Knowing how to enrich a patch of earth to grow healthy and nourishing food is one of the most foundational elements of reskilling. It's not surprising that during the springtime of the pandemic, seed companies sold out overnight and gardening centres were completely overwhelmed with orders for fruit trees and seedlings. This was perhaps partly driven by fear of scarcity, but I think it was also motivated by our implicit understanding that gardening is grounding and life-affirming in difficult times – that through the garden gate lies a place of connection and renewal where our hearts can both break and mend. In this sense, I think the current wave of backyard gardening is also implicitly powered by love. With this in mind, here's a curated collection of resources on organic and ecological growing, from the basics of backyard gardening and permaculture to more advanced techniques for small-scale farmers. Happy growing.
Short Films
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I love anything created by Jordan and Antoinette of Happen Films, but this little video is the one I go back to again and again when I need a small but potent reminder of how people and plants can transform the tiniest space into a paradise. Hats off to Kat Lavers of the Plummery in Melbourne, Australia.
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I've used the no-dig method to start all of our garden beds and commonly sing its praises. Here, Charles Dowding, who's been teaching and practicing this method for ages, demonstrates how to start from scratch on a patch of grass. His website is also full of wonderful resources and courses on organic growing.
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Favourite Books
I'm so grateful for this comprehensive and accessible introduction to the life of the soil. Learning more about this intricate web has deepened my commitment to organic practices and my appreciation for the more subtle and mysterious biological realms of the garden.
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This is an incredible book for beginner gardeners working with small spaces. Gayla Trail explains organic practices in such an accessible, practical way, and so creatively uses every nook and cranny of her urban space. It's also a visually beautiful book, which boosts morale and inspiration!
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I love Charles Dowding and really trust his straightforward approach to no-dig gardening. He's been practicing and teaching this method for many decades, and although he's growing in a soft British climate, so many of his tips and techniques have been incredibly useful in our Zone 4 gardens.
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This updated edition of the classic text is a wonderful learning tool. I appreciate David Holmgren's framing of permaculture principles as a set of "thinking tools for an era of change". I go back to it again and again.
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Of course I love Manasnobu Fukuoka's little green book. It's a powerful manifesto on natural farming and eating, but it's also a "spiritual memoir of a man whose innovative system of cultivating the earth reflects a deep faith in the wholeness and balance of the natural world." Beautiful.
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This book focuses on non-timber forest products – the countless healing, nutritious and useful plants and fungi that grow within healthy, biodiverse forests. The authors' emphasis on forest farming, or "productive conservation", in temperate areas is especially inspiring.
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Ben Falk's approach to whole systems design is exciting for any thoughtful grower, but as a cold-climate gardener I especially appreciate his focus on growing and building for long winters.
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I reach for Toby Hemenway's book again and again for practical guidance on all the permaculture basics, including detailed tables of hundreds of different plants, their synergistic properties and their favourite growing conditions.
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Sensei Wendy Johnson has gifted the world with a jewel. Her reflections on the Dharma and organic gardening are instructive, contemplative, profound, practical – and Davis Te Selle's illustrations are breathtaking. This book has very strong magic power.
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Of couse Eliot Coleman is on my farming bookshelf! This seasoned hero of the organic farming movement has developed so many of the techniques and tools that the next generation considers essential. This is an obvious classic.
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I received this book as a gift from my sister when Yan and I left the west coast in our loaded pickup truck to find a home in Québec. As we leapt, hoping the net would appear, this book was a source of dream-nourishment. Now, settled on our acre in this land of long winters, I still pull it out every year to refresh my motivation for extending the season.
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Yan and I own this one in French and in English, and both are out on the kitchen table or in the garden shed at the beginning of every growing season. Jean-Martin Fortier and his partner Maude-Hélène Desroches are seriously skilled farmers – we're very, very lucky live within their foodshed!
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