(Part 2) Reddit mentions: The best gardening & landscape design books

Sorry about the length of the post but this is information I wish someone had given me when I was starting. Hopefully it's not too basic.

I am by no means an expert but I can walk you through my trial and error period (which I am certainly not finished with) for terrariums. I don't know that I'll be able to help with the nepenthes though discussion in this thread indicates that humidity is key for those plants. I am seriously limited on space where I currently live so I've developed a setup that seems to work for my plants, though it's not ideal for all of them.

Initially I had been growing my plants on a windowsill but this summer I moved to a location that has proper shading over the windows (great for people, terrible for plants) so I needed to migrate to a terrarium. I started caring for plants in May so I didn't really know what I was doing. If you haven't already, I recommend purchasing The Savage Garden: Cultivation Carnivorous Plants by Peter D'Amato. It's a great introductory book with lots of useful information about growing and indoor/outdoor setups. You can find it on Amazon for a moderate price.

I ended up purchasing a 10 gallon aquarium from PetSmart or PetCo for something like 30 dollars. The box was damaged so I got it for cheaper than whatever it was listed for. Those come with a water heater for fish which you can place in a bottle of water inside the aquarium to increase humidity if needed. I then bought some Plexiglas and melted holes in it with a soldering iron for ventilation. I used that instead of the lid the aquarium came with so I could use more lights if I needed to. I mostly have sundews so I opted for a 2' t5 light set up which can get pretty toasty, but my sundews loved it and it got very humid inside. I use four of these lights for ~5000 lumen output. You would probably want to go with t8 lights as they operate at a lower temperature. Do not purchase lights branded as "growlights" as they are almost always more expensive than similar lights and will not last as long as something from Phillips or GE. Like UseUrLogic said, use lights with a color temperature of 6500 K or higher. I find that 6500 K is the easiest to find and work fine.

I do have two flytraps and they were not happy in the aquarium, but they were still growing. I imagine one of them would have died had I left them in such a humid environment for any longer. I then moved again and needed a new setup, since I didn't want to kill the traps. I'm now doing something like this but much more jerry-rigged. My plants seem to like it though. You might consider something like this as my flytraps love it too. I'm going to try taking them outside soon in an attempt to have them go through natural dormancy. I may just give in and try fridge dormancy though I have heard mixed results.

--------------------

I was bored so I looked up some information that may be useful to you when deciding what to do with your plants. Most of the is from The Savage Garden.

It behooves you to find out what your pings are, as different species can have radically different growth requirements. Consider posting images here or on the ICP forums if you can't ID them yourself. Here is what Peter says about pings in terrariums: "Forget temperate varieties here. some warm temperates do nicely, sich as P. lusitanica, P.caerulea, and P. primuliflora, but do best with cooler winters. Most of the Mexican species thrive under grow-lights, in a tank or not, at room temperature. Use the pot-and-saucer method to allow for drier winter conditions."

For the cephalotus he says "Excellent as a potted specimen year round in the unheated greenhouse-style terrarium. Colorful and vigorous under grow-lights." He also says it should be fine on a partly sunny windowsill in relatively high humidity and that you should mist it often.

The Nepenthes maxima (Highland Nep.) is apparently a good terrarium plant and easy to grow, though it likes good air circulation and misting at night. The truncata is a lowland variety and apparently will do well in a steamy terrarium. Both of these varieties will eventually outgrow all but very large terrariums.

The only plant you own that I have personal experience with, other than the flytraps, is D. Aliciae. Unfortunately I overfed mine shortly after getting it an it died back to the root. It's coming back now but it won't be as big as it was before for a least another two months. I've found that it's a pretty hardy little plant. It can handle temperatures of up to 95°F and down to ~40°F (though that's pushing it). I currently grow mine at ~85°F. It doesn't need much humidity at all (I was growing it in 50% and it's now doing quite well in about 35-40% rh) but growsundews.com recommends humidity over 60%.

Good luck with the plants!

TL;DR "UseUrLogic" is correct in that you will not be able to keep them all in the same terrarium. You may be able to start with all but the flytraps in but then I recommend migrating the pitchers to windowsills and misting often. Try to find out what the pings are. Maybe consider a setup similar to Bisnick's as it will accommodate your pitchers even when they are larger, though it will require a larger light setup.

EDIT: Units were incorrect.

Definitely. Sorry, this will be a bit long, but read through.

I think the first thing, is just getting out a little bit more often, of course, there's a sort of qualitative change that happens in you when you get out in nature.

But then there are nature observation skills you can develop. And this really can change the game a bit, and make it much more engaging to get out when you do.

The first thing I would suggest, and this you can do from your backyard, is learning to observe birds. The societies of the birds are omnipresent, more complex than you might think, and quite interesting and engaging once you break into the ability to watch them. It's best if you have something you can zoom in on them with. A pair of binoculars. I use a cheap camera that has a superzoom (Panasonic fz70). Of course, you don't need anything extra to observe the nature around you, that's just a suggestion.

There are different skills to develop here. One is learning to tune in with your audiovisual system. What I've been taught to do is to get very still, widen your vision, tune in with your ears, and soon you will detect a flicker here, a sound there, and the birds which you normally would have trouble finding can't help but reveal themselves to you.

If your location is anything like mine, there are some interesting things about the birds in your average backyard. First there are the ways they interact with eachother. What I've found most interesting though is that maybe 3 or 4 times each day, a Hawk will swoop through and try to catch one. Birds exist in cooperative multispecies complexes, and they all help eachother against these threats. You will be sitting there, and then suddenly, every bird will dart off into a hiding place, and then maybe 1 second later, a Hawk will come soaring through. Sometimes the Hawk will succeed. Just the other day I went outside to find a Hawk on a branch with one of the sparrows from my yard in its claw.

Another thing about birds is their language. If you observe for just like 2 or 3 months, by that time you will soon be able to distinguish each common species by the noises they make. And then you can go deeper and begin to understand what calls are just baseline behavior singing (most prevalent in the morning and afternoon choruses), what noises are made when two birds are fighting, what noises signify the aporoach of an aerial predator, what noises signify the approach of a ground predator, etc.

This isn't all about birds, but you'll notice as you explore more that birds are the most omnipresent type of animals in the wild. In the same way that they cooperate as a multispecies complex that warns eachother of a predators approach, if you enter a wooded area, the birds will begin making alarm noises to each other, sometimes even behaving as if they are "yelling at you". Not only do all the birds in an environment get alerted by this, so too do the mammals sense the change in baseline behavior and begin to hide.

When most people explore nature, they tramp through noisily, alerting every animal in there, and thus do not find much. They behave out of place, disrupt the baseline of an environment. Furthermore, their audiovisual systems are not attuned, not used to picking out where an animal might be, they may not even notice a huge raptor in the tree nearby, or the raccoon or fox as he slinks out of sight at the approaching commotion.

And finally, people do not understand how to observe animal track and sign. Everything that passes through an ecosystem will make marks upon it. We can begin by observing the overt signs. Everywhere the coyote goes, he leaves big canid footprints. As does the fox. Skunk and raccoon tracks are easily distinguiahable. Feline tracks may be a bobcat, maybe even a mountain lion, although they tend to be more light footed. And they all make different looking scat along the way. If there are beavers, you will see their signs everywhere. They gnaw at the bottom of trees, first removing the bark, then chewing into the tree, finally toppling them. As well as making dams and scent mounds, and big dens out of sticks. All the lumber beavers chew down has a particular pointed tip on it, and once you know it you see their sign everywhere.

If you learn how to follow the tracks of an animal, you enter into a perceptual relationship with it. It can bring you through an ecosystem in a way you would never have done, show you a bit of the ways the locals do things, bring you into new interesting areas, as well as give a glimpse into the mind and habits of that particular animal. But also, even if you just know the very basics of which tracks belong to which animal, you can come across a watering hole where the banks stay wet and muddy, and instantly know every animal which has visited the place.

Of course, you have to know how to move through an ecosystem so as to not disturb everything in it. The best way is to move quietly as possible, move strategically, and otherwise, move and behave as if you belong there. You should learn the Fox Walk, which you can read about in the Tom Brown book I'll link at the end. It takes a bit to practice, but once you get used to it you begin to naturally use it everytime you move in nature.

A general rule of thumb is this: in every little bit of nature there are many more animals than you know about, and they only come out when things are quiet and they feel like no one is around. It is very difficult to see even large animals in a thicket, and you have no idea how many countless smaller ones are wandering around in there. Every book I've ever read on the subject has recommended trying out the technique of finding a sit spot and hanging out there for awhile. It shows you nature in a way that is not possible when you are continually moving, it allows the possibility for things to resume normal behavior and pop out for you to see.

Another thing too is to observe little microcosms. Get your face really really close to a little patch of ground. You'll be astounded to realize that it is its whole own complex little world with all sorts of crazy fauna that you would never have seen otherwise. Then when you pull out, you'll be shocked to look around and realize just how vast everything really is, from that perspective. Oh how much we pass right over with each step!

I'm saving this right here because I am going to link some books and I have to see which ones to link, so if your reading this part give me one moment...

Some reccommended reading:

Tom Brown's Nature Observation Field Guide. This book is kind of hyped up and exaggerated, with a lot of native american lore, but what he teaches you is legitimate. The way to walk in nature, the way to look and listen, a lot of what I've told you comes from Tom Brown, and the more you read people from this genre, you'll see his ideas again and again. But if you where to only get one book on this subject I'd recommend this one. Despite me calling it hyped up, this book can really change your life if you practice what he says. (Although there are much better books on tracking itself though, look for actual guidebooks to learn more about that, but this book gives a good intro).

Art of Bird Finding. This one is about the perceptual skills needed to pick out birds. I found it very helpful.

What the Robin Knows. How I told you you can begin to analyze bird language and know what sounds mean what, and how their communications alert things in an ecosystem to disturbances in the baseline... This book is about that and how to learn to decode their language.

The Healing Art of Tracking. This book isn't that great, but it gave me some really useful concepts, such as the idea that you create concentric rings of disturbances around yourself as you move in an environment, and to always check the "dead zones" or hiding places in the brush around you as you move.

The forest unseen. This is a pretty entertaining and educational book by a biologist who goes back to one sit spot again and again over a year and describes what he observes there. Shows how much you can find if you look.

final word: sorry man, I have overloaded you with info here. No need to over think things. Ultimately, if you just begin to move through nature more slowly, carefully, and observantly, you will find so much. Don't try too hard, and most importantly have fun with it. Nature is great and we are a part of it too, we just have to learn how to inhabit it best. I hope you find a renewed connection with it, and have many great times. If you ever have anything you want to ask about it or what I've told you here, feel free to ask me!

