I found it almost a complete practical gardening course that you can use as needed, a series of easy to follow practicals you will be itching to get out and try. He was a consulting editor of Permaculture magazine, featured on BBC, and taught permaculture design courses with his wife, Cathy. If you purchase an audiobook from our site, it will only be available through our partner, Glassboxx via the Glassboxx player for iOS, Android, Windows, or Mac. He qualified in agriculture at Shuttleworth College, Bedfordshire and after several years working in agriculture in the Middle East and Africa, he settled in central Somerset.

It’s like having your own expert gardener on hand for whenever you have a ‘how could I do better, more easily, naturally, abundantly or sustainably? The Minimalist Gardener makes it all possible – we can all benefit now from the depth of experience and wisdom handed down to us by Patrick. Through observing, season after season, he found the middle road, the sweet spot between productivity and ease.Patrick Whitefield spent many years tending his vegetable garden and feeding himself and his wife Cathy with it’s produce. As for making compost – throw the material on the ground and it will turn into compost right where it sits – why do you need to give it a special place to do what it wants to do anyway? Patrick describes how to select plants based on what you like to eat and how to combine them in polycultures that confound would-be pests.

The key is knowing the right questions, examining what you want from your garden and knowing how to understand the unique characteristics of the space. This book was written for the English climate, there’s some crossover for me but the varieties he recommended are not likely to be available in the states. He used to tell students that the ultimate permaculture design would require one simply to get out of bed in the morning, walk into the garden, lay on the ground and allow the food to fall into your open mouth!

The Minimalist Gardener brings together a series of 17 articles written by renowned grower, permaculturist and teacher, the late Patrick Whitefield and originally published in Permaculture magazine over a period of more than twenty years. It explores a cutting edge of permaculture gardening that is eminently practical and visionary all at the same time.