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"How to Make a Forest Garden"
by
Patrick Whitefield

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"A forest garden is a food-producing garden, based on the model of a natural woodland or forest.

It is made up of fruit and nut trees, fruit bushes, perennial vegetables and herbs. It can be tailored to fit any space, from a tiny urban back yard to a large rural garden.

A close copy of a natural ecosystem, it is perhaps the most ecologically friendly way of gardening open to us.

It is also a low-maintenance way of gardening. Once established there is none of the digging, sowing, planting out and hoeing of the conventional kitchen garden. The main task is picking up the produce!

This highly practical, yet inspiring book gives you everything you need to know in order to create a beautiful and productive forest garden, including * Basic principles; * Layout; * How to choose plants; * Details of over one hundred plants, from apples to mushrooms; * the most comprehensive account of perennial and self-seeding vegetables in print; * A step-by-step guide to creating your garden; * Full details of an example garden, and pictures of many more.

Forest gardening is an important element of permaculture. This book explains in detail permaculture design for temperate climates and contains much of interest for anybody wanting to introduce sustainable practices into their garden.

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"When trouble strikes and your group is beyond the reach of 911, you're the one who has to help.

Medicine for the Backcountry can prepare you for just about any major or minor medical emergency you might face in the outdoors. Using real-life anecdotes, step-by-step instructions, and clear illustrations, this invaluable guide shows you how to assess, manage, and care for: bone breaks and fractures, muscular injuries, heat and cold injuries, near drowning, spinal trauma, bites and stings and many other potential maladies.

Each chapter also includes The Barehanded Principles - a point-by-point summary of the information you need to know to provide help in a hurry. Use Medicine for the Backcountry as both a practical handbook and a handy reference - and take it with you when your travels take you far from help."

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"Identifying and Harvesting Edible and Medicinal Plants in Wild (and Not So Wild) Places shows readers how to find and prepare more than five hundred different plants for nutrition and better health, including such common plants as mullein (a tea made from the leaves and flowers suppresses a cough), stinging nettle (steam the leaves and you have a tasty dish rich in iron), cattail (cooked stalks taste similar to corn and are rich in protein).

More than 260 detailed line drawings help readers identify a wide range of plants -- many of which are suited for cooking by following the more than thirty recipes included in this book.

There are literally hundreds of plants readily available underfoot waiting to be harvested and used either as food or as a potential therapeutic. This book is both a field guide to nature's bounty and a source of intriguing information about the plants that surround us."

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"More than 370 edible wild plants, plus 37 poisonous look-alikes, are described here, with 400 drawings and 78 color photographs showing precisely how to recognize each species. Also included are habitat descriptions, lists of plants by season, and preparation instructions for 22 different food uses.

This book is very well written. it contains over 400 drawings and 78 color photos, to help in the identification of the mentioned plants. Each entry contains information on habitat, when they flower, a description and the uses.

The line drawings are very accurate and are more than enough, when coupled with the descriptions, to be able to identify just about any plant. But if you have any doubts, check the color photos. Also, at the back of the book, it contains the various types of plants divided up into habitat, and then each habitat divided into what plants can be harvested there during various seasons.

This book is a great resource for any survivalist's bookshelf."

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"In a situation where survival is at stake, plants can provide crucial food and medicine. Their safe usage requires absolutely positive identification, knowing how to prepare them for eating, and a solid awareness of any dangerous properties they might have.

Familiarity with the botanical structures of plants and information on where they grow will make them much easier to locate and identify.

The Illustrated Guide to Edible Wild Plants describes the physical characteristics, habitat and distribution, and edible parts of wild plants. With color photography throughout, this guide facilitates the identification of these plants.

Originally intended for Army use, this book serves as a survival aid for civilians as well. Anyone interested in the outdoors, botany, or even in unusual sources of nutrition will find this an indispensable resource."

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"A practical guide to all aspects of edible wild plants: finding and identifying them, their seasons of harvest, and their methods of collection and preparation. Each plant is discussed in great detail and accompanied by excellent color photographs. Includes an index, illustrated glossary, bibliography, and harvest calendar. The perfect guide for all experience levels.

Includes an index, illustrated glossary, bibliography, and harvest calendar. The perfect guide for all experience levels.

Forager's Harvest is the BEST book of the three for getting a beginner started. Lots and lots of nice color photographs of the plants. When choosing a book in getting started in foraging, you must have color photographs, there is no substitute.

So, while other books provide long lists of "survival foods" that would gag a goat, Thayer discusses only the plants that he enjoys eating."

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"A fully illustrated, full color guide to using some 80 wild medicinal plants found in North America.

Includes descriptions and photographs of each plant species as well as information on where to find and how to use them.