Again, great questions. Here's a video I did on hugelkultur a bit ago. I don't recommend going to my website at the moment though because it's been recently hacked and I'm working on cleaning it up. The youtube video will be fine though. Check out that video, if you have more questions, feel free to ask.

You can do the flat raised bed idea, and I did the same last year, but I believe you will get more benefit from doing the piqued hills.

Grey water collection and rainwater harvesting are excellent ideas. I don't know if you could make use of it, but here is a super cool idea for a ram pump which requires no external input other than elevation change. Other than that, I don't know much about water tanks.

One really cool thing I've seen used is where people dig a trench under their garden and bury weeping tile in that trench which snakes around their garden. Then they connect that weeping tile to their downspout from there gutters and when it rains, they get a massive deep soak in their garden.

Swales are a fantastic thing to think about as they will help keep water on your land. Swales mixed with heavy mulching are a huge force in keeping your land irrigated. Check out greening the desert for more on that.

As for the PDC, you don't even have to pay for it. I googled free online PDC and found this.

http://www.permaculturedesigntraining.com/

If you want to learn more about it, there are amazing books which can help.

Gaia's Garden and Sepp Holzer's Permaculture

That's awesome that your SO is taking that course. She'll probably learn some really cool sustainable farming things.

Also, check out http://www.permies.com. There's tons of info there, and super amazing people who are very helpful.

Sure! I started out with "Tom Brown's Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking". He's one of the more well-known names in tracking, but also a little controversial -- he makes some claims that sound pretty outlandish and his whole background story sounds like a myth.

But overall it's a really good book! It was a good first step, and it got me to start paying attention to what was around me. From there I've spent years practicing. When I'm hiking, I have one eye in front of me and one eye on the ground, trying to spot subtle little things even in really challenging terrain (like pine needles!). Any time I come across something interesting, animal or human, I stop and take a closer look. (I totally love trail poo too.) I also make it a game to try to count the number of people that might be ahead of me on the trail and their gender -- how many different tracks there are, what size they are, how recent they are, how many go out and come back vs. just going out. It's sort of become second nature now.

When I head out on a trail and then come back, I try to find my own prints and pay attention to how they change in the conditions: how long does it take mud to try, bits of snow to melt, plants to return to their original position. And I totally blew it with this on Thursday when hiking with a friend! We crossed some snow on the way out, and on the way back I wasn't positive we were on the correct fork of the trail because I didn't see recent tracks in the snow. My buddy and I spent a few minutes debating it and taking a closer look, and it turned out that they had melted way faster than I was expecting in those conditions -- they were there, but they looked like they were days old, not hours.

I don't have any certifications or professional training at it, although I'd like to, but I recently joined my county's search and rescue team and it looks like I'm decent enough to join their tracking team. I'll find out on Tuesday evening!

Seconding u/theUnmutual6's recommendations, in addition to u/BlueSmoke95's suggestion to check out Ann Moura's work. I would like to recommend Ellen Dugan's Natural Witchery and her related domestic witchery books. Ellen is a certified Master Gardener and incorporates plants into much of her work.

Some of my favorite plant books!

Plant Science:

• Plant Physiology and Development (you can get away with the previous edition of this one!)
  
  
• Botany for Gardeners
  
  
• Essential Plant Pathology (do NOT get the first edition - the second edition is superior in almost every single way)
  
  
• American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques
  
  
  Foraging & Field Guides:
  
  
• A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America
  
  
• Edible Wild Plants: Wild Foods From Dirt To Plate
  
  
• The Forager's Harvest: A Guide to Identifying, Harvesting, and Preparing Edible Wild Plants
  
  Herbalism:
  
  
• Rosemary Gladstar's Medicinal Herbs: A Beginner's Guide: 33 Healing Herbs to Know, Grow, and Use (this is the first one I would recommend to novices)
  
  
• The Herbal Apothecary: 100 Medicinal Herbs and How to Use Them
  
  
• The Herbal Medicine Maker's Manual
  
  
• 300 Herbs: A Materia Medica
  
  
• Culpeper's Complete Herbal
  
  Ethnobotany:
  
  
• A Modern Herbal Vol I and Vol II (these could belong in the above section or here - I love love love these books. I think they are a must for any hedge witch or green witch!!)
  
  
• Folklore and Symbolism of Flowers, Plants and Trees
  
  
• Whispers from the Woods: The Lore & Magic of Trees
  
  
• Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants
  
  I also encourage y'all to look into fungi as well. I work with both plants and fungi and I think they bring a fascinating and fulfilling aspect to my work. Plus, hunting for mushrooms is super fun! I can recommend field guide books for folks who are interested, they just tend to be very region-specific so I'm not going to list all of them here.
  
  For general fungus reading I recommend the following:
  
  
• Magical Mushrooms, Mischievous Molds
  
  
• The Fifth Kingdom
  
  
• Mycelium Running
  
  
• Radical Mycology: A Treatise on Seeing & Working with Fungi
  
  
• Mushrooms Demystified

Honestly you've already found a great source of good information and discussion:) I use the search bar in this sub more than any other, but I still refer regularly to my Grandma's favorite: Western Garden. It's a time-tested and comprehensive run-down of theory and method, as well as an encyclopedia of plants that are easily cultivated/common in the western hemisphere, but is mostly geared to the continental US.

The wonderful thing about plants is that they want to grow, and if you can just create the right conditions they will reward you in many ways. Some are waaay more forgiving than others, so don't just jump into orchid cultivars and other exotic specimens. Start composting, plant the veggies you like to eat (and maybe some luffa gourds for your shower time) and be proud of your harvest, you will never taste better food :)

I would really recommend reading online resources as compared to buying books. With wikipedia and google you can learn about:

• Plant physiology (Vascular system, leaf parts, photosynthesis)
  
• Pest control (Integrated pest management is very interesting)
  
• Soil structures (Clay, sand, silt), Soil Colloids, organic + nutrient lockups
  
• Disease identification (Bacterial, Viral, Fungal)
  
• Advanced propagation techniques (Tissue Culturing is really neat)
  
• Nutrient requirements (Macro vs Micro-nutrients)
  
  My program is structured very open ended and my professors rarely referenced their books but two that I find interesting are related to propagation.
  
  [Manual of Woody Landscape Plants](http://www.amazon.com /dp/1588748685/ref=asc_df_15887486851809347?smid=ATVPDKIKX0DER&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=asn&creative=395093&creativeASIN=1588748685) has an introductory chapter that explains a lot of general plant information as well as listing tons of common woody landscape plants and techniques to care for them and propagate them.
  
  American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation focuses more on overviews of various propagation techniques in a 'simplified' way with lots of pictures. Good light reading that is also very informative and may be easier to delve into than the Manual of Woody Landscape Plants. It is also much cheaper.
  
  I am sure you will find some topics that are more interesting than others, the list is certainly not all inclusive but does cover most of the basic stuff I was learning last year. As with learning anything I encourage you to dive deep and get some good google-fu and wikipedia crawling under your belt. Lots of knowledge to be had!
  

The plantsman's bible is Dirr's Manual. It has a very horticultural slant, but is invaluable for someone truly dedicated to plants. It is 1300 pages of comprehensive plant knowledge and will tell you exactly how to germinate seeds of Trochodendron aralioides. The problem for most is that it has no pictures - only line drawings of leaf shapes. This is probably not the book you need, but is a tremendous resource for someone with a thirst for knowledge.

http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Woody-Landscape-Plants-Characteristics/dp/1588748685/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1408405815&sr=8-4&keywords=dirr%27s+encyclopedia+of+trees+and+shrubs

My favorite plant book for casual reading is Dirr's Encyclopedia of Trees and Shrubs. It has color photos of seemingly every tree and shrub in existence, as well as discussions of their landscape value.

http://www.amazon.com/Dirrs-Encyclopedia-Trees-Shrubs-Michael/dp/0881929018/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408405815&sr=8-1&keywords=dirr%27s+encyclopedia+of+trees+and+shrubs

When I was a budding plantsman, my father gave me a very useful book which I still refer to today. This National Arboretum publication gives a broad overview of all different types of plants(vines, annuals, perennials, evergreens, aquatic plants, shade trees, etc) and is a great way to come up with ideas of what to plant.

http://www.amazon.com/National-Arboretum-Outstanding-Garden-Plants/dp/0671669575

If you are more interested in just selecting plants online, Monrovia has an excellent website that lets you narrow down plants by requirements.

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/

Sure. I'm no shill or anything, but here's some good starting places:

[Book: The Savage garden, by Peter D'Amato] (https://www.amazon.com/Savage-Garden-Cultivating-Carnivorous-Plants/dp/0898159156/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_1?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=3AG6424FNV59DZW3H232). It wasn't my first VFT care book, but I think its one of the best out there. Teaches you enough about soil composition, water quality, and general good info to have about spotting pests and such.

TerraForums Venus Flytraps Forum. When I first got into the hobby, this place was very important to me. I got a lot of good help and advice. Someone even sent me free VFT so long as I paid S&H for them. A great group of folks. I don't interact there much anymore, but I still check in from time to time.

VFT are notorious for being easy to kill (which they are), but keeping them alive is actually painfully simple: De-chlorinated water with a mineral count of >100 PPM, (a gallon of distilled water is like, 50 cents), and as much light as you can get them. They can never have enough light. One or two bugs a month, and you'll have a very happy VFT.

Oh man, sorry for the lag. I kept meaning to reply, but always got sidetracked.

Purple basil is tasty, and if I remember correctly, has a slightly more astringent flavor than sweet basil. It's great if you're making Asian dishes with it. If you're just growing it for Italian food and gimlets (basil gimlets are fantastic) plain old sweet basil with the big rounded leaves is where it's at.

As for rooting plant cuttings in water, sometimes it works. You end up with a stronger root system if you use substrate though, and I'm a little surprised that you got rosemary to root that way. I've used a 50/50 mixture of perlite and vermiculite with good success, and if you've got something stubborn there are rooting hormone powders available in various strengths.

