Have you ever heard of the book Gaia’s Garden, by Toby Hemenway? It’s the best-selling book about permaculture in the world!
It’s a classic among permaculture enthusiasts and sustainable living folks, thanks to its practical approach to growing food in an urban or rural landscape.
Toby Hemenway taught about regenerative design and permaculture at universities and conferences all over the world. His writing has appeared in many magazines, to include Natural Home, Whole Earth Review, and American Gardener.
He has taught at several state universities, and has led over 70 Permaculture Design Courses, or PDCs.
Sadly, Toby lost his battle with cancer on December 20, 2016–shortly after the recording of a superb online course, called Creating Gaia’s Garden.
To honor his memory, the education website PermaEthos is providing all of the course material to the public at no cost.
You can sign up for the complete Creating Gaia’s Garden course here.
Topics for this five-module course include designing your home ecosystem, building the perfect soil, designing for security of your resources, and creating a yard that provides for you. You’ll also learn all about which plants to include in a home food forest, and their many uses.
Get the book here on Amazon!The certification and active community boards for the course are available as well.
PermaEthos also offers other courses– one about beekeeping, and another that’s a full Permaculture Design Course.
I highly recommend taking a local PDC over an online course, however. Permaculture is such a broad topic, that lots of information in the course can be tailored to your local area–so in this case, a smaller target of learning is better.
Toby Hemenway is also the author of a newer book on creating urban sustainability, called The Permaculture City.
Thanks to the internet and his abundance of written work, Toby’s legacy of permaculture knowledge will live on.
