Huw Richards' Permaculture book is the fifth for the YouTube star, who has more than 840,000 followers and 100m hits for his gardening videos. His prrevious books have concentrated on self-sufficient veg gardening and have been well-received, with up to 10,000 positive Amazon reviews.
Richards is an advocate of simple gardening but permaculture is notoriously vague as a concept so takes some explaining, which takes up to page 30 in the book. He states he has been into permaculture since the age of 12
Permaculture as an idea was founded in the 1970s by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren.
The overarching idea is to garden with nature. There are no rules. The idea is gaining in popularity as gardeners become more eco-friendly. Saving time and increasing yield are focus points.
There are 12 principles:
Observe your garden (for instance checking if there was an outbuilding present which caused soil compaction).
Catch and store energy: This can be sunlight, organic matter, nutrients and water and can be stored in compost heaps, plants, tanks and even batteries.
Obtain a yield: This could be food, fodder, fuel, fibre (fabric) and pharma (medicine).
Self-regulate: Make informed gardening decisions.
Use renewables: Eg comfrey, willow, grass as feeds/compost.
Produce no waste: Compost. An example of his approach are to use cardboard (in 20 ways from composting to drawing on).
Design from pattern to details: Zone plants, plant by season.
Integrate not segregate: No polycultures.
Use small and slow solutions: Start small.
Use and value diversity: Polyculture. No no dig but minimal disturbance.
Use edges: Grow on the margins.
Use change: Richards changed to more chicken compost when bought compost prices rose.
The core of the book is about what to grow, with 50 pages on perennials and 50 on annuals. There are 30 on polyculture, mixing plants together, though Richards does not really believe in companion planting. Fruit, herbs, edible perennial borders, chicken food forest, ducks, foraging, food forests and high-yield veg beds are ideas. Veg in One Bed was Richards' 2019 book, which was a big hit, meeting the publishers' dream of a social media star writing a month-by-month guide to growing edibles.
At the back there is practical advice about areas such as building raised beds, slug hunting, and rabbit-proof fences. He's not a fundamentalist about organics or veganics and his advice is essentially sensible, practical and aimed at a wide audience.
This is an outstandingly well produced book, thorough and with detailed and useful illustrations.
Read more from Huw Richards' Gardena talk here.