If this is something that really appeals to you, and you'd like to learn more, this was used as a textbook in my plant prop. class last year.
http://www.amazon.com/American-Horticultural-Society-Propagation-Plant-/dp/0789441160/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1331662223&sr=1-1
It's a good book, and not so intense that it's difficult to understand.

not a wildlife photographer, but long time hunter. IMO, far and away the best book out there about tracking is this one, by tom brown. the best book I've ever read about sneaking around is fred asbell's book on the subject, but that is probably too hyper specific for your needs. in general, the secrets to getting close to animals are to use small movements and to break up your outline. Camouflage clothing is a possibility but most animals can be fooled by any sort of open pattern - a flannel shirt with light and dark patches is as effective as camo, for example.

HOWEVER, the better thing to do is to learn as much as you can about the habits and habitats of your quarry. A great source for this kind of info for birds is this site from the Cornell Ornithology Lab.

hope that helps.

Hey friend! That's kind of a big question with a lot of detail. All the information is out there, but it can be tricky to find. I think we can all empathize with you there.

Generally speaking, all the concepts are the same, it's only the equipment that changes. Essentially, all you're doing is the following, without any of the details:

 

1. Get a small culture and expand it
   
   
2. Wait a few days/weeks.
   
   
3. Use the expanded culture to inoculate some spawn. Alternately you can just buy the spawn online and skip to step 5
   
   
4. Wait around a few days/weeks for the spawn to colonize (if you didn't buy it online).
   
   
5. Prepare some substrate (usually sawdust/wood chips that have been pasteurized, or sawdust/wood chips supplemented with a grain bran that has all been sterilized) and inoculate it with your spawn. You can usually source hardwood sawdust/wood chips for free on places like CraigsList. If not, you'll have to buy it in the form of mulch or pellets.
   
   
6. More waiting
   
   
7. Expose the colonized substrate to fruiting conditions
   
   
8. More waiting
   
   
9. Take pictures of your grow and pretend it was all easy
   
    
   
   I usually advocate for getting a pressure cooker and beginning with grains/jars; but you said you were on a tight budget, so I'll give you some beginner-tier options to get the above accomplished. The caveat here is that they're by no means the best or least-risky methods, but you asked for a cheap way forward that is still effective, so that's what I'll give you. It would be impossible for me to list out every detail, so just ask me questions and I'll fill in the rest one thing at a time:
   
    
   
   You could pasteurize prepared wood chip/sawdust mix (substrate) in a coffee can or plastic tub (with a lid) and buy pre-made spawn online. Spawn is ≈$10-25USD and comes as bags of grains or sawdust. You can find tubs all over the place for cheap. Then you just combine the two, wait for the substrate to colonize, and fruit from there (Steps 5-9).
   
   You could also buy a grocery store Hericium mushroom, chop it up into slices, spread that out over moist cardboard, and let that colonize. This is a little more risky with Hericium (v. Pleurotus, which is much more aggressive). After it finishes, you would add that cardboard spawn to some pasteurized wood chip/sawdust mix in layers, then wait for it to finish colonizing before fruiting it (Steps 3-9).
   
   Those are both cheap ways to start out, but don't skimp on the spawn.
   
   Depending on the tote you use, you might need to make a ShotGun Fruiting Chamber (SGFC), which is just a tote with holes in it on all 6 sides, with some perlite or grow stone at the bottom. It's as expensive as it is to buy a tote. You'll need to find a drill and bit to make the holes. I can run you through that, too.
   
    
   
   All of this is just a basic idea to point you in a direction given your low budget. It's slightly more risky, but cheap and easy. That's the tradeoff.
   
   If you're in college, you might have access to a biology lab and be able to use their equipment. Glass Petri dishes, bio-safety cabinet, autoclave, possible supply of agar, etc. Let me know if you do and I'll walk you though some more advanced techniques that also meet your budget. All you'd have to do is buy a few bags at ≈$1USD each and either some liquid culture (≈$10), or even a store-bought mushroom will do.
   
    
   
   That's a super rough, dirty version. People will probably yell at me, but that's ok. I can't type out a novel here, so just ask questions about what you don't understand and we'll go from there. If you need a source that takes you front to back, go to your college library and Inter-Library-Loan "Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms" or "Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation: Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation".

I would not recommend the Audubon guide it is very out of date (this can range from outdated taxonomy all the way to toxicology that has changed over the years). It is useful because it lists species other guides lacks but you'll learn to hate it.

Buy a location specific guide. It depends on where you live. If you get really into field hunting buy some specific guides that give you a more in depth understanding and help you not to die. Joining a local mycological society is also an extremely valuable resource in understanding mycology.

Here's a bit of everything

Regional guides

Alaska

Common Interior Alaska Cryptogams

Western US

All The Rain Promises and More
Mushrooms of the Pacific Northwest

Mushrooms Demystified This is an old book, while still useful it definitely needs updating.

The New Savory Wild Mushroom Also dated but made for the PNW

Midwestern US

Mushrooms of the Midwest

Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States

Mushrooms of the Upper Midwest

Southern US

Texas Mushrooms: A Field Guide

Mushrooms of the Southeastern United States

Common Mushrooms of Florida

A Field Guide to Southern Mushrooms It's old so you'll need to learn new names.

Eastern US

Mushrooms of West Virginia and the Central Appalachians

Mushrooms of Northeast North America (This was out of print for awhile but it's they're supposed to be reprinting so the price will be normal again)

Mushrooms of Northeastern North America

Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America(Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America)

Mushrooms of Cape Cod and the National Seashore

More specific (Advanced) guides

Psilocybin Mushrooms of the World

North American Boletes

Tricholomas of North America

Milk Mushrooms of North America

Waxcap Mushrooms of North America

Ascomycete of North America

Ascomycete in colour

Fungi of Switzerland: Vol. 1 Ascomycetes A series of 6 books.

Fungi Europaei A collection of 14 books.

PDFs and online Guides

For Pholiota

For Chlorophyllum

American species of Crepidotus

Guide to Australian Fungi If this is useful consider donating to this excellent set of guides.

Websites that aren't in the sidebar

For Amanita

For coprinoids

For Ascos

MycoQuebec: they have a kickass app but it's In French

Messiah college this has a lot of weird species for polypores and other things

For Hypomyces

Cultivation

The Mushroom Cultivator: A Practical Guide to Growing Mushrooms at Home (If your home is a 50,000 sq ft warehouse)

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation: Simple to Advanced and Experimental Techniques for Indoor and Outdoor Cultivation

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms

Mycology

The fifth kingdom beginner book, I would recommend this. It goes over fungal taxonomy Oomycota, Zygomycota and Eumycota. It also has ecology and fungi as food.

The kingdom fungi coffee table book it has general taxonomy of the kingdom but also very nice pictures.

Introduction to fungi Depends on your definition of beginner, this is bio and orgo heavy. Remember the fungi you see pop out of the ground (ascos and basidios) are only a tiny fraction of the kingdom.

NAMA affiliated clubs

If you trunk chop at the right time of year (very early spring), new shoots will grow below the cut that will eventually form new branches.

This is a good book on japanese maple bonsai, and covers trunk chops, among other techniques.

It's a long process, but will eventually achieve the results you are looking for.

A few things to keep in mind:

• Make sure you get an appropriate species
  
  
• Look carefully for grafting marks. Often what you see on the top of the tree has been grafted onto a trunk of a different species or cultivar. In other words, you could do a trunk chop and what grows back won't be what you were expecting.
  
  
• Focus on trunk width and roots (nebari). If you're going to do this much work, you may as well start with something desirable.
  
  
• If you wait until the end of the season, you can often get a much better price. I've gotten some great deals in September/October.
  
  Also, if you don't want to do this much work, you could always order one online if you can't find one local.
  
  It also looks like you have the Pennsylvania Bonsai Society as well - you might have some luck with that. On their site, they list some local shops that aren't too far away from Philly.
  

Ya, check out the buildasoil blog, too! That's definitely one of my resources! Jeremy, the guy that runs the site, is a really great guy who is passionate about educating himself and buying the highest quality stuff. He's a complete soil nerd and we all get to reap the benefits lol.

For a book, I'd recommend "Teeming with Microbes". I read the whole thing on my phone via the kindle app for $3 and it was the most info per page of any source I've come across, plus its written in a pretty accessible style.

For a movie, I'd recommend "Symphony of the Soil". Really great overview touching on the geological, biological, agricultural and even historical perspectives of soil and plant growth.

>I'm always happy to hear from people about what hey want. Dialogue is important. It's a complex subject full of moral and ethical hurdles. I believe in conventional ag because it maximizes yield.

I dont have the exact numbers off my head but the farmer mark Shepards book outlines that a polyculture system that includes grains out performed conventional systems massively in calorie count while being organic. It's like in chapter 10

https://www.amazon.com/Restoration-Agriculture-Mark-Shepard/dp/1601730357


Gabe doesnt use any fertilizer other than cover crops and animals and is more concerned about profit than yields.

I think gabe speaks better for himself than I can, this is a short lecture, there is longer ones on YouTube where he really gets into the weeds of his operation, plus he just wrote book
https://youtu.be/_2IURGFk5Yw,

The way mycelium works as I understand it is like a highway that shares and moves nutrients back and forth, working with plants providing a shared economy

Agrominst Ray Archuleta speaks better to it than I and the story starting at 3 minutes hits close to home for me.
https://youtu.be/a5qQatQQ3-0

Try to get your hands on Edible Forest Gardens ( vol 1 and 2 ) by David Jacke and Eric Toensmeier. It's the premier work on Eastern North American ecological agroforestry.

Martin Crawford's work is also very applicable since he's in a humid zone 3-5 ish British climate. His book is an amazing resource.

The Bullock Brother's have done a lot of work in Cold climate permaculture but they're in Washinton so it's still more humid.

Great Plains ecology is an interesting biome though and I'm not sure there's been a lot of work done on food forestry in that particular climate. I know a fair amount of work has been done on perennial grasslands but it gets more complicated since you are dealing with elements of dryland design and cold climate design. Some tropical techniques for water retention aren't going to work since frost is going to be a factor. Probably the best technique would be to follow the ecology and design around coolees since that's where great plains deciduous forests tend to thrive.

For those just getting started, Square Foot Gardening is great, it's a good starting point for getting in the habit of maintaining a garden, for making good use of small spaces, and for learning about gardening.

How to Grow More Vegetables is a fantastic book. It is a great reference book on sustainable gardening, and self-sufficiency gardening. It is used by several programs as a textbook to teach sustinence gardening in third-world countries.

Carrots Love Tomatoes is a great book for learning about companion planting.

I just ordered Gardening When it Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times. I haven't read it yet, so I can't give a review, but it is reviewed very favorably. My understanding is that it presents a more old-fashioned, traditional method of gardening that requires less water, less fertilization, etc.

