I think Gaia’s Garden is an essential book for anyone interested in sustainability, gardening, particularly edible gardening, and also–nice writing.  Check this out:

“Watch how nature works in a forest . . . By the time the heat of summer arrives, the canopy is nearly closed, and only a few dancing sunflecks shimmer on the forest floor.” (Hemenway, p. 105)

And here:

“A branching pattern shows up in the convergence of streams and rivers visible out a jet window, in the graceful arch of a tree overhead and in its roots beneath us, and in tendrils of a tiny moss.  Spirals appear in galaxies spanning thousands of light years and in the head of a daisy.  We can see wave patterns in colliding weather fronts and at the beach, both in massive sea swells and in delicate sand ripples.” (Hemenway, p. 37)

Hemenway’s enthusiasm is evident in every page, and his imagery can be mesmerizing.  It helps the reader envision the possibilities of his or her own permaculture garden.

For an opportunity to win one of the two books we’re giving away, you need to visit Chelsea Green Publishing’s special page just for our readers here.

Entries accepted until midnight Saturday, Nov. 12, 2011.  Best of luck!

P.S.: Ivory and I love Chelsea Green Publishing’s books so much, we reached out to them because we wanted to be able to share some of their releases with our readers.  They agreed (yay!) and so about every month or so we will have a couple of brand new copies to give away to readers smiled on by the fates (aka Random Number Generator).  In case you wondered, we aren’t being paid and our responses to the books are unbiased. It may be hard to believe I’m unbiased the way I rave about Toby Hemenway’s Gaia’s Garden.  You’d think they’d rolled up a truck filled with gold bars, but, alas, that is not the case.