Books & Games

Garden Book of the Year 2018

Do you dream of a flamboyant garden, bursting with healthy vegetables and goodies from early spring to late autumn? A garden where you can hear birds chirping and insects buzzing, a garden that only gets more fertile, more beautiful and more self-sustaining every year? A good-for-the-planet garden that captures, stores and transforms lots of carbon dioxide into fertile soil teeming with life?

That dream can come true if you dare to venture into the world of forest gardening! A forest garden is a garden or cultivation where you take inspiration from the forest to produce food and useful plants in nature's own way. You can actually say that you are creating your own ecosystem! It's much more fun, easier and more efficient than constantly fighting back with lawnmowers, environmental toxins and weeding.

This book gives you, in a simple and easy-to-understand way, everything you need to become a forest gardener. It contains plant portraits of over 350 hardy nut and fruit trees, berry bushes, climbers, perennial vegetables, ground covers and other supportive plants that help your favorite plants thrive. In the book you will also find, among many other things, information on how to find the right place for your forest garden, what you need to do to get strong, independent plants, how to attract useful helpers and how to best take care of the harvest . With its over 800 references to books, reports and research on the subject, the book stands on a solid scientific basis and makes it easy for the reader who wants to delve further into this exciting cultivation technique.

Skogsträdgården is written by Philipp Weiss, the author behind Skogsträdgårdsblog, and Annevi Sjöberg, environmental scientist with a burning heart for ecology and all forms of berries. The authors have many years of experience in forest horticulture and hold popular courses on the subject. They have created about ten forest gardens around the country, and wrote the acclaimed book "Perennial vegetables: discover, grow, enjoy" which was nominated for the Garden Book of the Year 2016. Then as now, Daniel Larsson, who runs the cooperative farm Mylla on a daily basis, is responsible for the design.

An important new book from PFAF. It focuses on the attributes of plants suitable for food forests, what each can contribute to a food forest ecosystem, including carbon sequestration, and the kinds of foods they yield. The book suggests that community and small-scale food forests can provide a real alternative to intensive industrialized agriculture, and help to combat the many inter-related environmental crises that threaten the very future of life on Earth.

A food forest is a form of regenerative farming, a designed ecosystem modeled on nature, with the aim of growing food and sequestering carbon at the same time. As a forest it will consist of plants which occupy different layers, typically a canopy layer, shrub layer, herb layer and climbers. All plants will be perennials in order for the soil to be wild, undisturbed and regenerating. All plants will be food producing, will sequester carbon in their woody parts or in the soil, and will have useful functions in the forest ecosystem.

The choice of what to grow in a food forest is challenging. It is not simply a matter of deciding what would be good to eat, and planting the corresponding food plants in beds alongside rows or patches of woodland. Most books about food forests, woodland gardening or carbon farming concentrate on the design principles involved. The focus of this book is the plants, their characteristics and personalities, what they have to offer a food forest ecosystem, as well as what kinds of foods they yield.

We have selected over 500 plants that provide a mix of different growing conditions, plant size and structure, type of food, and contribution to a food forest ecosystem. There is also a quick-reference table of the key characteristics. The featured plants are arranged in sections corresponding to Forest Layer: Shrubs, Groundcover Shrubs, Trees, Herbaceous Plants, Herbaceous Groundcover Plants, Running Bamboos, Bulbs, Climbers.

Plants for your Food Forest is a compact and easy-to-use guide to choosing plants to meet your own objectives, to fulfill your own food forest design. Buying this book also provides PFAF with revenue to support our on-going efforts to make our plants database available free of charge and to continue to extend and improve the information it contains.

Hydroponics is a growing trend among growers, especially in cities. It is a form of cultivation that suits many because you cultivate without soil - only with water and nutrients - and therefore particularly suitable for those who do not have their own plot of land but still want to grow their own food. It's a cultivation that doesn't require a lot of space or maintenance, plus you have your fresh spices or vegetables close at hand when you're cooking.

