Dave Jacke with Eric Toensmeier

Chelsea Green Publishing, 2005, 396 pp., full color, charts and illustrations, resources, plant lists, glossary, bibliography, index, ISBN: 1-931498-79-2, Hard cover

Publisher's List Price $75.00
Non-member Price $73.50
AFTA MEMBER PRICE $53.21

Edible Forest Gardens,Vol. 1 is a monumental book that for the first time brings all of the richness and complexity of nature's design within the backyard gardener’s reach. What began eight years ago as a brief handbook has blossomed into a full-color, two-volume work that will inspire generations of readers with a vision of achievable Eden—one that can be realized in a rural field, a suburban yard, or even a vacant city lot. Detailed and technical, yet accessible to the average gardener, this book will be a fundamental text in every horticulture program.

Forest gardening combines the art and science of arranging plants in woodland-like patterns that forge mutually beneficial relationships, creating a garden ecosystem that is much more than the sum of its parts. It involves growing fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, mushrooms, and other useful plants, in a way that mimics natural ecosystems.

Ambitious and definitive, Edible Forest Gardens culminates years of thinking, teaching and practical experience by primary author Dave Jacke and co-author Eric Toensmeier. Volume o­ne, Ecological Vision and Theory for Temperate Climate Permaculture, reviews the ecological and cultural context for forest gardening in eastern North America. The text offers readers clear and specific ideas for the design and management of modern-day forest gardens, and a glimpse into the fascinating mysteries of natural plant communities. Case studies of successful forest gardens around the world help bring the authors’ concepts to life. The first volume concludes with colorful descriptions of forest gardening’s “Top 100” plant species—a section that's sure to whet the appetite of nearly every gardener.

Table of Contents

List of Tables and Figures
Preface

Introduction: An Invitation to Adventure
What Is an Edible Forest Garden?
Gardening LIKE the Forest vs. Gardening IN the Forest
Where Can You Grow a Forest Garden?
The Garden of Eden: It Sounds Great, But Is It Practical?
An Invitation to Adventure

Part O­ne: Context and Vision

1: The Forest and the Trees
The Primal Forest: A Remembrance
Gardening the Forest
Forest Remnants

• Feature Article 1: Natives and Exotics: Definitions and Questions

Suburban Ecology
Gardening in the Industrial Image
Lessons Learned

• Box 1-1: Shifting the Burden to the Intervenor

2: Visions of Paradise
Study of the Household: Ecology Defined
Tales of Mimicry
Advantages of Forest Mimicry
The Limitations of Forest Mimics
Spanning the Gamut: Images of Forest Gardens
Goals of Forest Gardening
Revision—the Garden of Eden?

• Box 2-1: The Principle of Functional Interconnection

Case Study 1: Charlie’s Garden

Part Two: Ecology: Form and Function in the Forest Garden

3: The Five Elements of Forest Architecture
Vegetation Layers

• Feature Article 2: With All These Layers, What Do I Grow in the Shade?

Soil Horizons
Density
Patterning
Diversity
Summary

• Box 3-1: The Principle of Relative Location

Case Study 2: Robert’s Garden

4: Social Structure: Niches, Relationships and Communities
Species, Species Niches, and Species Relationships
Multi-Species Interactions: Frameworks of Social Structure

• Feature Article 3: Natives and Exotics, Opportunists and Invasives

Social Structure Design: Strategies and Anchors
Chapter Summary

• Box 4-1: Niche Analysis: Everybody Does It
• Box 4-2: The Principle of Multiple Functions
• Box 4-3: The Principle of Stress and Harmony
• Box 4-4: The Competitive Exclusion Principle
• Box 4-5: The Cropping Principle
• Box 4-6: The Principle of Redundancy
• Box 4-7: The Polyculture Partitioning Principle
• Box 4-8: Ecological Analogs

5: Making A Living In The Dark: Structures of the Underground Economy
The Anatomy of Self-Renewing Fertility

• Feature Article 4: Parent Materials: The Soil’s Nutritional Constitution

Plant Roots: Engines of the Underground Economy
The Soil Food Web
Summary: Dabbling In The Underground Economy

• Box 5-1: The Concept of Limiting Factors
• Box 5-2: Specific Replant Disease

6: Succession: Four Perspectives o­n Vegetation Dynamics
Classical Linear Succession and Climax
Progressive Succession to Shifting Mosaic Steady State
Patch Dynamics: Out of Line and Out of Balance
A “Unified Oldfield Theory”: Successional Causes

• Feature Article 5: “Invasive” Plants and the Unified Oldfield Theory

Succession Design: Using the Four Models
Summary: The Simultaneity of the Four Models

• Box 6-1: The Principle of Allocation
• Box 6-2: The Law of Vegetation Dynamics
• Box 6-3: The Law of Dynamic Tolerance

Case Study 3: E.F. Schumacher Forest Garden

Conclusion: Elements, Dynamics, and Desired Conditions

Appendices

Appendix 1: Forest Gardening’s “Top 100” Species
Appendix 2: Plant Hardiness Zone Maps
Appendix 3: Publications and Organizations

Bibliography
Glossary
General Index