ideal time, as the bed is better if it can break down over the

winter.

I have been gardening for about 25 years, and wish had I had heard of

this method sooner. It is perfect, especially for those who are not

physically able to dig, till or do a lot of weeding or simply have very

little time for gardening.

It involves piling up and wetting down 8 -12 inches of layers of

organic matter (we used leaves and some manure) on top of a thin layer

of newspapers or cardboard, with a small amount of amendments such as

greensand, lime and rock phosphate and manure underneath the paper. On

the top is a 1-2 inch layer of mulch (we used white pine needles), to

keep in moisture and suppress weeds. Come spring, you simply push aside

the top mulch and plant seedlings.

This ’sheet mulching’ method came from this wonderful book by Toby

Hemenway. We have several sheet mulch beds this

year, and they are outrageously productive. For example, one 4′ x 9′

bed in a very sunny spot, contains 6 large tomato plants, 3 sweet

pepper plants, 3 cucumber vines on a trellis, a short row of

sunflowers, one summer squash plant, and 7 winter squash plants. I

find this amazing considering that the ground underneath is very poor,

sandy and barely supported grass.

With apologies to Mae West, I have learned a big lesson, it’s not the soil

in your life, it’s the life in your soil!

I bought this book in January and have many times over saved the price in

time, mulch and bought amendments using ONLY the sheet mulch idea.

5 Stars Gaia’s Garden
An excellent book and resource. At the time I purchased this book, I also purchased Bill Mollison’s seminal work on permaculture. I intended to read Mollison’s book first and Gaia’s Garden second. After reading the first few pages of Mollison’s book, I set it aside to “look through” Gaia’s Garden just to familiarize myself with its contents. I discovered that I could not put it down because it is so well written and informative. I recommend this book to all persons interested in the subject of permaculture.

Buy/More Info

Scotts 2000 20 20 Inch Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower

Scotts 2000 20 20 Inch Classic Push Reel Lawn Mower

The Scott’s classic reel mower is light, maneuverable, and economical. The business end of this push reel mower is solid, sharp, and everything a reel mower should be, with five heat-treated, knife-sharp steel blades that can be adjusted for nine grass heights with very easy wheel tabs. With its 10-inch wheels, radial tires, and 20-inch cutting width, this mower should enable you to cross whatever terrain and reach whatever hard-to-access rogue patches of grass you desire. There’s no soft cushion on the handle, which is too bad, but otherwise, the Scotts Classic is a durable, well-constructed, simple device.

User Ratings and Reviews

5 Stars Good Product
Was shipped really fast in good condition.

This mower really surprised me. When my husband first said he wanted to get a reel mower I thought “yeah right, wait until the grass gets high” but I was wrong. We got a lot of rain and the grass was really tall and it still did a great job and was not that hard to get through the tall grass.

If you have a small yard or just want to do some trimming this will save you money and help save the planet.

1 Star Exercise equipment, not for mowing
I have mowed with this mower 4 times now, and each time I have to go back through with my weed eater to cut down the longer blades. It gives a jagged cut that looks terrible. It refuses to cut some blades of grass no matter how many times you try to mow it. It’s great for exercise, but bad for mowing.

2 Stars If your lawn is weedy and you like yardwork simple…this probably isn’t for you
I bought the Scott’s reel mower because I’m not fond of using gas-powered machines when cleaner alternatives are available, I have no aversion to physical labor, and I enjoy not being deaf. Though I really wanted to like it, after two months of use, I’m throwing in the towel. Granted, if you’re lucky enough to meet a specific set of criteria you may find it in your heart to love this contraption. The last straw for me was when my wife got home from work and told me I needed to mow the lawn, despite the fact that I had only mowed it two hours earlier.

PERFORMANCE: On occasion you have to hit some spots twice just to cut all the grass, the real killer is that it won’t touch weeds (unless they are short and sticking straight up) or tall grass. The spinning of the blades against the cutting surface creates resistance that makes the mower much harder to push than heavier push mowers. Sticks will bring you to a dead stop, but are easily removed if you’re the crafty type in about 2 seconds with minimal effort.