Good luck, and let us know what you think of any books you try!

1. Water is life. You want to keep as much water on your property as long as you can. Have you put in swales on contour or keylines to stop, spread, sink the water into the soil so the trees can benefit?
   
   
2. What is your soil like? Is it acidic or alkaline? Is it compacted? Eroded? Deficient in minerals? Is it more clay or loam or sandy? Have it tested. There are ways to improve the soil. If it's compacted, you can deep rip. If it's acidic, you can add lime and dolomite. If it's clay, adding gypsum will break up the clay. Pioneer trees can also help break up soil with their deep tap roots. Forests are usually alkaline while pastures are more acidic. Forests have more fungi where pastures have more bacteria. You can get a jump start on changing over the soil if you take some starch like rice to a forest, leave it on the ground for several days, collect it, and scatter it where you want the fungi to take over. There are things you can add to increase the soil microbes that are so beneficial: compost, compost tea, bio-fertilizers, and inoculates on seeds.
   
   
3. What do you want to accomplish with a forest? Are you wanting to use some of the trees as a wind block? Are you wanting to stop some of the soil erosion along the stream? Are you wanting food (fruit, nuts) or fodder for animals or fiber or timber for building or trees that bloom to feed bees or trees for coppice or trees for firewood or a mixture? If you know what you want, then you can consult some books and local permaculture groups for trees that will live in your site-specific conditions that provide the function you want.
   
   
4. For each tree, you'll want to plant multiple nitrogen-fixing support plants that you will sacrifice so that the desired tree has nutrients. Legume trees, shrubs, and ground covers add nitrogen to the soil that will feed the main trees. Over the course of several years, you'll chop and drop the nitrogen fixers several times. Besides adding nitrogen to the soil, they will also shade out grasses and other non-desirable plants until your trees are established. You can also mulch with straw to shade out pioneer plants you don't want. Timing is important. You want to plant at times that give the plants the best time to get established. You'll want to chop and drop the nitrogen-fixing support species when the rains come. You'll want to use the mulch and cover crops at the same time as you plant your trees to prevent weeds from taking over. You'll want to time when the trees produce food. You can plan some early crop, mid-season crop, and late crop varieties. Thinking about your timing carefully.
   
   Resources:
   
   
   Creating a Forest Garden by Mark Crawford.
   
   Edible Forest Gardens by Dave Jacke and Eric Toensmeier
   
   Forest Gardening by Robert Hart
   
   
   

And because Imgur won't let me edit anything in my post via mobile, I will add more info here! I spent about two months researching container growing fruit trees/edible tree/bush before deciding to start with a blood orange and my favorite, lemonade. I'm hoping this helps someone else who might think they can't have a fruit tree due to space.

Although I bought trees on dwarfing rootstock (often called flying dragon rootstock, as that's the plant used to give it stunted growth), you do not need a tree marketed as dwarf. Using a container will naturally impede the process of growth, in addition to pruning.

This is very important because each type of rootstock will give different qualities to the root health. Pick the rootstock that works best for your growing conditions. The book Grow a Little Fruit Tree was invaluable for its information on rootstock alone, although it's geared towards deciduous trees and not evergreens like citrus.

Another helpful book for container gardening that helped me jumpstart my information search was The Bountiful Container. It's American oriented, not Aussie, but lots of helpful principles and ideas all the same.

Another great read, and useful, is this write-up on Daley's Fruit Tree Nursery about using bags (containers) to restrict tree growth in order to net better fruit production. Size restriction can help to produce more per hectare than just letting a tree go (which would be suicide to a home orchard anyways).

First off, why do you need to replace the box? Are there not enough circuits? Do you have knob and tube wiring? I don't really have a ballpark cost estimate, but it doesn't cost anything to have estimates.

As for doing it yourself, I find that electrical work isn't necessarily as bad as people make it out to be (my DIY hell is plumbing waste lines) as long as you're careful. The number one rule is to always assume that the lines are live and to double check with a tester (they come in all shapes, sizes, and costs including ones that detect a current through the wiring insulation) before touching wires with anything that could conduct electricity. Your best bet is to head to your local DIY home center (e.g. Lowe's, Home Depot, or Menard's) and pick up one of the DIY electrical books (the Black and Decker books are pretty easy to follow. If you really want to cut costs as much as possible, there's a resource that many people forget about and that's their local public library. Most public libraries have at least a couple of books about home improvement projects that you can check out for free. As far as codes go, you could call your local building safety department and talk to one of the inspectors about what you should do, but they'll probably encourage you to file for a permit (if necessary) and contact a licensed electrician.

At the time, I didn't own a mill so a friend of mine offered to grind it for me. I ended up with about 15lbs of flour in total. I recall being happy about the yield but I honestly couldn't tell you if it was good or not. I'd have to go back to my old notes to calculate the total area I planted to come up with a sq ft yield. As far as how much flour would result from the wheat in this photo - I'm not sure. Not much.

For future plantings, I want to talk to someone from my local extension to see if there is a recommended wheat variety for my area. I bought some random hard red winter wheat berries from amazon and planted it. For all I know, it was terribly suited to my climate.

Since then, my wife bought me a mill that I've been happy with: https://www.reddit.com/r/Breadit/comments/7mr7sw/adventures_in_milling_first_whole_grain_loaf/

If you're interested in reading more, I highly recommend Logdson's book: Small-Scale Grain Raising: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers, 2nd Edition - https://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-Grain-Raising-Processing-Nutritious/dp/1603580778

Awesome man! I used this recipe and changed it up a bit as per a friend's suggestions. It can be a bitch to get all of the ingredients together and mixing it all up by hand was a mission on its own.

Teaming With Microbes is a pretty solid book for learning about the soil food web. Not much plot or character development, but worth a read.
Once I'm done with my assignments for the quarter I'm going to readTeaming With Nutrients by the same authors.

Well, good luck! Reach out if you have questions, I'm no expert but I love doing learning about this stuff and seeing the results.

Personally, I don't go in for the expensive, boutique grow nutrients or soil mixes. I've had good success just using your basic potting soil, and then using Miracle-Gro for fertilizer.

For the growing container, I wouldn't suggest going with anything smaller than a 3-gallon pot. But also, transplanting this late in the growing season, there's really not much sense in transplanting into a pot larger than 5-gallon.

Everyone's first grow is a huge learning experience. I would recommend investing in a good grow book, such as Jorge Cervantes' Marijuana Horticulture. The ebook is $10, so you can put it on your phone and have it as a reference. Cervantes has been updating this book for over 30 years, so it's very comprehensive, and can take you from first grow up to how to manage top shelf production. A good grow book is valuable because it can help you diagnose problems when things go wrong.

I've collected many books on gardening from second-hand stores like goodwill. The Rodale's and the Home and Garden books are thorough, currently I'm using "The New Victory Garden" by Bob Thompson to plan my garden which organizes the chapters by tasks for each month. I'm also interested in edible perennial gardening; my favorite book is "Creating a Forest Garden" by Martin Crawford which has a great plant encyclopedia with ratings and guides for design and planting. If you have a little extra room and want to incorporate beautiful landscapes while growing food, it's well worth a look.

Generally, it takes about a 10deg temperature drop, but yeah, if it's been in your basement it's probably cool enough. Can you post a pic? What you want to happen is to have the dowels 100% colonized with mycelium (the white stuff). That signals the mycelium to fruit because it thinks it's out of food (I'm out of food, I better reproduce.) Post of a pic of what you have and also of the instructions it came with. Meanwhile, check out this book, it could prove to be quite helpful in helping you understand the process a little better. http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Mushroom-Farming-Mycoremediation-Experimental/dp/1603584552

It's not a field guide, but the Sunset Western Garden Book is pretty good for the west. I think there are versions of Sunset for the different regions, like East Coast Living and Southern Living. I'm sure they have a similar book that corresponds to wherever you live. And in case you happen to be in the Pacific Northwest, Pojar is pretty much the plant id bible, but it's not for gardens.

You might find these two books interesting:

http://www.amazon.com/Homegrown-Whole-Grains-Harvest-Barley/dp/160342153X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1377128301&sr=8-1&keywords=home+grown+grain

http://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-Grain-Raising-Processing-Nutritious/dp/1603580778/ref=pd_bxgy_b_text_y

Main thing to watch out for is picking varieties that make it alright to process them yourself - grains that don't have to be de-hulled to be useable are much easier to process without specialized equipment.

Get a proper mill of some kind if you're interested in wholegrain flour. There's reasonably priced options out there that do it alright, and the taste of stuff made with freshly milled wholegrain flour is awesome.

Take a look at ancient grains & older varieties of the usual grains. (a few examples & more info here: http://www.islandgrains.com/how-do-i-thresh-grain-on-a-small-scale/)

Personally I have a tiny plot of flax, that I'm hoping to get some tasty seeds out of. If I were to grow my own grains I'd focus on the ones that are interesting taste-wise. I'd probably go for Hull-less emmer, and rye.

Wow, yes, you are indeed in way over your head.

Go old-school. Borrow every book on home electrical repair from your nearest library. Search amazon for home electrical repair books. There are many available used for a dollar or two, especially in home repair book series' from Home Depot or Black & Decker, etc. Example: https://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Guide-Wiring/dp/1589236017

Read them through, and then read them through again. A 20-year-old home electrical book will not have up-to-date safety code information, but it will at least give you the major concepts and guidelines, and the groundwork for asking more informed and complete questions here.

For outlet issue: an outlet tester is a good first step, but it is only the very simplest tip of the iceberg. There are still all kinds of other things that can be wrong, when the tester shows good. It's like looking at the gas gauge on the car-- tells you if you have gas; doesn't tell you if your transmission is busted.

The outlet tester only tells you if the wires were hooked up in the right order. It doesn't tell you if your circuits have the capacity to run everything you want. Learn about circuit breakers and check the breaker panel for ones that have overloaded and shut off, when the outlet goes out.

Good luck!

Here is my favorite book I have found for starting new trees and taking care of them: Grow A Little Fruit Tree

A good place online to read about varieties and order apple trees for shipping is Stark Bros Nursery.

Typically, you get them during the early winter when they're dormant and they come "bare root" so there's not a root ball. Your nursery can help you with planting times. If you don't know your USDA Hardiness Zone it can help with looking that up, too.

A surprising thing to me was that you need to worry about pollination! Some trees require a cross-pollinator tree of another type. Both that book and that site and your nursery have information on that too.

