I'm gathering a few resources that might be helpful in helping to define what exactly permaculture is, what it's not, and how it can be integrated into our daily lives. I'm under the belief that no one resource can cover all the facets of permaculture as it is quite a wide-reaching set of sciences, but this should help get us started.

Permaculture at Wikipedia touches briefly on the history, theory, design principles, the 6 zones (0-5), animals, lasagne mulching or sheet mulching, use of rain and greywaters, :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P...

Permaculture Institute in Santa Fe, NM offers courses in Permaculture Design, key concepts, and many publications and books by their founder Bill Mollison and others:
http://www.permaculture.org/

Small-scale Permaculture, as in sustainable home gardening, good article, but covers a little bit about a lot of topics:
http://indianapublicmedia.org/...

Some books from beginner to advanced designers:
- Introduction to Permaculture by Bill Mollison - http://amzn.to/xA7qiK
- Permaculture: A Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison - http://amzn.to/xL74B4
- Gaia's Garden: Second Edition - A Guide To Home Scale Permaculture by Toby Hemeway - http://amzn.to/wFXbC3
- Permaculture: Principles & Pathways Beyond Sustainability by David Holmgren - http://amzn.to/yKtNJj
- Sepp Holtzer's Permaculture by Sepp Holtzer - http://amzn.to/w2tPDR

Various definitions of permaculture, link provided by Sharon:
- http://www.permaculture.net/ab...

And one more definition/description, link provided by plantladylin:
- http://www.gardeningknowhow.co...

The Survival Podcast w/ Dave:
http://www.thesurvivalpodcast....

Here's a link to Dave's article on building hugelkultur raised beds.
http://garden.org/articles/vie...

And Dave's article on vermicomposting with worms creating castings, as requested.
http://garden.org/articles/vie...

Hugelkultur & Swale Irrigation Video Series By Jack Spirko of The Survival Podcast:
- Part 1 - http://youtu.be/AIFB2mXTMfY
- Part 2 - http://youtu.be/_N2Q-esXVP4
- Part 3 - http://youtu.be/UO303KfdBBU
- Part 4 - http://youtu.be/LejIjEJwLZQ
- Part 5 - http://youtu.be/Z23ejZNJUHI
- Part 6 - http://youtu.be/ovZuUwA3yv8

Very brief explanation of Permaculture Zones in theory:
http://youtu.be/IpkiQHvmkII

Great links - thank you!

Chris,
I need to plug my new reading and viewing needs into my calendar! Lots to review here. Thanks for all your work. This is interesting.

I'd like to share this site from an author that can convince us that no matter how large or how small, we can all practice permaculture whether we live in the city or the country.

http://www.patriciamichaeldesi...

And, thank you for sharing some of the above sites. Kristi

Another link for those in a relevant climate:
www.tropicalpermaculture.com/

Chris, don't forget the great videos from Geoff Lawton. I just bought his newest dvd, Urban Permaculture. It is wonderful!

Jessie

Is that DVD pretty easy to get? I think I looked into buying it last year and it wasn't on Amazon or anything and the ecofilms website is Australian. Do they ship to the US?

I ordered it from here: http://permaculture.org.au/aut... just scroll a little down the page and you will see a link to all his videos on the right hand side.

It is actually from Australia and it only plays on your computer. But it's worth it.

The book Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway. It's Permaculture 101

Great! I saw you mention that book in the other thread. Dave seconded it.

I just got it from Amazon for my Kindle. Nine bucks and change.

Thanks for the recommendation, Dave and Tom~

Shoe

I like the Hemenway book. For one thing it tells you have to plant under a walnut tree and its probably worth $9 just for that information.

Also it will take you square into the hot debate about "native plants".

Some native plant people take exception to the strategy of using invasives as nitrogen fixers. Plant native they say. But what is native?
When? Plants that grew in the Pleistocene probably will not be adaptive to extant environments, today. Its an interesting argument, I think. Hope you enjoy this American version of permaculture book!

You'll enjoy the book Shoe.

Glad to be of help, it's the book that changed everything I do in my gardens.

Food Not Lawns by HC Flores is another good read. Especially for those with smaller lands.

I have bought several of the above books and have just started looking at this way to 'tend the earth around me.' We have different issues up here but there is a local group to help with things 'alaskan.' Just in the few chapters I have read in Gaia's Garden I have come up with an idea to push back the horsetail that started invading my garden last year. I think the answer is mulch and planting ground covers and vegies between my flowers. I think it invaded due to depleted soil and lots of open tilled ground. I am determined to push it back now by addressing planting and tending methods rather than brush killer and pulling (which is a fruitless task anyway.)

Oh, now you've done it! You've gone and got me interested in a whole nother gardening area! I've downloaded the Gaia's Garden book, and can't wait to dig in. I've been wandering this direction on my own for a few years, with false starts, trial and error heavy on the error and will truly enjoy learning along with several of you how this is really supposed to work. Thanks for the info and the links and the general chatter that helps me follow along.

Good luck to you. I think it is really the way to go. We shouldn't have to fight our gardens to have healthy productive ones. Easier said than done but worth the effort. The first step hopefully will start soon as the landscapers are coming to remove a lot of grass to put in raised beds for vegies and flowers. Then I have to get the bags of compost/mulch spread out especially in the problem spots. those nasty horsetails are showing up now.