In this guide, you will learn everything about how to go about growing in water, what systems are available and how you can build them yourself. It provides answers to questions such as: Is it just as useful? Does it taste as good? Is hydroponics organic? Which vegetables work best?

If you feel like going in depth, there is a section for the advanced grower, where you will learn all about different types of light and nutrition.

Hydroponic cultivation works both indoors and outdoors, on balconies and patios. You can grow basically anything: herbs, lettuce, berries, tomatoes, chillies or vegetables such as squash, cucumber, beans, peas and cabbage.

A detailed look at 50 of our top trees including their edible and medicinal properties, physical characteristics, cultivation and propagation.

When we think of edible trees we tend to focus on a few common varieties that give us fruit. However, many excellent less well-known trees can produce edible flowers, oil, seed, nuts, leaves, sap and bark as well as fruit. Many also have important medicinal applications. We also identify other uses of products derived from these trees, including fibers for clothes, rope and paper, oils for lubricants, fuels, water proofing and wood preservatives, dyes, construction materials, and more. In this book we describe 50 of our favorite edible trees, each one illustrated and arranged alphabetically by common name. Complementing the images is a physical description of each species, and information on their origin, growth habit, preferred hardiness zone, edible and medicinal ratings, known hazards, weed potential, propagation, care and cultivation.

The game about perennial vegetables is a fun family card game that gives you an insight into the diversity of perennial vegetables that we can grow and enjoy in our Swedish climate. The plants in the game have edible leaves, shoots, flowers, fruits, roots or seeds and most are easy to grow. Some of the plants you will recognize are asparagus, rhubarb and horseradish, while other green treats such as potato bean, lung root and lettuce are likely news to most. The 60 perennial edible plants we've chosen to include in this game are the ones we think have the most potential in our cooking and in our gardens!

Age: approx. 10-100 years

Number of players: 3-4 people

Get to know the exciting vegetables that come back year after year! Asparagus, rhubarb and horseradish are well-known perennial favorites in the kitchen garden – but have you heard of broad beans, lungwort and ostrich fern?

Nominated for Garden Book of the Year 2016

The book presents around 60 perennial vegetables that have been carefully selected by the authors to suit our northern climate. They are easier to care for and have a higher nutritional content than regular vegetables. In addition, they can be harvested from early spring to late fall without the need to water, fertilize or weed very often.

The book is the first of its kind in Swedish and contains everything you need to know to get started growing the perennial vegetables. Exciting recipes such as daylily flower soup, pickled ostrich fern and lactic acid perennial leafy vegetables provide inspiration to explore the new flavors. The book's content is seasoned with tips on nurseries, seed companies and food-useful tables of the plants' properties and nutritional values.

You will get a lot of enjoyment from this book, whether you are a curious vegetable grower, enjoy growing flowering perennials, or have a natural garden that you want to brighten up with easy-care edible plants!

With a foreword by Lena Israelsson.

About the authors:

Philip Weiss is a civil engineer and certified permaculture designer. He grows nearly 100 different species of perennial vegetables and even more edible trees and shrubs. He started growing perennial vegetables in 2007 and finds it more enjoyable every year. Philipp has a 7000 sq.m. perennial display garden with an attached small nursery and regularly teaches horticulture and permaculture.

Annevi Sjöberg love to grow, especially the plants that benefit both humans and insects in the garden. She is a trained environmental scientist and environmental engineer, and after working for a couple of years with community engagement around environmental issues within the aid sector, she currently teaches cultivation, biodiversity and permaculture.

Daniel Larsson is a graphic designer who became a farmer and today runs a cooperative farm called Mylla in Näshulta, Sörmland, which supplies the residents of the area with fine vegetables during the harvest season. Although it is largely about "one-year-olds", the plan is to gradually increase the proportion of perennial vegetables in the farms.