It will take a few years for the trees to mature and produce fruit, so start sooner and have fun!

I really like The Self-sufficient Life and How to Live It when it comes to dreaming about homesteading. It touches on everything, from carpentry to threshing wheat to birthing animals. It is WAY more than I will ever actually do, but I love flipping through it and imagining. You can find good used copies for pretty cheap.

If you're raising it for small scale, you'll want to choose heritage breeds or locally adapted breeds. In the same way that the mealy, tasteless tomatoes you buy at the supermarket are bred for uniformity and transportability rather than flavor or adaptability to your local climate, "common" wheat and grain varieties are bred to withstand herbicides and pesticides, and to be productive in large monocultures. Small Scale Grain Raising is good. I haven't read The Organic Grain Grower but it looks good. If you're interested in corn, several homesteaders I know grow painted mountain corn and have only had great reviews.

Just bought it on Amazon. Used hardcover.
http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425446690&sr=8-1&keywords=bonsai+with+japanese+maples
I browsed through the pages and it looks great. I'm actually going to give it to my friend. He has two 4 year old and really good looking Japanese Maples. He's my tree service buddy and basically creates actual size bonsai for a living. I'm pretty much trying to shove him into this hobby...

I am just about to finish Mark Shepards "Restoration agriculture". im sure its been brought up on the forums before...
I highly recommend it due to his more extensive discussion of growing staple crops in a regenerative fashion (instead of some fun loving feel good hugelkulture backyard project book =P).
heres a link
http://www.amazon.com/Restoration-Agriculture-Mark-Shepard/dp/1601730357

here is a link to his website though, where you can read a little more, purchase his hazelnuts, and many different kinds of rootstock (which i am going to do in a year or 2... thousands!!).

http://www.forestag.com/book.html


regards

I am currently reading "5 acres and Independence" which I am enjoying, its fairly old but still very applicable, i think his anecdotes and way of thinking are very inspiring. Lots of nice little tips and observations.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0486209741/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

At the same time I got "Handy Farm Devices and How to Make Them" haven't delved into it too much, but I am less excited about it now that I've thumbed through it. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1604595868/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I've heard the "Raising Chickens for Dummies" book is actually worthwhile, so I'm thinking of picking that up next.

Ray Mears is the man to watch and read if you are thinking about long term sustainable survival.

If you are thinking about eventually getting out of the primitive I would suggest adapting the practices of permaculture for your situation (and the cheaper condensed version though just as good!).

Things like a compost toilet and digesting methane for fuel might be things you'd like. There's the Humanure Handbook which I have read from front to cover several times and I highly recommend it. I also experimented with humanure and have nothing but good things to say about it. Anyway, I don't want to talk to much so Google permaculture, there's a /r/permaculture subreddit, read, research, think a lot about what you're going to do before you do it and good luck.

EDIT: here's a good book about a permanent shelter you might like

You're good to go then!

Yeah you're thinking of Paul Staments, he's a good one. David Arora is another. David has a book "All the Rain Promises and More" that's a great field guide.

For cultivating, I got this book. Between that, the subreddits, and shroomery.org I've learned a lot.

Things you don't want to replace because of the price tag:

• Roof (about 10K+)
  
• Kitchen Counter-tops (about 2K-10K depending on kitchen size)
  
• Kitchen Cabinets (6K for a small kitchen with cheap cabinets to 18K+ for a 12ft-12ft-12ft kitchen with walls on three sides)
  
• Foundation (a lot, to a whole lot)
  
• Air Conditioner (3K-ish)
  
• Furnace (3K-10K)
  
• Water Heater (1K)
  
• Baseboards ($120+ a small room, about $3 a square foot)
  
  Stab Lok made electrical boxes in the US in the 50's, 60's, and 70's. They don't break-over if there's a fault, and can kill you in a fire.
  
  Some electrical work is pretty easy, but it's still dangerous. If you plan to add electrical and have walls open, you can easily save yourself a ton of money by doing the rough in yourself and have an electrician look at it and say it's good before hooking it up to the breaker box. Black and Decker has a great book: . Their real goal is to sell you tools, but the book is good. Don't do anything you don't feel comfortable with.
  
  Drywalling is easy and drywall and drywall mud are really cheap. Like $6 for a 6 pound bag of dryawall mud. So, don't worry about drywall damage, just replace walls.
  
  Drywall before you move in. Sanding drywall makes a huge mess. You'll be cleaning up the dust for awhile, you don't need upholstered furniture in addition to everything else to clean.
  
  Baseboards and chair rail are expensive. $2 or $3 a foot and higher. It doesn't seem like much, but a 12 x 12 room can cost you $150+ to replace the boards in.
  
  Trees near the house are trouble. Bushes near the house are trouble. You want shade, but not roots breaking through the foundation. Cutting trees and digging out roots is not fun, especially the digging out roots part.
  
  Check that the laundry area actually has hot and cold water.
  
  Be aware a garbage disposal isn't necessarily standard and you may need to add it and an outlet for it.
  
  Electrical tape on wires is bad. If you see exposed wires or junctions with electrical tape over them, it's a sure sign of bad do it yourself electrical work. You probably want a real electrician to look into how bad it is.
  
  Yard care is expensive, especially at first. You'll need a mower and weedeater at least. Be prepared for $400-$800 there.
  
  HUD homes generally have no power/water, etc, so if you're looking at them, just know to dress for outside weather inside. Also, know you may have to replace the meters at a cost of a few hundred. People also take things like toilets and sinks with them when they leave so never, never, never, buy one without looking at it. Never buy any house without looking at it, but double for anything HUD owned. Also, have the power and water and gas turned on for the inspection, it's better to spend the money and know things don't work than to save the $500 and get surprised when it's move in time.
  
  Banks are going to send an appraiser out to the house. If they don't think they can make the loan back mostly by foreclosing and selling the house, they won't lend to you. Trashed houses and HUD owned houses might have a hard time getting financed, so don't 'fall in love with the possibilities'.
  
  Also, a HUD owned house will probably need interior paint even if you don't see it in the pictures 80% of them have strange and scary and bold color walls. Be prepared to need to full on prime and paint.
  
  Also, bad wall paper is going to require you to replace or resurface the walls. It's not a terrible task, but it is a terrible task if the wall is hard to reach like behind a counter or under cabinets. It's not expensive, but it's super terrible. If you can pick at the wallpaper and see if a corner comes up easily (it should have primer underneath it, not the same color as the wall around).

• Primitive Technology on YouTube
  
  
• The book by primitive tech
  
  
• The recent AMA by the primitive tech guy
  
  
• Townsends A channel dedicated to exploring the 18th Century lifestyle.
  
  
  
• https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfIqCzQJXvYj9ssCoHq327g how to make everything channel on YouTube that shows how with fairly minimal knowledge and practice you can make functional (although inefficient) tools and items
  
  
• The Society for Creative Anachronism Researching and re-creating the arts and skills of pre-17th-century Europe, non-LARP medieval reenactors that take it quite serious.
  
  
• /r/bushcrafting
  
  
• /r/PrimitiveTechnology/
  
  
• /r/Homesteading/
  
  
• /r/Leathercraft/
  
  
• /r/Fishing/
  
  
• /r/Hunting/
  
  
• /r/Trappit/
  
  
• /r/HomemadeTools/
  
  
• /r/soapmaking/
  
  
• /r/weaving/
  
  
• /r/knitting/
  
  
• /r/candlemaking/
  
  
• Book Country Wisdom & Know-How: Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land
  
  
• Book Restoration Agriculture
  
  
• Book Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home-Scale Permaculture, 2nd Edition Paperback
  
  
• Book The Encyclopedia of Country Living, 40th Anniversary Edition: The Original Manual for Living off the Land & Doing It Yourself Paperback – October 30, 2012
  
  
  
• Book Five Acres and Independence: A Practical Guide to the Selection and Management of the Small Farm Paperback
  
  
• Book Bushcraft: Outdoor Skills and Wilderness Survival
  
  
• Book Bushcraft 101: A Field Guide to the Art of Wilderness Survival
  
  
• Book The Trapper's Bible: The Most Complete Guide on Trapping and Hunting Tips Ever
  
  
• Book The Traditional Bowyer's Bible, Volume 1 ALL of the volumes in this series are great and for that matter all of his books are.

Ah...no worries. Thought that was your website--my bad. The only websites I know and I have not done much searching online is [this one](https://outdooraction.princeton.edu/nature/guide-animal-tracking] as some of that info is common to the coursework I did at TBJr's school for a long time. Yeah you can get very in depth in tracks and tracking...very in-depth. Besides identifying an animal, you can determine a lot of things more..like direction, gender, what was it doing(e.g. stalking, hunting etc), general health, size and weight, when was the track made/how old the track is, why was the track made (distraction etc) even down to some really fine tuned details such as injuries etc. It can all tie in to the surroundings. It's really cool stuff..even when you don't have perfectly imprinted tracks in mud to follow or analyze--there are ways to see tracks thru grasses and harder terrain etc and still learn a lot and tracks come in all sizes to be seen from big animals down to birds, mice and voles. Generally for tracking when out on your own making Tracking sticks can help.....and so can various pattern tracking and team tracking skills too.. There is a whole science/art to tracking animals...as well as people..like when doing SAR. People, like Animals, have habits, gaits, patterns they follow..things they do and you can learn to read a lot in a track...it can get really in depth like you can't imagine. Great fun..


Check out this book if you want to read up on things and learn more.. I learned from Tom and at his school back in the 80's/90's and after 8-10 years there I went from there on my own.. This site also has a pretty good book/field guide and a few videos as well you may like. Like I said - being in a city lately has kept my dirt time down to a pathetic minimum..and usually when you find some people talking about or interested in tracking its rare.. :)

https://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Designers-Manual-Bill-Mollison/dp/0908228015

Ultimately trial and error will be your best friend. Don't be afraid to experiment. You will know your land better than anyone else. It truly is rewarding.

I've found this book to be a very good reference.

American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789441160/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_jhgZCbGDR8N9C

If you want to see for yourself, give it a shot. Take a cutting, dip in rooting hormone, stick in well draining substrate, increase humidity and light for 2 weeks. Check to see for roots. Best of luck.

