All proceeds from the shop go towards the projects of the charity, Plants For A Future.
The main aims of the charity are researching and providing information on ecologically sustainable horticulture, promoting a high diversity, holistic and permacultural approach namely 'woodland gardening'. We aim to use a minimal input of resources and energy, create a harmonious eco-system and cause the least possible damage to the environment whilst achieving high productivity.
Appeal
If you would like to support our current activities including expanding the database with new plants please visit the Appeal Page.
Books
Food Forest Plants for Hotter Conditions: 250+ Perennial Plants For Tropical and Sub-Tropical Food Forests and Permaculture Gardens.[Paperback]
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A tropical and sub-tropical food forest is a cornucopia of luscious food, which thrives on drawing carbon out of the atmosphere to grow trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and climbers producing fruits, seeds, oils, greens, flowers, drinks and herbs. There are thousands of known food plants which thrive in hot climate zones, plants discovered and improved from time immemorial, from before the Agricultural Revolution brought about deforestation and land degradation to provide grains to feed city states. Our human ancestors were gatherers and gardeners; we may well have evolved with large brains to store and share knowledge of where nutritious plants were to be found, and how to modify nature to encourage them.
Product Details
Price $28
Dimensions 8.5 X 11.0 X 0.25 inches
Type: Paperback
ISBN-13 979-8883693679
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** Now available as a $9 PDF (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) from the PFAF Shop here
Plants for Your Food Forest: 500 Plants for Temperate Food Forests and Permaculture Gardens. [Paperback]
An important new book from PFAF. It focuses on the attributes of plants suitable for food forests, what each can contribute to a food forest ecosystem, including carbon sequestration, and the kinds of foods they yield. The book suggests that community and small-scale food forests can provide a real alternative to intensive industrialised agriculture, and help to combat the many inter-related environmental crises that threaten the very future of life on Earth.
Product Details
Price $26.50
Dimensions 8.5 X 11.0 X 0.25 inches
Type: Paperback
EAN/UPC: 9798520865087
Order from Amazon UK and Amazon US
** Now available as a $9 PDF (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) from the PFAF Shop here
PFAF’s primary objective is to maintain and improve our free online database of information on edible and useful plants, especially perennials. In recent years, in response to the global environmental crisis and increasing interest in alternatives to intensive industrialised agriculture and commercial plantations, we have extended the database to include more plants likely to be used in community and small-scale food forests, carbon farming, and carbon sequestration projects. Plants for your Food Forest: 500 Plants for Temperate Food Forests and Permaculture Gardens has drawn on this development work. The choice of what to grow in a food forest is challenging. It is not simply a matter of deciding what would be good to eat, and planting the corresponding food plants in beds alongside rows or patches of woodland. There is an increasing number of books about food forests, woodland gardening and carbon farming, but most concentrate on design principles and concepts. The focus here is on the plants, their characteristics and personalities, what they have to offer a food forest ecosystem, and what kinds of foods they can provide. We have selected over 500 plants that provide a mix of different growing conditions, plant size and structure, type of food, and role within a food forest ecosystem. There is also a quick-reference table of the key characteristics. The featured plants are arranged in sections corresponding to Forest Layer: Shrubs, Groundcover Shrubs, Trees, Herbaceous Plants, Herbaceous Groundcover Plants, Running Bamboos, Bulbs, Climbers.
Plants for your Food Forest is a compact and easy-to-use guide to choosing plants to meet your own objectives, to fulfill your own food forest design. Buying this book also provides PFAF with revenue to support our on-going efforts to make our plants database available free of charge and to continue to extend and improve the information it contains.
Order from Amazon UK and Amazon US
** Now available as a $9 PDF (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) from the PFAF Shop here
More information
EDIBLE SHRUBS: 70+ Top Shrubs from Plants For A Future [Paperback]
Increasing interest in food forests or woodland gardens reflects a growing awareness that permanent mixed plantings are inherently more sustainable than annual monocultures. They can safeguard and enrich soil ecosystems, enable plants to form mutually beneficial combinations, utilise layers both in the soil and above ground, and create benign microclimates which soften winds and recycle rain. Shrubs have an important role in food forests, occupying the highly productive layer between the canopy and the ground. Also, as perennial woody plants, shrubs help to draw down and store carbon from the atmosphere, a vital function to help combat damaging climate change.