ASSEMBLY & MAINTENANCE

Assembly = cake. The blades can be sharpened as needed (under normal use supposedly each season or every other season) with minimal effort using commercially available kits. If you’re told that it’s uber-difficult and that only pros can do it (pros who are few and far between), then you’ve heard wrong. Overall, reel mowers are far simpler than gas mowers to maintain.

WHO’S THIS LAWN MOWER FOR (AND WHO’S IT NOT FOR)?

GOOD FOR:

-People with a golf-course quality lawn totally free of weeds who mow weekly

-People who don’t mind running around with weed whackers to take down all weeds individually after mowing.

-People who like to mow late and not bother their neighbors (much).

BAD FOR:

-People with lots of weeds, or low-lying or fast-growing grasses

-People who don’t have the free time (or don’t want to exert the effort) required to do the extra work to get rid of all the things that this mower won’t cut.

-People who like to mow leaves instead of rake them.

-People with huge lawns.

That said I’ve switched to a cordless mower and though it’s a bit early to be certain of how it’ll hold up in the long run…it does cut grass, weeds, etc. It’s also quieter than gas mowers, and uses relatively little power. If you’re looking to go green, and aren’t a fan of devoting much time to yard work (and have a yard of 1/3 acre or less), then an electric would be a much better choice.

5 Stars I’m lovin’ it!
I love this new mower! It was easy to assemble, and it is easy to adjust the blade for whatever height you want to cut your grass to. It misses a few blades of grass here and there, but otherwise does a great job. I was amazed how easy it is to push.

2 Stars Scotts 2000-20-inch class push reel lawn mower
It is heavy when pushing the wheel to cut grass. It will be stopped when it catches even a small piece of wood. The handle is wobbling and not sturdily built. It will not pick up clippings, as in some cases it is desirable to pick them up once a year. If you want a good hard workout, you want to buy it. I ended up buying a Sears gas lawnmower besides this.

Not a good idea to go green in lawn mowing, maybe using a electric one.

But it is too expensive.

Buy/More Info

Hydrofarm JSV4 4 Foot Jump Start T5 Grow Light System

Hydrofarm JSV4 4 Foot Jump Start T5 Grow Light System

Green Thumb Light SystemTM 4 ft Green Thumb Light SystemTM. Great for growing seedlings, cuttings, flowers and houseplants. One-hand height adjustment system. Includes fluorescent light fixture and two full-spectrum Agrosunr light tubes. Easy assembly.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Manufacturer needs more precise measurements
Overall the stand is of very good quality. We needed to “compress” the end of each leg by squeezing it in a vice so that it would fit into the bottom bracket slot. Once that was done, it works perfectly.

1 Star poor packaging
When this was delivered by UPS it was broken. You could hear the glass tinkleing in the box. I sent it back without opening. It is not packaged properly for shipment…maybe if you bought one in store it would be OK, but i would not take a chance.

2 Stars Misleading Description
It’s an ok lighting system. (It’s not actually as flimsy as I anticipated after reading several other reviews.) However, they say it includes “2 agrobrite light tubes”. It only comes with ONE. And, the light fixture only holds one bulb, so the seedlings I’m growing all tend to bend towards the center reaching for the one bulb. I feel a bit ripped off - there should have at least been a second replacement tube in the box.

4 Stars Easy to Assemble and Sturdy
I received this product today and found it relatively easy to assemble with the use of only a Phillips screwdriver. The result is a sturdy grow light. The only reason why I gave it four stars is because the description says, “two full-spectrum AgroBrite 48″ light tubes” are included. There was only one T5 though I’m thinking that it’s a result of a redesign.

5 Stars Excellent Service
I didn’t find the assembly difficult. I’m not sure about being flimsy—the fixture is heavy relative to the frame, but the frame does seem to hold the fixture steady, and it moves up and down smoothly.

The company gets the five stars for excellent customer service. My unit came with a defective fixture. I e-mailed them, and received a quick response and a new (working) fixture within a week or so. Thanks!

Buy/More Info