Not really that hard to get information and there are a plethora of free videos on Youtube that cover everything you need to know.
Some things to get you going on Youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/permacultureVOICES
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOSGEokQQcdAVFuL_Aq8dlg
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCL_r1ELEvAuN0peKUxI0Umw
https://www.youtube.com/user/urbanfarmercstone
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzWccp_i_qzC34-a0tmYoEg
https://www.youtube.com/user/survivalpodcasting
https://www.youtube.com/user/wholesystems

Some good books:

Essentially a textbook: https://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Designers-Manual-Bill-Mollison/dp/0908228015/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479709226&sr=8-1&keywords=bill+mollison

Cold Climate Info: https://www.amazon.com/Resilient-Farm-Homestead-Innovative-Permaculture/dp/1603584447/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1479709474&sr=8-1&keywords=ben+falk

Keep in mind that with the move into electronic media, the books and whatnot that had to be paid for, moved as well. I would want to make something for my time and effort as I am sure you would as well.

However, I do disagree with asking money for something someone else came up with if you don't have something significant to add.

I dare say, I hope it is not a fad considering the 40 year history of the system as well as the time and effort I am putting in on my 5 acres.

There's an excellent book called The Self Sufficient Life and How to Live it that has a great deal of advice on this topic. It covers 5 acre farms down to small apartment gardens and how to grow what you like to eat. There's a wealth of info in that book on SO many things, I can't recommend it enough!

I read it in the "Carrots love tomatoes book"

Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580170277/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_MvgRzbNPNNGEA

If you really want to take a deep dive into growing grains to feed livestock on a small scale I would recommend giving Small-Scale Grain Raising by Gene Logsdon a read. It is honestly more entertaining than any book about growing barley should be.

https://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-Grain-Raising-Processing-Nutritious/dp/1603580778/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1482955677&sr=8-1&keywords=small+scale+grain+raising

They wouldn't claim to be scientists, more like ecological engineers, but there are tons of writeups. They write a lot of books; there are a lot of "test sites" around the world.

Gaia's Garden: A Guide to Home Scale Permaculture --> most accessible guide for the layperson
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603580298/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1603580298&linkCode=as2&tag=postapocaly06-20&linkId=PARY4RJKHWLQYGER

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0908228015/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0908228015&linkCode=as2&tag=postapocaly06-20&linkId=NSVF65UXGPBESS3D --> Permaculture: A Designer's Manual, by Bill Mollison --> the textbook for the so-called "permaculture design course"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

Some famous demonstration sites:

Zaytuna Farm, Australia - http://permaculturenews.org/2012/06/01/zaytuna-farm-video-tour-apr-may-2012-ten-years-of-revolutionary-design/

Bealtaine Cottage, British Isles - http://bealtainecottage.com/before-permaculture/

Agroforestry UK - https://www.agroforestry.co.uk/

It's quite a rabbit hole! Good luck exploring!!

Love maples. Cuttings are difficult. Air Layer is easier and faster way to a specimen tree. If you control access to the parent tree, mulch under it and collect babies in the spring with a spoon after their second true leaves form. I've collected 50 at a time like this with 100% survival rate. Get Peter Adams book on bonsai with maples. He has lots of good techniques.

There are a lot of great online references if you are willing to sit down, do some research, and map things out. As far as books go this one is pretty thorough and this book (I have heard) gives a more basic introduction. I've actually found the wikipedia chart on companion planting to be a really useful quick reference as well.

I went to a local nursery and Costco neither had cherry trees. I think Stark Bros. is my best option at this point. So you get the trees bareroot and then have to put them in the ground right away?

What do you mean 3 60' raised beds? sq feet or 60' long. You have a picture of them?

Is this the book your talking about? It looks pretty good. I just bought The Fruit Gardener's Bible yesterday though. Maybe I'll pick up this one too.

Sign up for free wood chips. They deliver 25 yards at a time, which should be enough to cover your three terraces. Once that's down and weed growth has been stifled, you can plan out what you want to do starting with the terrace closest to the house.

Here's an article about the benefits of wood mulch:https://puyallup.wsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/wood-chips.pdf

Here's a place to sign up if you think that might work for you:https://www.chipero.com/free-wood-chips-bay-area

I would also recommend getting a copy of the Sunset Western Garden book for advice about planting a garden in the west:https://www.amazon.com/New-Western-Garden-Book-Gardening/dp/0376039205/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485553079&sr=1-1&keywords=sunset+western+garden+book+2017


There are free copies available at your local library.

Check your local university websites. Most universities have good resources like these.

http://oregonstate.edu/dept/ldplants/

http://hortsense.cahnrs.wsu.edu/Home/HortsenseHome.aspx

Also Dirr manuals are great for plant information. They can be a little technical but are great resources.

https://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Identification-Ornamental-Characteristics-Propogation/dp/1588748685

This book on carnivorous plants represents me pretty well, because I'm attracted to things that are beautiful, yet dark.

Also, I subsist completely on flies and raw meat.

Plant whatever you're going to eat. I recommend oats and wheat if you get the space. I love having a sickle in the house. Great conversation starter, and gets rid of pesky salesman as well.

Here's a book recommendation for you:http://www.amazon.com/Self-sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0789493322/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255627396&sr=8-2

John Seymour shows you exactly how to parcel out your space. It's the bible of homesteading.

I'm going to second all the book recommendations, especially the encyclopedia of country living. I'd like to add:

https://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499822776&sr=8-1&keywords=5+acres+and+independence

and

https://www.amazon.com/Good-Life-Nearings-Self-Sufficient-Living/dp/0805209700/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1499822872&sr=8-1&keywords=the+good+life+nearing

Peace

edit:
totally forgot the most important book I own: https://www.amazon.com/Public-Works-Handbook-Self-Reliant-Construction/dp/082563041X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1499823155&sr=1-1&keywords=public+works
Was a gift from my FIL when we told him what we were planning on doing (moving out to nowhere and living as self-sufficiently as possible).

Sorry to be a jerk but my lawn tip would be to not get one. A common water-wise plan I've seen in your area is groupings of agaves, aloes or other succulents set against a sharp stone mulch (not the 70s lava rock). It looks really nice, it's low to no maintenance and a responsible use of water. Many people have palms which look fancy/exotic and are appropriate for the area. You could also go with native plants (great on water) to get a nice habitat going and attract birds and pollinators.

I'd recommend getting The Sunset Western Garden Book. It has a really easy way of identifying which plants are suitable to which areas. Even if you decide on a lawn, you might want a decorative border for ascetics or to reduce the lawn size.

EDIT: My bad, I didn't know that thing would pop up. It's a bit unsightly.

Mark Shepard has been running a restoration agriculture farm for ~20 years. He has a lot of business experience and is an intense advocate for this approach to permaculture. Here's a link to his site and to his book to maybe help you get started. Honestly he sounds like the exact person to help you meet your specific needs.

I’m going with this super soil approach, too. Just started, so I don’t have any wisdom yet.

But here’s what I’ve read/watched that’s been super influential.

Joshua Steensland
https://youtu.be/IbQASXEqd9g

Autoflower podcast
https://overcast.fm/+QfLIKH8bk


Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web
(Free if you have prime and a kindle)

Also shout out to u/bong_sau_bob for what I think is a wing chun reference.

Oh man... that kind of tracking takes a looooong time to get any good at, and is honestly beyond the reach of most sane people. At least, being able to do it in a timely fashion. Not to mention, if your friend has a paintball gun and is hidden somewhere in the woods... blundering around looking for his tracks is a really good way to get your ass shot.

If you really want to get the drop on him, read up on still hunting and learn how to really keep your eyes and ears open. Keep still more often than you move, and learn how to read good cover in the landscape. Especially this: keep still, keep low, and look for movement.

Deer know what's up: if they sense danger, they freeze in place and go on high-alert. Moving things are easy to see, still things are not. Don't run around like Rambo moving from tree to tree if you plan on sneaking around at all (although honestly, if you're playing around with paintball guns it will rapidly devolve into this).

If you want to pursue tracking, read these books for starters:

• Tracking and the Art of Seeing
  
  
• Tom Brown's Nature Observation and Tracking

Isn't the ground wire typically connected to the box itself with the little green screw?

http://www.amazon.com/Black-Decker-Complete-Wiring-Edition/dp/1589236017

I have the 4th edition to this book, but I'm pretty sure it mentions that you connect ground to the conduit/breakout box.

NINJA EDIT: Yep. Look here

http://diy.stackexchange.com/questions/20351/how-should-i-connect-the-ground-wire-for-my-light-fixture

I'd consider having the field plowed and sowing a mix of seeds to create a ground covering that doesn't grow as high, doesn't need cutting at all, and is a net adder of nutrients to the soil. Martin Crawford's book on forest guardening has a few interesting ones. The one I found most interesting and have been meaning to try is:

• Trifolium repens (white clover)
  
• Lolium perenne (dwarf perennial ryegrass)
  
• Festuca rubra (creeping red fescue)
  
  According to the book you should plant 3kg+6kg+2kg of seeds per acre anywhere from April to August, and the ground cover will last 10 years or more without management.
  
  The whole book is probably interesting for your situation as you can go and select a few base trees to plant right now and then leave them alone while they grow and you're otherwise busy. By the time you have some time again you'll have a head start. From the book I'd suggest you look into besides the ground covering I've already mentioned some large trees like alders that also add nutrients to the soil. You could just plant quite a few of them in all the acres you left wild and by the time you get around to it you can select which ones to keep and put the other down for firewood.

My partner and I are embarking upon a similar journey. My advice is to read a lot, before buying land.

This book has been VERY informative, and remains practical despite its copyright date. Just keep in mind that there may be a more modern methods available, and you'll be in great shape.

As always I recommend referencing multiple sources for all important info, but Five Acres and Independence is an excellent one to start from.

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741

You know, the people that will blindly believe the rhetoric they hear from political propaganda outlets are the same that willingly commit genocide.

I prefer literature such as this. My ideal life is a hard earned, satisfying life enjoyed with my family.

Pick up this book, it is the perfect beginners guide that gives a good summary of a broad range of related topics.

The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Oyster, Lion's Mane, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612121462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_Le8lDbK2HHJGC

No problem! They are not so much "permaculture" focused, but more of a holistic view. If you want something on just permaculture, you might want to check out something by Sepp Holzer. He is pretty much considered the granddaddy to modern permaculture. If you are not already, I would also subscribe to /r/permaculture. It is a decent sub with some really helpful links. Sorry about not getting back to you sooner, I do not get on Reddit as much as some.