Edible Shrubs provides detailed information, attractively presented, on over 70 shrub species. They have been selected to provide a mix of different plant sizes and growing conditions. Most provide delicious and nutritious fruit, but many also have edible leaves, seeds, flowers, stems or roots, or they yield edible or useful oil. The information here is based on practical experience and observation, and from a wide range of reputable sources. For each entry, the descriptive text is augmented by summary information panels covering various attributes such as natural habitat, preferred soils, nutritional value, and potential uses within woodland garden designs.
We have included some more unusual species that may not be known to growers interested in a wider variety of food crops, or in more resilient designs for their plots. This book also has a quick reference table of the key characteristics of over 400 other perennials to help readers identify plants to meet specific requirements. Further details of all the plants described here are available from the PFAF Plants Database, which can be accessed free of charge at pfaf.org.
Edible Shrubs Book
A PDF version is avaiable for $9 USD (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) form the pfaf digital download shop
Order the paperback the following Amazon websites:
More information & eBook
Edible Perennials: 50 Top perennials from Plants For A Future [Paperback]
Current interest in forest or woodland garden designs reflects an awareness that permanent mixed plantings are inherently more sustainable than annual monocultures. They safeguard and enrich soil ecosystems, enable plants to form cooperative combinations, make use of layers above and below the soil, and they create benign microclimates which soften winds and recycle the rain. The challenge is productivity: how can yields of useful foods and other useful materials be maximised? The latest book from Plants For A Future is a resource for discovering some of the answers.
Edible Perennials provides detailed information, attractively presented, on 50 selected perennial plants, based on practical experience and observation, plus a wide range of reputable sources. All these plants yield edible produce: roots, tubers, seeds, oils, fruits, stems, flowers, or leaves, and many have other useful properties, which are also described. For each entry the descriptive text is augmented by summary information panels covering various attributes such as natural habitat, cultivation needs, nutritional value of edible parts, and potential uses within woodland garden designs.
Edible Perennials Book
A PDF version is avaiable for $9 USD (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) form the pfaf digital download shop
Order the paperback from the following Amazon websites:
More information & eBook
Edible Plants: An inspirational guide to choosing and growing unusual edible plants
There are over 20,000 species of edible plants in the world yet fewer than 20 species now provide 90% of our food. However, there are hundreds of less well-known edible plants from all around the world that are both delicious and nutritious. It is our belief that plants can provide people with the majority of their needs, in a way that cares for the planet’s health. A wide range of plants can be grown to produce all our food needs and many other commodities, whilst also providing a diversity of habitats for our native flora and fauna. This book describes and provides advice on growing some of the lesser known and unusual edible plants, with an emphasis on perennials. Information includes: Alternative Fruits and Root Crops, Edible Leaves, Edible Flowers, Winter Salads, Staple Seed Crops and Useful Weeds.
Edible Plants book
A PDF version is avaiable for $9 USD (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) form the pfaf digital download shop
Order the paperback from the following Amazon websites:
More information & eBook
La traduction française du livre Plantes comestibles (Edible Plants) est maintenant disponible! Partagez ce lien avec vos amis.
FRENCH TRANSLATION OF Edible Plants [Paperback]
Plantes Comestibles: Le guide pour vous inspirer a choisir et cultiver des plantes comestibles hors du commun
Il existe plus de 20 000 espèces de plantes comestibles dans le monde et pourtant, 90% de notre régime alimentaire ne se compose que d'une vingtaine. Pourtant, des centaines de plantes comestibles moins connues, venant du monde entier sont à la fois délicieuses et très nutritives.
Nous sommes convaincus que les plantes peuvent répondre à la majorité de nos besoins, tout en respectant la santé de notre planète. Un large éventail de plantes peuvent être cultivées pour satisfaire tous nos besoins alimentaires et bien d'autres encore, tout en offrant une grande
diversité d'habitats pour la faune et la flore.
