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Articles by Patrick Whitefield
Applying Permaculture Principles to the Garden – Mother Earth News
Discover some permaculture principles to apply to your garden and help you achieve a low-maintenance yield. In a natural ecosystem, disturbed or bare soil is very rare. An undisturbed soil, covered with plant material, either living or dead, is protected from erosion and free to develop its natural fertility. Moving and exposing the soil disrupts the biological processes of fertility and leads to the loss of precious organic matter. No-Dig Gardening So why do we dig our gardens?
Farms of the Future - how agroforesty can feed us
“Through agroforestry, the full gamut of benefits trees provide can support a farm’s productive areas, such as improving soil health, providing shade and shelter for livestock, and creating new habitats for birds and insects.
Celebrating Grassroots Communities: hope and solutions in the face of collapse
58 projects from around the world have been shortlisted for the £250,000 Lush Spring Prize for environmental and social regeneration. The 2025 Lush Spring Prize received well over 600 applications, almost double the amount of the 2023 prize cycle. These were whittled down to a shortlist of 58 individual applications during autumn 2024 (with some applications being shortlisted in multiple categories).
Permaculture Basics: Beyond the Garden – Mother Earth News
Learn some of the permaculture basics as well as how to apply the principles of permaculture gardening to multiple aspects of your life. The basic idea of permaculture is that we take natural ecosystems as the model for what we do ourselves. This is all very well if you have a farm or woodland to work with, or even a large garden. But what about people who only have a small urban garden, or even no garden at all? How Can They Use Permaculture?
Welcome Patrick Whitefield, author of The Earth Care Manual
posted 9 years ago Number of slices to send: Optional 'thank-you' note: This week Patrick Whitefield will be joining us to answer questions and join in discussions about all aspects of permaculture. There are up to four copies of his book The Earth Care Manual up for grabs. The book is available to buy on amazon.com, amazon.co.uk, Chelsea Green or direct from the publisher, Permanent Publications There is a staff review available here.
Make an Edible Forest Garden
What is a forest garden? A forest garden takes as its model the most wonderfully healthy and productive organic system in Britain—the deciduous woodland. It consists of trees and shrubs, with bushes below and a ground layer of perennial or self-seeding plants underneath. However, unlike a deciduous woodland, all plants in the forest garden are edible or useful in some other way. The first British forest garden was created by Robert Hart (1913 - 2000) at Wenlock Edge, Shropshire.
choosing fruit tree rootstock
Almost all fruit trees are grafted onto a rootstock. This means that the tree is actually two genetically distinct individuals, united by the skilful hand of the grafter. One of these is the rootstock, comprising the roots and the lower portion of the trunk; while the other, known as the scion, is all the rest of the plant: most of the trunk, branches, leaves and fruit. The scion is the fruiting variety, e.g. Cox, Bramley etc. and determines what the fruit is like.
fruit trees right variety
There’s a bewildering range of varieties available. It may seem best just to go for something you’ve heard of, like Cox apple and Victoria plum, or just accept the meagre offering of the local garden centre. But these trees will last you a lifetime. Why not get the ones that will suit you and your garden perfectly. All you need is a good mail-order nursery catalogue and/or a good book. I recommend Keepers Nursery www.keepers-nursery.co.uk and Ben Pike’s Fruit Tree Handbook.
minimalist gardening Patrick Whitefield permaculture
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. Big thanks are due to Permanent Publications for bringing these articles together into this very accessible and easy reading new reference book.
Control Slugs in the Garden By Combining This Arsenal of Methods
Control slugs in the garden using chemical, mechanical, and biological methods for slug control. The Minimalist Gardener: Low Impact, No Dig Growing, (Permanent Publications, 2017), by Patrick Whitefield, teaches new gardeners how to create a lasting garden. Whitefield shares with readers the right plants and flowers needed for a perennial garden. Find the plants that work best for you and your garden area.
minimalist gardening efficient food growing
Minimalism has been a hot topic in the last few years, with its bold claims to saving the world through reducing consumption levels. But there is much more to the topic than just giving away all our stuff and not buying anything new.
Minimalist Gardener by Patrick Whitefield
The late Patrick Whitefield’s first book Permaculture In a Nutshell was published back in 1993. At that time there was very little literature available about this innovative new way of creating human habitats by working with nature’s patterns, particularly for those of us that lived in the UK rather than hotter or drier climates.
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