Permaculture Design: A Step-by-Step Guide

Permaculture Design by Aranya fulfills the purpose that the author intended for the book: to be a straightforward guide that you can pick up and read just the section you need or all of it. Each chapter is well-written and uses plain language anyone can grasp. The parts, chapters, sections organization of the book makes it easy to find what you're looking for, and I appreciated the many online resources provided as well. The book is a bit of a slow read if have already read Permaculture: A Designer's Manual by Bill Mollison, and that would indicate Aranya took sufficient time to explain the basics to someone with no prior knowledge of permaculture. There is redundancy in the book, but again, this book is meant for anyone to be able to read in any order, so yeah, I think the author's objective for the book was accomplished. I did learn some new things from this book, too, so I find my time and money was well-spent on this book.

I can not say enough about this handy small paperback (to be carried about) that this generous man put together to provide us with a "map" to the permaculture design process in a logical thoughtful manner. This book is meant to be used out in the field and crimped up....a working tool and having taken a design course is worth every penny and more. I bought several copies and plan to share them with other...you will too. It is top quality heavy gloss paper (FCS sustainable certified) with color photos. Aranya provided an index to other references and even a website of his own that provides larger pictures in the book, along with much more. One of the best Permaculture books I have (along with Peter Bane's new book, "Garden Farming for Town and Country". Buy both at the same time and also view these two on Youtube for a at home permaculture course.

Seems to focus on how to assess land and do lots of preliminary work before actually designing and making permaculture plans. Very comprehensive book on the design aspects and design concepts, that is actually similar to a textbook on the subject. Lots of good illustrations, diagrams. But I wanted more info on what types of plants and trees , etc to incorporate into a permaculture gardening arrangement on a small homestead. I wanted a quick explanation of which location or where to plant a combination of what It wasn’t focused on what I was looking for, so I returned it. But, the book itself, is well written. The author is very thoroughly the design concepts. It IS an excellent, comprehensive book on design. Just too much for me personally!

This is *definitely* worth getting! It's like an entire class in one handy little book (it really is a handy size -- perhaps a bit too big for a pocket, but definitely easy to carry into the field with you) I've *just* received mine and have only skimmed it so far but I am elated. It's even more thorough and hands-on than I had hopes and I am absolutely tickled. If you're trying to figure out whether this book will actually be useful, and you're not already a certified permaculture designer (heck, perhaps if you *are*), this book will make you happy. It's awesome, and I highly, highly recommend it.

I highly recommend this book to anyone serious about doing a Permaculture design, either for themselves or for others. This book does what know other book on Permaculture has done. That is, to organize a complicated holistic design process into a set of steps that anyone who has an understanding of Permaculture will be able follow and benefit from. Permaculture Design is a quick read, but you will find yourself using it as a template for your design process and using it as a reference. I did however dislike that author refers you to his website for information that just as easily could have been in the book. What is the point of buying a real book if you still have to use the internet to get all the content. I would recommend that Aranya put this info in the book in future editions (which I expect their will be). Aranya could also polish the hand drawn graphics to be a better example of what effective landscape design graphics can look like. These two points are fairly minor when considering the whole book and it still received five stars from me.

More theories than real case analysis. It might be more helpful to a beginner gardener to know about all the permaculture concepts but not super practical to me. Kind of disappointed.

I have just finished a six week introductory course in permaculture. This text is an excellent follow up to that experience. Aranya has distilled much of what I was exposed to making for a efficient reference tool. This text has served as an excellent resource as I start implementing the concepts I learned in the course. I highly recommend it for those starting out as I did. My sense is that it would useful to experienced practitioners as well.

Aranya's Permaculture Design book is an ABSOLUTE MUST for anyone who's serious about learning how to do permaculture design. I like everything about it including the large, easy-to-read font, the sturdy pages and binding, the photos and diagrams, the layout, Aranya's clear, concise, and succinct way of explaining the how-to's, that the book fits into one's pocket to carry outside when needed, and so much more. I have not found any one of the multitude of Permaculture books on the market to be as easy-to-understand and as inspiring a read as this one. Many thanks to Aranya for this gem of a book.