Cet ouvrage vous fera découvrir comment cultiver et utilis
Plantes Comestibles Book
A PDF version is avaiable for $9 USD (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) form the pfaf digital download shop
Order the papaerback from the following Amazon websites:
More information & eBook
Woodland Gardening: Designing a low-maintenance, sustainable edible woodland garden with fruit and nut trees, shrubs, herbs, vines and perennial vegetables [Paperback]
In a woodland garden everything grows together in a way that is very similar to a natural woodland but with the trees and shrubs all bearing edible crops, and with many different edible herbs and vegetables growing under them. Instead of battling against nature, this is a garden that works in harmony with it.
It is possible to plan out a woodland garden in a space as small as a backyard or as large as a few acres, using the guidelines that nature has shown us, but using species that can provide us with fruits, seeds, leaves, roots and flowers that are delicious and highly nutritious.
Woodland Gardening Book
A PDF version is avaiable for $9 USD (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) form the pfaf digital download shop
Order the paperback from the following Amazon websites:
More information & eBook
Edible Trees: 50 Top Trees From Plants For A Future [Paperback]
A detailed look at 50 of our top trees including their edible and medicinal properties, physical characteristics, cultivation and propagation.
When we think of edible trees we tend to focus on a few common varieties that give us fruit. However, many excellent less well-known trees can produce edible flowers, oil, seed, nuts, leaves, sap and bark as well as fruit. Many also have important medicinal applications. We also identify other uses of products derived from these trees, including fibres for clothes, rope and paper, oils for lubricants, fuels, water proofing and wood preservatives, dyes, construction materials, and more. In this book we describe 50 of our favourite edible trees, each one illustrated and arranged alphabetically by common name. Complementing the images is a physical description of each species, and information on their origin, growth-habit, preferred hardiness zone, edible and medicinal ratings, known hazards, weed potential, propagation, care and cultivation.
Edible Trees Book
A PDF version is avaiable for $9 USD (approximately £6.50 GBP and €8 Euros) form the pfaf digital download shop
Order the paperback from the following Amazon websites:
More information & eBook
Temperate Plant Database
Currently the database is available in three forms for 7400 temperate plants. There are three licenses
- Database: Standard Home Edition $50. For private use
- Database: Commercial Edition $150. For use in an office/workplace.
- Database: Student Edition $30. Single use
The download includes:
- A Microsoft Excel file
- A CSV file for other spreadsheets
- A DB FIle. You can also export any of the tables as CSV. Use a DB Browser for example: DB Browser for SQLite is a high quality, visual, open source tool to create, design, and edit database files compatible with SQLite. http://sqlitebrowser.org/
Data on Latin name, Family, Common name, Habit, Deciduous/Evergreen, Height, Width, UK Hardiness, Medicinal, Range, Habitat, Soil, Shade, Moisture, Well-drained, Nitrogen fixer, pH, Acid, Alkaline, Saline, Wind, Growth rate, Pollution, Poor soil, Drought Wildlife, Pollinators, Self-fertile, Known hazards, Synonyms, Cultivation details, Edible uses, Uses notes, Propagation, Heavy clay, EdibilityRating, FrostTender, Scented, MedicinalRating, and Author.
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The Leaflets
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The Leaflet Collection. All 57 Plants For A Future leaflets in one convenient PDF eBook with 291 pages. For a small donation to Plants For A Future to help support and expand our activities you can now download the entire leaflet collection to view offline...
£12 GBP (approx $20 USD). You can donate using Paypal or a credit card in any currency...
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Plants For A Future: Edible & Useful Plants For A Healthier World (Ken Ferns Original Book)
In his thoroughly useful book, Ken Fern shares his experiments and successes in growing herbs, vegetables, flowers, shrubs and trees. Packed with information, personal anecdotes and detailed appendices and indexes, this pioneering book takes gardening, conservation and ecology into a new dimension.
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