The Holistic Life: Sustainability through Permaculture - Softcover

Lillington, Ian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1864764376 ISBN 13: 9781864764376

Publisher: Axiom Publishing, 2007

Synopsis

In this timely book, the author sets out the vision for a sustainable planet as well as methods we can all use to get there.

About this title

Review

The Holistic Life does a great job of making permaculture feel like something that anybody can do. Full of quotes, photos and diagrams, it is a great first port of call for the novice permaculturist. Most useful perhaps is his redefining of the principles, setting out Holmgren's 12 principles in an accessible and easy-to-understand way. Part One of the book sets out the ideas and concepts underpinning permaculture, most notably peak oil and climate change, and then sets out a history of the movement. Lillington draws on and makes more accessible Holmgren's vision that permaculture is about designing for life beyond oil, and he illustrates this argument with a wealth of examples from his own experience. Part Two goes deeper into the practical applications of permaculture. From rainwater harvesting to food production, and from reducing your consumption to building community, each aspect of permaculture is explored, and is, again, richly illustrated with examples for Lillington s life or experience. The final part of the book is his simplification of Holmgren's principles, which, as I have said, is invaluable, and may ultimately turn out to be its most important legacy. The Holistic Life is a useful addition to the permaculture library, and is to be commended for making complex ideas relevant and accessible. --Rob Hopkins, Permaculture Magazine Well structured and easy to follow. Thoughtful and useful. Graham Bell, author of The Permaculture Garden and The Permaculture Way. For Ian, permaculture is about a great deal more than food. It is a whole-of-life approach to making our homes, our towns, cities and our lives sustainable. Reading The Holistic Life you come away with the impression that the design system is all about self-in-community and that, at essence, permaculture is about cooperative and convivial living. The book a large format paperback of 144 pages consists of three segments, the first of which introduces permaculture and the need for such an integrated approach to living. The design system's ethics, reflections on the passivity of consumer society, the coming peak in the production of the global oil supply and the likely results to follow, and the idea of design as a life tool are covered in the heavily illustrated pages. Ian's journey to permaculture is found in the second segment. Here, too, is a discussion of strategies for sustainable living such as the gardening of food what David Holmgren calls 'garden agriculture' on account of its productive focus and to distinguish it from the unproductive home gardening of native and ornamental plants the harvesting of rainwater for our drought-afflicted gardens and households, diet, local economic systems, community gardens and other local strategies for food production and using less energy all appear here. Segment three is about the principles of using permaculture as a tool, focusing on the revised set of principles devised by David Holmgren. Ian talks about how we can put these to use. There are 12 of them and they provide a useful way to think about life other than those to which permaculture is usually linked. Indeed, many could successfully be applied in our livelihoods and in dealing with social issues, planning and management. --http://pacific-edge.info/celebrating-the-conviviality-of-permaculture/

Well structured and easy to follow. Thoughtful and useful. --Graham Bell, author of The Permaculture Garden and The Permaculture Way.

For Ian, permaculture is about a great deal more than food. It is a whole-of-life approach to making our homes, our towns, cities and our lives sustainable. Reading The Holistic Life you come away with the impression that the design system is all about self-in-community and that, at essence, permaculture is about cooperative and convivial living. The book a large format paperback of 144 pages consists of three segmen --http://pacific-edge.info/celebrating-the-conviviality-of-permaculture/

Well structured and easy to follow. Thoughtful and useful. --Graham Bell, author of The Permaculture Garden and The Permaculture Way.

For Ian, permaculture is about a great deal more than food. It is a whole-of-life approach to making our homes, our towns, cities and our lives sustainable. Reading The Holistic Life you come away with the impression that the design system is all about self-in-community and that, at essence, permaculture is about cooperative and convivial living. The book a large format paperback of 144 pages consists of three segments, the first of which introduces permaculture and the need for such an integrated approach to living. The design system's ethics, reflections on the passivity of consumer society, the coming peak in the production of the global oil supply and the likely results to follow, and the idea of design as a life tool are covered in the heavily illustrated pages. Ian's journey to permaculture is found in the second segment. Here, too, is a discussion of strategies for sustainable living such as the gardening of food what David Holmgren calls 'garden agriculture' on account of its productive focus and to distinguish it from the unproductive home gardening of native and ornamental plants the harvesting of rainwater for our drought-afflicted gardens and households, diet, local economic systems, community gardens and other local strategies for food production and using less energy all appear here. Segment three is about the principles of using permaculture as a tool, focusing on the revised set of principles devised by David Holmgren. Ian talks about how we can put these to use. There are 12 of them and they provide a useful way to think about life other than those to which permaculture is usually linked. Indeed, many could successfully be applied in our livelihoods and in dealing with social issues, planning and management. --http://pacific-edge.info/celebrating-the-conviviality-of-permaculture/

About the Author

Ian Lillington first heard about permaculture when working on an inner-city farm in Liverpool, England in the 1980s. Soon he was involved in the international permaculture network, applying its principles and practices to house and garden design and community development. Ian began teaching permaculture in Manchester, UK, in 1992 and then moved to Hepburn Springs, Australia, to work with David Holmgren (co-originator of the permaculture concept). Now living in Castlemaine, Central Victoria, Ian is active in a town where re-localisation is well underway, with a very active Sustainability Group, and is employed as a project manager to assist with the development of small-scale housing clusters and other sustainability initiatives.

Edition details

• Publisher: Axiom Publishing
• Publication date: 2007
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1864764376
• ISBN 13: 9781864764376
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 144