Matches a variety of illnesses with the plants that treat them, discusses how medicinal plants work and how and what parts of the plants should be gathered, and describes and illustrates toxic wild plants to avoid.

Includes information for: Hawthorn, Adam's Flannel, Yarrow, Cinquefoil, Shepherd's Purse, Pussywillow, St. John's Wort, Huckleberry, Black Cherry, Bladderwrack, Watercress, Tansy, Barberry, Horseradish, Great Burdock, Curled Dock, Mallow, Stinging Nettle, Black Elder, Elecampane and 60 others. Includes scientific and common names for each plant. "

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"This book is the first-ever revision of a classic guidebook. It provides information on each plant's characteristics, distribution, and medicinal qualities, as well as updated taxonomy and 15 new species.

It shows how to identify and use wild plants for medicinal purposes.

This illustrated guide to North American wild medicinals has been a nature classic for over thirty years.

In this new edition, David K Foster revises Bradford Angier's invaluable handbook, updating the taxonomy and adding more than a dozen species, including the purple coneflower, popularly known as echinacea, as well as ephedra, jewelweed, goldenseal, and more.

Scientific information for a general audience and full-colour illustrations combine with intriguing accounts of the plants' uses, making this a practical guide for anyone interested in the medicinal uses of wild plants."

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"In this long-awaited professional guide to the use of medicinal plants, one finds both a detailed materia medica and a user-friendly repertory. The materia medica takes up the first half of this scholarly volume, listing and describing 300 herbs as to their indications (first by energetics, then by body systems), known contraindications, and traditional dosages.

In the second half, a detailed repertory appears, listing hundreds of indications and health conditions, which are then referenced back to the appropriate herbs in the materia medica.

Rounded out with substantial introductions on the energetics of the four major herbal systems (Traditional Chinese Medicine, Ayurveda, Unani Tibb, and American Eclectic Medicine), a glossary, and a bibliography, this power-packed reference work is intended for serious students of herbal medicine as well as for herbal practitioners, all of whom will discover a veritable treasure trove of information within its pages."

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"Did you know that the oats you eat can also soothe itchy skin when put in your bath? That witch hazel shrinks hemorrhoids?

From the herbs Americans take most to lesser-known medicinal plants, this readable and revealing guide helps you make smart choices about your health.

The most thorough and comprehensive herb reference of its kind, THE GREEN PHARMACY HERBAL HANDBOOK was compiled from Dr. Duke's database of the world's medicinal plants.

The database, which he began during his career as a top botanist with the USDA, is a major resource for herbalists around the world. Written in Dr. Duke's own folksy, jargon-free language, this important reference work explains each herb with care, including:* Description and history * Therapeutic uses * Medicinal properties * Prescription counterparts * Dosage options * Safety and Precautions."

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"The Plains Indians found medicinal value in more than two hundred species of native prairie plants. Unfortunately, modern American culture has not paid much attention.

White settlers did learn a few plant-based remedies from the Indians, and a few prairie plants were prescribed by frontier doctors.

But in both the number of species used and the varieties of treatments administered, Indians were far more proficient than white settlers. Their knowledge was refined and exact enough that they could successfully administer medicinal doses of plants that are poisonous.

In Medicinal Plants of the Prairie, ethnobotanist Kelly Kindscher documents the medicinal use of 203 native prairie plants by the Plains Indians. He also explains the use of internal and external medications, smoke treatments, moxa (the burning of a medicinal substance on the skin), and the doctrine of signatures (the belief that the form or characteristics of a plant are signatures or signs that reveal its medicinal uses)."

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"Edible and Medicinal Plants of the West invites anyone interested in plants, personal well-being, and a healthy environment to discover the healing powers of the herbal world.

Full-color photographs face detailed descriptions of 250 plant species in the western United States and Canada, covering field identification, habitat and range, edibility, medicinal uses, and more.

This book is a good beginning book on edible and medicinal plants of the west.

The detailed descriptions of habitat, appearance, and usefulness of each plant are supplemented by great color pictures, as well as instructions for avoiding dangerous look-alikes.

I would highly recommend this book for hikers, backpackers, woodsmen, and anyone else that spends a lot of time outdoors.

Enjoy this gem!"

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"I feel this is one of the best books on the subject of edible wild plants. It is very informative and gives a lot more information than other plant books.

Tom gives us a pre-New Age understanding of his plant friends - the ones we might most need or want to know - while spinning sentimental and spiritual threads that may help bind us to our use of this new knowledge.

The author discusses every plant according to its "personality," which is a detailed account of his personal experience with the plant, childhood memories related to the plant, and teachings he got from an Apache elder.