Definitely second David Jacke's books - they're incredible! This one is also supposed to be good: http://www.amazon.com/Creating-Forest-Garden-Working-Nature/dp/1900322625/

Jacke is also working on a book about coppicing, which I'm really looking forward to: http://www.coppiceagroforestry.com/

Along those lines, OP may also find these guys inspirational: http://www.badgersett.com/info/woodyag1.html

I always like DK books for learning things because they tend to provide good intro info (it won't be super in depth) and they're very visual so enjoyable to look through and read. But honestly I recommend just going to your library and browsing what they have on this topic before buying anything so you can look inside the books.

Sweet! If you've never read it before, I recommend this book. Very detailed, easy instructions for various projects. There's so many cool things you can do with fungi.

How much homework have you guys done on growing? If all you know about so far is tents, keep reading! Read the sidebar resources, read the grower's bible and maybe a couple other books like it. Once you know enough that you believe you can put together a complete shopping list (there's some shopping lists in the sidebar for reference), then come back and ask for critiques.

Once you're ready I would say start small, like one plant each, and take them through the entire cycle. That will give you an idea of what you'll be getting yourself into when you go full-scale.

Fruit trees can definitely be grown in a small back yard or even a large (10-15 gal) container. You just have to prune them heavily and on a regular yearly schedule. There's some pretty good techniques and advice in this book:

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612120547

Hey OP, I'd also suggest you look at the book, "Grow a Little Fruit Tree". It's a super handy book and it shows you how to keep fruit trees of any variety really short! :) If you want to see any pages from the inside lemme know and I can snap some pictures for you when I get home tonight.

If you want to mainly learn about wiring (like in a home) then check out Black & Decker's Complete Guide to Wiring:

http://www.amazon.com/books/dp/1589236017

It isn't an EE course by any means, but it will give you practical knowledge someone can use in their life. I read one from Home Depot also, but I liked the B&D one better. Since it's based on home wiring, it's mainly AC.

Fellow Minnesotan and Seed Analyst (Plant Biology degree) here!

I recommend having this book on hand for all of your greenhouse adventures: American Horticultural Society Plant Propagation: The Fully Illustrated Plant-by-Plant Manual of Practical Techniques
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789441160/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_F8qQybT9GQCE7

It's full of photos and will provide you with endless practical advice as you're starting planties. I'm so excited for you and your students!

Buy it new and support his estate -- he was a great man that never really fiscally benefited from the artistic rigor he brought to our hobby. Not shaming, simply suggesting.

Dirr's Hardy Trees and Shrubs http://www.neebo.com/Textbook/dirrs-hardy-trees-and-shrubsb9780881924046/ISBN-9780881924046?kpid=0-88192-404-0&gclid=CPWWmbu9yMICFQ4S7AoddVAA0A

Dirr's Manual of Woody Landscape Plants
http://www.amazon.com/Manual-Woody-Landscape-Plants-Characteristics/dp/1588748685

Both are awesome.

I am also interested in what foods you are growing/planning on growing /u/mrsfrugalwoods

I read this book last year and the way Mark Shepard approaches food growing is a lot like early retirement planning.

Please do some more reading, get a book like: The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms by Stephen Russel. The eBook is $10


The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms: Simple and Advanced Techniques for Growing Shiitake, Oyster, Lion's Mane, and Maitake Mushrooms at Home https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612121462/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_uJ2GzbQRZY3VM

It's likely not a magnesium deficiency because a magnesium deficiency would cause chlorosis all over the plant and not just the leaf edges (outside of hydrogen, oxygen and carbon, chlorophyll has 4 nitrogen molecules and one magnesium molecule).

Micro nutrient deficiencies can be a pain to diagnose but empirically speaking this will clear up most any micro nutrient deficiency you'll likely encounter including copper:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BT4696/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_dp_ss_3?pf_rd_p=1944687722&pf_rd_s=lpo-top-stripe-1&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B00U1V7M36&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=006D8ARD9GQ5ESQGK1BP

I'd like to caution that growweedeasy is not a very reliable source of information. I've found way too many mistakes particularly in plant lighting (there's essentially a lot of what appears copy/paste going on). If this were a case of copper deficiency due to pH lock up as mentioned in that website then you'd also likely have iron (some new growth would be turning yellow), manganese, zinc and boron deficiencies from too high of a pH. This is a better source of information:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004WKUY2S/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?ie=UTF8&btkr=1

I love this one, especially if you want to know about gardening and horticulture.

If you want to know about plant physiology, phylogenies and ecology, I recommend this one.

Easily the best book on the subject and covers EVERYTHING from beginner to advanced Cultivation! https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Mushroom-Farming-Mycoremediation-Experimental/dp/1603584552/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1485652059&sr=1-1&keywords=tradd+cotter Do not think it is a waste of money!

> From what you have said it appears that my mistake is for thinking that there is any kind of normal place for the market to be in.

The only thing you can be certain of, with this investment thesis, is that you don't have any special information, and so you "go with the flow" - you believe that on average, on long time frames, the collective wisdom of the market, i.e. everyone actively participating, is not something you can do better than.

> When investing in funds of this nature, what bet am I placing?

Globally diversified funds essentially bet on the global economic activity, i.e. capitalism itself.

You are betting that capitalism continues to be the preferred and most efficient form of economic allocation of human resources and production in all its forms, whether that's oil in the ground, plans for electric cards or human attractiveness.

If that bet fails, that is, your assumption about capitalism fails, then the idea is that you are in the apocalypse scenario, where nothing makes sense anymore, and your investments would be irrelevant anyway.

I've written about this in other threads before, but in the case you think collapse is coming, then you would be better served by reading something like Sepp Holzer's Permaculture: A Practical Guide to Small-Scale, Integrative Farming and Gardening.

if you like maples, may I suggest Peter Adams' quintessential work on maples in bonsai. THE best book on working with maples. Couldn't recommend it enough.

http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Thanks! This is really helpful advice. I'll look into "forest gardening."

Is this the book you mean? http://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Designers-Manual-Bill-Mollison/dp/0908228015

You can propagate nearly anything, but the trick is knowing which technique for what species, at what time of year. This book is the most complete and easiest to follow, worth every penny: http://www.amazon.com/American-Horticultural-Society-Propagation-Plant-/dp/0789441160/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426609989&sr=8-1&keywords=ahs+propagating+plants

I'm currently reading this book by Sepp Holzer, which had a really neat section about how he handles poultry. He uses natural protection for his birds, specifically mentioning rose hedges. Perhaps his method could work for your situation, too?

I've been hoping to find something like that too and haven't found anything yet. I've been looking at these books in the mean time:

http://www.amazon.com/Vegetables-Berries-Thought-Possible-Imagine/dp/1580087965/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1301142256&sr=8-1

http://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Love-Tomatoes-Companion-Successful/dp/1580170277/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301142401&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Guide-Companion-Planting--Basics/dp/1601383452/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1301142401&sr=1-2

There are also resources at the extension and ag offices. The biggest problem is that different heirloom varieties of the same family (i.e. tomatoes) can have somewhat different needs (different zone / sun needs). That means unless it when down to that level, it would still only be a guide line. Also, check this post out:

http://www.reddit.com/r/SelfSufficiency/comments/g2vt4/some_nice_and_free_ebooks_and_info_about/

They had a good chart on there for companion planting about midway down this page:

http://www.idepfoundation.org/idep_gardens_media.html

Also a newb here.. I've found this book to be quite helpful. You don't have to be a total science nerd to read it and apply the techniques he presents

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1612121462/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o06_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

​

Also this video is pretty thorough

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckLJgKy2taM&t=1925s

I’m following The Essential Guide to Cultivating Mushrooms . They are saying that I need to get the sawdust moisture just right to prevent bacterial competition to the mycelium. But to know how much water I must add I either need to completely dry the sawdust OR know the moisture content of my sawdust pile by taking a representative sample. They want me to take the rep sample, weight it then bake it dry, then weigh it again so I can make a ratio of dry to original weight.

It’s not that big of a deal, but each time I want to make a few bags I will have to do the oven method to see if my water content had changed. I thought it would be easier if I could spent 10-20 bucks on a moisture meter and just shove it in the bucket of sawdust for an instant read.

Plant them in the ground if possible. Wait at least 2 full growth seasons. Read this in the meantime.

If you can't plant them in the ground get them into some better draining soil, and a pot like an anderson flat. If you're serious, I'd also seriously consider purchasing Peter Adam's book on Japanese Maples.

According to my jurisdiction, they adopted the 2011 one, this one. I don't have a copy of the NEC, yet, I think its up for a new version this year? Thanks, I definitely will be around this sub and the home improvement one more and more. Home ownership, so much fun!

Edit This is the B&D book I am using at the moment.

5 acres and Independence is a good place to start. Good read. It talks about farm animals, what crops to plant, etc.

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741

I highly recommend Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition

It's an easy read as far as nonfiction goes.

This line plays in my head as more and more lanes appear on the road and the circuitboard-esque city skyline looms closer. I know I have at least another week of being someone's code-monkey...

What I've found helps is exercising, regular meditation, playing rec league sports outside, playing with cats, sitting in a park and watching animals/listening to the wind in the trees. This book has also helped me cultivate (at least a little bit) that sense of wonder even in everyday life. There is nature to be found everywhere.

I strongly recommend reading these two books:

• The Cannabis Grow Bible - Green (if you're only going to read one book, read this one. It's the best book on growing by a wide margin.)
  http://www.amazon.com/Cannabis-Grow-Bible-Recreational-ebook/dp/B004P1JEBQ/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1368393804&sr=8-2&keywords=growers+bible
  
• Marijuana Grower's Handbook - Rosenthal
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0932551467/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  
  There are another couple books that I've read which have good bits of information but are by no means necessary to read. They are definitely lower quality than the two mentioned above:
  
  
• Marijuana Horticulture - Cervantes
  http://www.amazon.com/Marijuana-Horticulture-Outdoor-Medical-ebook/dp/B004WKUY2S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1368393921&sr=8-1&keywords=grower%27s+bible
  
• Master Gardener's Medical Cannabis Secrets - Moon
  http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1478718390/ref=oh_details_o02_s00_i02?ie=UTF8&psc=1

You can get syringes of Lion’s Mane liquid cultures and poke some spawn with it, like rye berries. Once colonized you can bust up the berries and use them to inoculate a ton of supplemented sawdust, then you can fruit that.

If you want some depth, I recommend this book as it’s geared for beginners (like me). You can find PDFs online if you’re willing.

According to Ruth Stout, all you need is rotting vegetable material and hay mulch on top of your garden bed.

​

I'm only a couple of chapters in currently, but I think that you'd be interested in this book: Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition

Read Five Acres and Independance. Best 8.96 you'll ever spend.