There are over 20,000 species of edible plants in the world yet fewer than 20 species now provide 90% of our food . However, there are hundreds of less well-known edible plants from all around the world that are both delicious and nutritious. It is our belief that plants can provide people with the majority of their needs, in a way that cares for the planet's health. A wide range of plants can be grown to produce all our food needs and many other commodities, while also providing a diversity of habitats for our native flora and fauna. This book describes and provides advice on growing some of the lesser known and unusual edible plants, with an emphasis on perennials. Information includes: Alternative Fruits and Root Crops, Edible Leaves, Edible Flowers, Winter Salads, Staple Seed Crops and Useful Weeds.

Current interest in forest or woodland garden designs reflects an awareness that permanent mixed plantings are inherently more sustainable than annual monocultures. They safeguard and enrich soil ecosystems, enable plants to form cooperative combinations, make use of layers above and below the soil, and they create benign microclimates which soften winds and recycle the rain. The challenge is productivity: how can yields of useful foods and other useful materials be maximised? The latest book from Plants For A Future is a resource for discovering some of the answers.

Edible Perennials provides detailed information, attractively presented, on 50 selected perennial plants, based on practical experience and observation, plus a wide range of reputable sources. All these plants yield edible produce: roots, tubers, seeds, oils, fruits, stems, flowers, or leaves, and many have other useful properties, which are also described. For each entry the descriptive text is augmented by summary information panels covering various attributes such as natural habitat, cultivation needs, nutritional value of edible parts, and potential uses within woodland garden designs.

Increasing interest in food forests or woodland gardens reflects a growing awareness that permanent mixed plantings are inherently more sustainable than annual monocultures. They can safeguard and enrich soil ecosystems, enable plants to form mutually beneficial combinations, utilize layers both in the soil and above ground, and create benign microclimates which soften winds and recycle rain. Shrubs have an important role in food forests, occupying the highly productive layer between the canopy and the ground. Also, as perennial woody plants, shrubs help to draw down and store carbon from the atmosphere, a vital function to help combat damaging climate change.

Edible Shrubs provides detailed information, attractively presented, on over 70 shrub species . They have been selected to provide a mix of different plant sizes and growing conditions. Most provide delicious and nutritious fruit, but many also have edible leaves, seeds, flowers, stems or roots, or they yield edible or useful oil. The information here is based on practical experience and observation, and from a wide range of reputable sources. For each entry, the descriptive text is augmented by summary information panels covering various attributes such as natural habitat, preferred soils, nutritional value, and potential uses within woodland garden designs.

We have included some more unusual species that may not be known to growers interested in a wider variety of food crops, or in more resilient designs for their plots. This book also has a quick reference table of the key characteristics of over 400 other perennials to help readers identify plants to meet specific requirements.

Evergreens have long been considered a bit drab and boring, but now the trend has reversed and more and more people don't want to be without these shapely and easy-to-care-for plants.

Evergreens are a group of different plants with shapes, colors and sizes that differ greatly from each other. In the book Evergreens we learn about the advantages of these plants, such as that they are beautiful, take on sculptural shapes in winter and give the garden stability and character, and the importance of choosing the right plant in the right place.

The reader also gets tips on how evergreen plants can be combined with various perennials and deciduous trees and shrubs, as a garden with only evergreen plants can feel a bit gloomy.

Here are examples of evergreen plants for different locations (sun, shade, dry, moist, sandy soil, clay soil, acidic soil, alkaline soil), but also for different uses (privacy protection, solitary plants, entrance plantings, flower beds, in pots, etc.). The introductory inspiration section concludes with a chapter on hardiness, plant selection, planting and care.

The following groups of evergreen plants are included in the final catalog section:

CONIFERS
BUSHES
HEATHER
SMALLER BUSHES AND PERENNIALS
RHODODENDRON

Woodland Gardening: Designing a low-maintenance, sustainable edible woodland garden with fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables

In a woodland garden everything grows together in a way that is very similar to a natural woodland but with the trees and shrubs all bearing edible crops, and with many different edible herbs and vegetables growing under them. Instead of battling against nature , this is a garden that works in harmony with it .

It is possible to plan out a woodland garden in a space as small as a backyard or as large as a few acres, using the guidelines that nature has shown us, but using species that can provide us with fruits, seeds, leaves, roots and flowers that are delicious and highly nutritious.