We then learn how the plant can be used as food and as medicine. In either case, the author shows clearly how the plant should be harvested, cooked, eaten, stored, prepared and prescribed. He also points to possible dangers when a plant could trigger reactions in allergic people."

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"New England's diverse geography overflows with edible plant and animal species. Through the seasons, this forager's paradise offers a continually changing list of wild, harvestable treasures.

From Beach Peas to Serviceberries, Lamb's-Quarters to Lady's Thumb, Hen of the Woods to Mugworts, Foraging New England guides you to the edible wild foods and healthful herbs of the Northeast.

Organized by environmental zone, this valuable reference guide will help you identify and appreciate the wild bounty of New England. Inside you'll find: detailed descriptions of edible plants and animals; tips on finding, preparing, and using foraged foods; a glossary of botanical terms; eighty-seven color photos.

Use Foraging New England as a field guide or as a delightful armchair read. No matter what you're looking for, be it the curative Heal-All or tasty Purslane, this guide will enhance your next backpacking trip or easy stroll around the garden, and may just provide some new favorites for your dinner table.

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"The Herbal Medicine-Makers Handbook blends the herbalist author's natural home remedies with his perspectives on the art of herbal medicine's applications, with recipes for folk extractions including plenty of recommendations for usage.

The result is far more in-depth than your usual herbal recipe book, packed with insights on how to extract herbs, make tinctures, and apply them properly."

"I have lots of great herb books, but this one is the first that gives me detailed and practical information about how to MAKE the preparations myself.

Green's gentle sense of humor make it approachable, but he also is responsibly thorough. The book is fun to read and I've made my first tincture. I very highly recommend the book to someone who actually wants to USE herbs for healing."

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"Even those who have no intention of combing the countryside for cleavers, slippery elm or velvet dock will welcome the return to print of this 1966 classic guide to American wild herbs for its wealth of knowledge.

Many since the late Gibbons ("Stalking the Wild Asparagus") have written about the medicinal and nutritive properties of indigenous flora, and nouvelle cuisine has domesticated the notion of edible flowers, but the author's good-humored approach to preparing pine tree needles, boiled nettles and similar treats establishes his as a uniquely charming voice in the self-important world of health foods.

A handful of crushed pennyroyal rubbed on exposed skin will keep mosquitoes away. A half-cup of violet-leaf greens has as much Vitamin C as four oranges.

Lemonade flavored with a jigger of borage juice is an especially cooling drink. The roots of Queen Anne's lace will do for a meal in an emergency. That insatiable stalker of the wildlings, Euell Gibbons, has been out hunting again."

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"A handbook for the home herbalist, detailing how to identify, gather, and prepare more than fifty different wild plants for medicinal use.

Traditional herbal medicine, long practiced as a primary form of healing in many cultures around the world, is gaining tremendous popularity and acceptance in this country. Plants such as echinacea and St. John's wort have become common remedies, and new scientific studies show evidence that these plants are in fact effective in bolstering the immune system and treating depression.

Herbal Remedies From the Wild gives full descriptions of 52 medicinal herbs common to North America--plants such as valerian, used for insomnia; red clover, for coughs; and elderberry, for fever.

For each species, the author gives details on its appearance, where it is found, how to harvest and prepare it, and the recommended dosage for specific ailments, including cautions about conditions that preclude the use of the herb. The introduction provides instructions for making teas, tinctures, salves, and syrups. A line drawing of each herb aids in identification."

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"In this groundbreaking study, 100 different wild plants(including many common weeds)from the Minnesota-Wisconsin area are carefully monographed as to their edibility and/or healing potential.

Forty-eight pages of plates containing 171 full-color photos are included to complement the detailed physical descriptions that are provided in the text, often showing the plant in several stages of growth or zooming in on particular features.

In addition, several thousand references are made from over 800 bibliographic items (largely consisting of scientific and ethnobotanical studies) in order to buttress the extensive textual information on the edible and medicinal facets of the plants.

Rounded out with a glossary, several appendices (including a guide to making herbal extracts at home and a detailed classification of the plants by physiological functions), and a 21-page comprehensive index, this first-of-its-kind study for the upper Midwestern states is sure to become a classic!"

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"The appropriation of plants and traditional knowledge by corporations and other entities is often called biopiracy. Such practices arise from a cultural milieu that systematically marginalizes non-Western forms of knowledge, which are devalued as "folk knowledge" or characterized as inferior. Global Biopiracy rethinks the role of international law and legal concepts, global patent systems, and international agricultural research institutions as they affect legal ownership and control of plants and the knowledge that makes them valuable.