Awesome farm book for $9.84

> From my perspective it seems like a bunch of self-righteous liberals using abstract concepts to recycle old ideas and selling it to rich self-righteous liberals.

Oh, shit. Someone else has figured it out. They're onto us! Quick, grab your bags and get to the airport!

EDIT:- Yes, Permaculture actually does work. More seriously however, I became disenchanted with the amount of corruption that I saw in the scene, as well. The bottom line seems to be that no movement, no matter how well intentioned, is capable of surviving a head-on collision with human nature.

My advice would be to get the following four books:-

http://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Designers-Manual-Bill-Mollison/dp/0908228015

http://www.amazon.com/Permaculture-Principles-Pathways-beyond-Sustainability/dp/0646418440

http://www.amazon.com/Water-Every-Farm-Yeomans-Keyline-ebook/dp/B00557Z0OE

http://www.amazon.com/Beginners-Guide-Constructing-Universe-Mathematical/dp/0060926716

Study those yourself. If someone still wants you to get a certificate in order to do consulting, then look for the cheapest course you can find. Preferably find one where you can go to the site during the day, and have your own accomodation at night, which will give the people running it less of an opportunity to rip you off.

EDIT 2:- Some will say that you can skip Schneider, but I won't. You MUST, however, read Yeomans. Permaculture uses Yeomans' system itself, but Mollison did not write about it in his book. I repeat, you MUST, MUST, MUST read Yeomans.

It is quite simple. But I'd recommend getting a book like this one and reading it first anyway:

http://www.amazon.com/xdp/1589236017

From what I understand it's basiclly because of the chain of production that goes into raising cattle (water required for the crops to grow feed for the animals). Everything needs to be overhauled. We grow mostly corn, but the majority of what's grown isn't even used for direct human consumption.

A good book to read on the subject is Restoration Agriculture by Mark Shepard

This is a good reference book for plants https://www.amazon.com/New-Western-Garden-Book-Gardening/dp/0376039205, as far contactors go it will depend on what you want you want to do. Astro turf one contractor flower beds another.

When I first became interested in gardening, my mom recommended the Sunset Western Garden Book. She said everything she knows about plants she learned from that book.

I would check out David Holmgren and Bill Mollisons Books. They are both co-originator of what we know as permaculture today. Bill's book is more of a reference book, which is what it sounds like your after. Also Gais Garden is generally recommended.

From your wishlist, this. I read this book years ago and have been trying to remember what the heck it was since then.

From my wishlist: this staple gun. I never realized how much I would need one of these until moving into our home.

Thanks for the contest.

twinsies

I can't seem to find the passage at the moment, but I'm sure I read somewhere in mark shepard's book about no-till coming from the organic/permaculture movement. I could be mistaken however, so I'll edit that.

However, cover crops almost entirely fell out of favor after WW2 due to n-based fertilizer, organic farmers were the ones who developed it since:

http://www.jswconline.org/content/70/6/130A.extract

I put in 9 trees last year and still learning all of the mistakes I made. I don't have room for full-sized trees (15' or taller/wider) so started with dwarf and semi-dwarf. This may have been a mistake based on a couple of books I've been reading. If you do have limited space, or want to keep your trees manageable (a good point by /u/pecantrees about professional trimming and ER costs), then I highly recommend Grow a Little Fruit Tree by Ann Ralph. One of the things that she covers extensively, and I've heard stressed by others, is proper pruning. It won't answer several of your questions but I think it's a good resource to learn about pruning young trees and maintaining size without overly limiting fruit production.

Inb4 the Peter Adams book that I've ordered, not yet read - http://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Heard good stuff about this one!

Peter Adams’ Bonsai with Japanese Maples has really good information

See "Restoration Agriculture" https://www.amazon.ca/Restoration-Agriculture-World-Permaculture-Farmers/dp/1601730357

I don't think all of his systems are workable. You will need some form of easy to move electric fence. You also will need some form of protector animals that live with the flocks. (Eat Alberta Lamb. 10,000 coyotes can't be wrong)

Another good one is sepp holzers book

Do you have any plan on how the livestock you mentioned will be incorporated into that area? If not, I'd recommend Mark Sheppard's "restoration agriculture".

Also, if you're interested in a larger list of potentially compatible plants you can see one [here.] (http://www.americanplant.net/index.php/gardening-tips/organic-gardening/13-resource-library/plant-care-sheets/60-plants-to-grow-under-black-walnuts)

highly recommend this book
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Marijuana-Horticulture-Outdoor-Medical-ebook/dp/B004WKUY2S/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1343470602&sr=8-2
by jorge cervantes, covers literally everything, many things you wouldn't even think of (at least i wouldn't have), and helped us grow an amazingly healthy plant before we had to get rid of it :( . i'm sure you could find a pdf of it if you don't want to pay for it, but it really is the grower's bible

For a second it looked like Dr. Dirr's manual of woody landscape plants.

Creating a Forest Garden: Working with nature to grow edible crops https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1900322625/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_BG0mDbTHGDF7F

Creating a Forest Garden: Working with Nature to Grow Edible Crops

https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Forest-Garden-Working-Nature/dp/1900322625

Dirr is a god among men.

He's written lots of stuff.

I don't have any personal experience, but I know of a couple of books on the subject:

Small-Scale Grain Raising, Second Edition: An Organic Guide to Growing, Processing, and Using Nutritious Whole Grains, for Home Gardeners and Local Farmers

Homegrown Whole Grains: Grow, Harvest, and Cook Wheat, Barley, Oats, Rice, Corn and More

I amazed no one has mentioned 5 acres and independence yet.

Edit: Also, check our /r/backyardorchard. Tons of fruit/nut hobbiest info there.

If you move the decimal over. This is about 1,000 in books...

(If I had to pick a few for 100 bucks: encyclopedia of country living, survival medicine, wilderness medicine, ball preservation, art of fermentation, a few mushroom and foraging books.)


Medical:

Where there is no doctor

Where there is no dentist

Emergency War Surgery

The survival medicine handbook

Auerbach’s Wilderness Medicine

Special Operations Medical Handbook

Food Production

Mini Farming

encyclopedia of country living

square foot gardening

Seed Saving

Storey’s Raising Rabbits

Meat Rabbits

Aquaponics Gardening: Step By Step

Storey’s Chicken Book

Storey Dairy Goat

Storey Meat Goat

Storey Ducks

Storey’s Bees

Beekeepers Bible

bio-integrated farm

soil and water engineering

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation

Food Preservation and Cooking

Steve Rinella’s Large Game Processing

Steve Rinella’s Small Game

Ball Home Preservation

Charcuterie

Root Cellaring

Art of Natural Cheesemaking

Mastering Artesian Cheese Making

American Farmstead Cheesemaking

Joe Beef: Surviving Apocalypse

Wild Fermentation

Art of Fermentation

Nose to Tail

Artisan Sourdough

Designing Great Beers

The Joy of Home Distilling

Foraging

Southeast Foraging

Boletes

Mushrooms of Carolinas

Mushrooms of Southeastern United States

Mushrooms of the Gulf Coast


Tech

farm and workshop Welding

ultimate guide: plumbing

ultimate guide: wiring

ultimate guide: home repair

off grid solar

Woodworking

Timberframe Construction

Basic Lathework

How to Run A Lathe

Backyard Foundry

Sand Casting

Practical Casting

The Complete Metalsmith

Gears and Cutting Gears

Hardening Tempering and Heat Treatment

Machinery’s Handbook

How to Diagnose and Fix Everything Electronic

Electronics For Inventors

Basic Science


Chemistry

Organic Chem

Understanding Basic Chemistry Through Problem Solving

Ham Radio

AARL Antenna Book

General Class Manual

Tech Class Manual


MISC

Ray Mears Essential Bushcraft

Contact!

Nuclear War Survival Skills

The Knowledge: How to rebuild civilization in the aftermath of a cataclysm

Read this book: Five Acres and Independence.

It gives you all the information you need without unnecessary expenses.

Five Acres and Independence: A Handbook for Small Farm Management : http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1319032710&sr=8-1

It's Permaculture: A Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison.

It's big. It's black. It's expensive.

US Army Survival Guide

Small Scale Grain Raising

A Barefoot Doctor's Manual

The Home Water Supply

The Walking Dead

Organic Mushroom Farming and Mycoremediation
https://www.amazon.com/Organic-Mushroom-Farming-Mycoremediation-Experimental/dp/1603584552

https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

Grow a Little Fruit Tree: Simple Pruning Techniques for Small-Space, Easy-Harvest Fruit Trees https://www.amazon.com/dp/1612120547/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_.5RLBbJEEGVV8

>http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741

http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741

Manual of Woody Landscape Plants Their Identification, Ornamental Characteristics, Culture, Propogation and Uses Unabridged. Dirr


https://www.amazon.com/Landscape-Identification-Ornamental-Characteristics-Propogation/dp/1588748685

It was written 50+ years ago, so a large part of the advice on farming is very low-tech.

That's both informative and kind of a drawback at the same time.

here's a link on Amazon

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Love-Tomatoes-Companion-Successful/dp/1580170277&ved=2ahUKEwjCudi9n9zlAhULrZ4KHdLZD1IQFjALegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3D2HYBuuOmjFgxm5qjqO59

https://www.amazon.com/Small-Scale-Grain-Raising-Processing-Nutritious/dp/1603580778

Here is the only book you will need.

This one.

Here's a book by the instructor that covers some of the awareness exercises we were doing.

I think you could do it on less than 5, provided that you did not raise meat, or very little. Provided that you lived in a climate the produced most of the year, and ate only veggies and fruit I think it could be done.
http://www.amazon.com/Five-Acres-Independence-Handbook-Management/dp/0486209741/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347587158&sr=8-1&keywords=5+acres+and+independence

Long internodes are common after a hard chop, because there are fewer buds that can receive the tree's energy from the roots. You're many years away from having to worry about ramification with these trees, though.

This is a solid book on maples that covers a lot of topics: https://www.amazon.com/Bonsai-Japanese-Maples-Peter-Adams/dp/0881928097

No idea on reddits but iv had a few books you could look into
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B00C6PAG4W/ref=mp_s_a_1_13?qid=1421873213&sr=8-13&pi=AC_SX110_SY165
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/0425099660/ref=mp_s_a_1_2?qid=1421873303&sr=8-2&pi=AC_SY200_QL40&dpPl=1&dpID=51eNZxuqYwL&ref=plSrch