The Minimalist Gardener: Low Impact, No-Dig Growing

The Minimalist Gardener reveals low-maintenance, year-round, no-dig gardening that provides your kitchen with delicious fresh food (while not breaking your back). Written by acknowledged expert Patrick Whitefield, this friendly guide will help you grow food in whatever space you have (large or small, rural or urban) with minimal purchased inputs and maximum satisfaction.

This collection of Whitefield’s pioneering writings explores the cutting edge of permaculture gardening that is eminently practical and visionary simultaneously. Whitefield describes an evolving chemical-free system that requires little input from outside the garden gate. His minimalist approach uses techniques like no-dig raised beds, perennial vegetables, and self-seeding salads as ground cover (plus mulching when appropriate). All these techniques minimize work in the garden while producing an abundance of food.

Whitefield describes selecting plants based on what you like to eat and combining them in polycultures that confuse pests. He mixes annual hybrids, heritage varieties, and perennial vegetables and has a pragmatic approach to selecting seeds and saving seeds. There are also tips on selecting fruit varieties, from berries to fruit trees, including choosing rootstocks and varieties.