When Eric
Toensmeier and Jonathan Bates moved into a duplex in a run-down part of
Holyoke, Massachusetts, the tenth-of-an-acre lot was barren ground and bad
soil, peppered with broken pieces of concrete, asphalt, and brick. The two
friends got to work designing what would become not just another urban farm,
but a "permaculture paradise" replete with perennial broccoli, paw
paws, bananas, and moringa—all told, more than two hundred low-maintenance
edible plants in an innovative food forest on a small city lot. The garden—intended
to function like a natural ecosystem with the plants themselves providing most
of the garden's needs for fertility, pest control, and weed suppression—also
features an edible water garden, a year-round unheated greenhouse, tropical
crops, urban poultry, and even silkworms.
In
telling the story of Paradise Lot, Toensmeier explains the
principles and practices of permaculture, the choice of exotic and unusual food
plants, the techniques of design and cultivation, and, of course, the
adventures, mistakes, and do-overs in the process. Packed full of detailed,
useful information about designing a highly productive permaculture
garden, Paradise Lot is also a funny and charming story of two
single guys, both plant nerds, with a wild plan: to realize the garden of their
dreams and meet women to share it with. Amazingly, on both counts, they
succeed.
About the
authors:
Eric Toensmeier has studied and practiced
permaculture since 1990. He is the author of Perennial Vegetables and
coauthor of Edible Forest Gardens with Dave Jacke. Toensmeier has
worked as a small-farm trainer at the New England Small Farm Institute, has
managed the Tierra de Oportunidades new farmer program of Nuestras Raices, and
is a graduate and former faculty member of the Institute for Social Ecology in
Plainfield, Vermont. His current interest is in large-scale permaculture
farming as a carbon-sequestering solution to climate change. Toensmeier's
writing, consulting, and teaching business is based at
www.perennialsolutions.org, where he posts his latest articles and videos. He
lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
Jonathan Bates owns Food Forest Farm Permaculture Nursery
(permaculturenursery.com), a nursery specializing in educational services and
useful/edible plant sales. He's been studying, creating, and working with rural
and urban gardens in the Connecticut River Valley for over a decade. With a
bachelors degree in biology, and MA in social ecology from the Institute for
Social Ecology, Jonathan loves wild crafting with friends, and working with folks
to better the world we live in. He cofounded and is a board member of the Apios
Institute, is a teacher at the Yestermorrow Design/Build School, and is a
farmer with Nuestras Raices, Inc. He lives in Holyoke, Massachusetts.