Ikechi Mgbeoji first examines the Western assumptions and biases that inform the patent system, international law, and institutions affecting farmers around the globe. He next analyzes the cultural and economic traits that divide the industrialized world and the developing world. Finally, Mgbeoji confronts the phenomenal loss of human cultures and plant diversity that has already occurred and that will continue in the future unless protective measures are implemented and enforced."

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"A complete handbook for the herbal practitioner. Paul Bergner said it succinctly when he wrote, This book is broad enough in scope that it contains within it enough material for three books.

Herbal Medicine from the Heart of the Earth contains the most up-to-date, detailed information on 190 valuable herbs including, dosage, specific indications, general uses, active constituents, and contraindications.

Compound formulations are listed for all the most common ailments as well as some uncommon ailments.

They are organized by body systems to make them easier to learn. Another helpful tool is the charts that are used in the book. For those new to herbal terminology, definitions of the words specific to herbal medicine are found in the Properties & Actions section."

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"Making Plant Medicine is about making herbal medicine.

This is a modern medicine making book and formulary with its roots in original herbalism designed for every medicinal herb gardener to cultivate the full potential of the plant-human relationship.

Richo Cech tells very good stories based on his experience as a global wanderer, herbalist and medicine maker.

In the context of his lifelong love of gardening, he has procduced this long-awaited book that is original, amusing and absolutely useful.

Richo Cech is an internationally recognized expert on the cultivation, processing and usage of medicinal plants.

His early work in African archeology and ethnobotany coupled with a life-long interest in seed saving eventually materialized in an extensive collection of seeds."

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"A perennial favourite, "Medicinal Plants of the Pacific West" is a user-friendly guide to over 300 species of plants geographically ranging from Baja California to Alaska.

Moore tells what each plant is used for, but just as important, he details where and when to find the plant.

He gives step by step recipes for each plant, telling if it should be rubbed on, eaten, soaked in, or steeped and drunk.

He writes at least two pages on every plant, and some plants have seven pages because they are so useful.

The recipes and directions for making medications out of the plants are outstanding.

I was once told that Moore was one of the few herbalists who have doctors running up to his front door asking for answers."

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"Planting the Future provides both motivation and instruction for saving medicinal plants.

The public's growing realization of the healing potential of plants is positive, but over-harvesting has led to a decline in native stands of many plants.

Rosemary Gladstar has gathered a stellar team of writers to address the issue. The index reads like a who's-who of the herbal world. More than 30 plants are addressed in individual articles written by herbalists who know and love them.

A grower of any size can use the information, the backyard up to a large sanctuary. A gardener can find the plants best suited their area, as well as how to propagate and care for them.

Once grown, there is information about the preparation and use of the plants."

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"As humans evolved on Earth they used plants for everything imaginable - food, weapons, baskets, clothes, shelter and medicine. Indigenous peoples the world over have been able to gather knowledge of plant uses by communicating directly with plants and honouring the sacred relationship between themselves and the plant world.

In this book Stephen Harrod Buhner, looks at the long-standing relationship between indigenous peoples and plants, and examines the techniques and states of mind these cultures use to communicate with the plant world.

Stephen Buhner explores the processes whereby indigenous peoples throughout the world learned the use of plant medicines."

Indigenous peoples were clear, and Buhner's first hand accounts bear this out, they did not learn the uses of plant medicines through trial and error but directly from the plants themselves.

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"There are few herbalists in the US as much respected by their peers as Michael Moore. This book can be used as a field guide, a reference on home remedies and a treatise on the applications of herbal medicine in an era of high-tech healing. It is one of the most treasured of botanical books.

Michael Moore's celebrated companion guides comprehensively cover the entire range of medicinal herbs found in New Mexico, Arizona, West Texas, Nevada, Utah, Colorado, and the California desert.

Medicinal Plants of the Mountain West is the long-established classic work on medicinal herbs of the Western uplands.

An authoritative presentation of more than 100 species, it is unsurpassed as a field guide and for its authoritative information on collection and medicinal preparation. It focuses on the plant life of rocky and arid lands of the West, and includes even more detailed information on the preparation and use of these vital herbs."

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"In Native American Medicinal Plants, anthropologist Daniel E. Moerman describes the medicinal use of more than 2700 plants by 218 Native American tribes.

Information — adapted from the same research used to create the monumental Native American Ethnobotany — includes 82 categories of medicinal uses, ranging from analgesics, contraceptives, gastrointestinal aids, hypotensive medicines, sedatives, and toothache remedies.

Native American Medicinal Plants includes extensive indexes arranged by tribe, usage, and common name, making it easy to access the wealth of information in the detailed catalog of plants.

It is an essential reference for students and professionals in the fields of anthropology, botany, and naturopathy and an engaging read for anyone interested in ethnobotany and natural healing."