Permaculture is more than just the latest buzzword; it offers positive
solutions for many of the environmental and social challenges
confronting us. And nowhere are those remedies more needed and desired
than in our cities.
The Permaculture City provides a new way of thinking about urban
living, with practical examples for creating abundant food, energy
security, close-knit communities, local and meaningful livelihoods, and
sustainable policies in our cities and towns. The same nature-based
approach that works so beautifully for growing food--connecting the
pieces of the landscape together in harmonious ways--applies perfectly
to many of our other needs. Toby Hemenway, one of the leading
practitioners and teachers of permaculture design, illuminates a new way
forward through examples of edge-pushing innovations, along with a
deeply holistic conceptual framework for our cities, towns, and
suburbs.
The Permaculture City begins in the garden but takes what we have
learned there and applies it to a much broader range of human
experience; we're not just gardening plants but people, neighborhoods,
and even cultures. Hemenway lays out how permaculture design can help
towndwellers solve the challenges of meeting our needs for food, water,
shelter, energy, community, and livelihood in sustainable, resilient
ways. Readers will find new information on designing the urban home
garden and strategies for gardening in community, rethinking our water
and energy systems, learning the difference between a "job" and a
"livelihood," and the importance of placemaking and an empowered
community.
This important book documents the rise of a new sophistication, depth,
and diversity in the approaches and thinking of permaculture designers
and practitioners. Understanding nature can do more than improve how we
grow, make, or consume things; it can also teach us how to cooperate,
make decisions, and arrive at good solutions.
