The Earthcare Manual by Patrick Whitefield is supposed to be THE bible for those wishing to use embrace permaculture principles in order to tread more lightly, as it were!.
Has anyone got this book?
Has anyone even seen inside someone else's copy?

I kind of want it but it costs FORTY QUID
which is one whole week's income for me!
My library doesn't have it and won't order it.
Amazon sell it but won't let you browse.

All the reviews are very gushing but don't actually tell you what's in it and I would be devastated if I spent all that money only to find it was a pretty 'coffee table book' with glossy pictures that swears you can feed your entire family all year from a window box

plus, I'm slightly suspicious that a man who claims to want to make the world better should charge forty quid a pop to teach folk how to recycle paper

So. Anyone read it?

Nope never heard of it and yes I am careful as there is so much 'Greenwash' around now, too many peeps claiming to be green to be fashionable.

will ask around tho

Never heard of it but will enquire at the library next Saturday... Tomorrow in fact
Find myself agreeing with G2 on this ... t'is sooo fashionable at the mo any rubbish gets to be published

well, gardening books are the same, just pictures of vegetables with a label at the side telling us it's a carrot Even Carole Klein's

I've not heard of it either and like you I'd want to borrow a copy first.

I saw this book advertised in a 2006 issue of permaculture magazine that I bought in a boot sale, it sounds interesting but it doesn't give you much idea what is inside the book - I will find the issue out and recheck the advert for any useful info

Go to amazon.co.uk, it's there for sale, has four reviews and they say it's great!

Right, the book is on order from local library, was in Dover or somewhere similar.... Wll tell you when it arrives...

wow thanks Dom

when it comes it'll be the perfect excuse to ditch the kids and pile over with your seedlings, and (if I persuade Dave to drop me off) a couple of bottles of plonk.........all in the name of research

Elizabeth.....yes I know the reviews are great, but they don't give any information!
if you read the reviews on the back of any book they'll sound wonderful even if the books shoite....and if I was selling a book on amazon, I'd have a couple of mates log on and say nice things, wouldn't you?

I read on another forum that it was pretty dry, and "less useful than John Seymour's self sufficiency"

The book's here Very big and 'learned' Would have been an eye opener and very useful when I started 4 or 5 years ago but contains nothing much new now ... Mulching, planting through layers cardboard/poo/mulch 'a la Wardy', mixing plants ie sweetcorn underplanted with squashes, edible hedges , salads in window boxes, why it's good to keep chickens , how using raised beds increases space and yield compared to straight row gardening , the benefits of ponds and wildlife.... How it's preferable to have your gh next to the house rather than at the end of the garden under trees
etc the whole thing explained very scientifically and with diagrams
.
Deffo a good one but not one I'd buy for myself at this stage
Anyway, awaiting your visit cos I may be very very wrong and only a scientific approach - with the inevitable cake-missing-some-vital- ingredient- tasting session- will do
PS I surpassed myself this half-term and baked a banana cake without raising agent Kids were ace and said it made no difference

good plan....your tomatoes and loofahs are all hardened off and ready to plant

not today though cos the seaside beckons....