Let us know how you like Introduction to Permaculture.
Please do look at this on line PDF of Bill Mollisons first 14 articles Pamphlets I through XIV
http://www.barkingfrogspermacu... I think it is really basic to permaculture based thinking.
I think information and planning is basic--but don't do like I do sometimes, spending my time learning and designing in my mind or on paper, but it never transpires into reality on the ground. I also found that a lot of permaculture recommendations seemed to use a tropical rain forest model. I think a lot of northern forests are actually more spaced horizontally than they are vertically. A bare back yard is intimidating: what to plant, how to plant. Its easy to study hard, and say I should do this, or this. But the bottom line is what will you really use and need. To my mind we have a food crises looming. Our food is sometimes more contaminated than our compromised bodies can handle. A spot with those leafy greens and curcifers is almost a necessity. But to me, a garden without roses is no garden at all. And there is such a thing as edible flowers. Right now I have a plan for a Blueberry hedge underplanted with violets--which like to grow wild here. It is replacing a camellia hedge, but there are still a few Japonicas in there. The more I learn about herbs and herbal medicines, I realize that those should have a home in my garden as well. Any garden design should leave room to grow. If the land needs rebuilding, a schedule of cover crops may be necessary before incorporating design. Nitrogen fixers can include things like a pea crop,maybe followed in the summer by buckwheat, but in my garden the basic thing lacking is humus.
Metrosideros mentioned his tea and medicine gardens. I hope he will be back to describe those in more detail.
