Graham Burnett's Vegan Permaculture: Food Forests & Agroforestry
By Graham Burnett
TL;DR: This guide details veganic permaculture design, using plant-based methods to create productive, resilient ecosystems without animal inputs.
- Mimic natural systems with plant-based alternatives.
- Utilize polycultures, agroforestry, perennials.
- Focus on soil health with green manures.
- Design guilds for stacked functions and pest control.
- Implement no-dig and hügelkultur for soil building.
Why it matters: Adopting veganic permaculture can transform degraded land into abundant ecosystems, promoting sustainable food production and ecological resilience.
Do this next: Start a no-dig garden bed using cardboard, compost, and woodchips to immediately improve soil health.
Recommended for: Dedicated growers seeking to design and implement a productive, ethically sound veganic permaculture system.
Graham Burnett's 'The Vegan Book of Permaculture' presents a comprehensive guide to veganic design philosophy mimicking natural systems with plant-based alternatives to animal roles, emphasizing polycultures, agroforestry, perennials, green manuring, and organic matter for soil health. Key methods replace manure with legume intercrops, chop-and-drop mulches from dynamic accumulators, and compost teas from weeds. Forest gardening layers canopy (hazels), low trees (cherries), shrubs (currants), herbs (lovage), groundcovers (strawberries), climbers (hops), and roots (arrowhead). Practical details: guild design e.g., pear + lupins (N-fixer) + chives (pests) + mint (soil conditioner). Soil rebuilding via no-dig: cardboard smothering, 20cm compost, woodchips; hügelkultur for drought-proof beds. Water: contour swales spaced 3-5m on slope, infiltration basins. Energy: pedal-powered tools, thermal mass stoves. Zoning and sector analysis optimize placement—e.g., windbreaks of coppiced willows. Insights: stacking functions (comfrey yields mulch, medicine, pollinator feed); edges productivity (herb spirals yield 2x flat). Case studies from Burnett's Spanish finca: 1ha site transformed from degraded to abundant with 200+ species, zero inputs after year 3, yielding 500kg fruit annually. Techniques include propagation (hardwood cuttings in winter), pruning for light penetration, succession for continuous harvest. Challenges: initial yields low—mitigate with annuals like potatoes in new guilds. Tools: A-frame for contours, dibbers for no-dig holes. Broader applications: urban balconies with stacked pots, community orchards. Ethics drive animal-free abundance, proving vegan systems outperform exploitative ones in resilience and ethics. Step-by-step projects: build a rocket stove (clay-sand mix, metal barrel), install greywater reedbed (gravel + phragmites), create keyline plow paths. This 300+ page manual offers diagrams, plant lists (50+ guilds), recipes (ferments from surplus), and metrics (soil organic matter doubling in 2 years), equipping readers for self-reliant regenerative living.