Permaculture Library

Ethics, principles & design language

• Permaculture Principles — Holmgren’s twelve design principles, ethics, and flower of permaculture.
• Holmgren Design — Primary source for the principles and Essence of Permaculture.
• Permaculture Association — Education, research, and practice resources.
• Permaculture Research Institute — Global case studies and design articles.

Agriculture, soil & food systems

• FAO Knowledge Repository — Soils, crops, livestock, forestry, and food systems.
• ATTRA Sustainable Agriculture — Practical production guides for farms and homesteads.
• SARE — Farmer-tested research on soil, grazing, and diversified production.
• USDA National Agricultural Library — Agricultural science and historical practice.
• NRCS Soils — Soil health, infiltration, and conservation practice.
• USDA National Agroforestry Center — Windbreaks, silvopasture, riparian buffers, alley cropping.
• Plants For A Future — Edible and useful plant database.
• USDA PLANTS — North American plant identification and range.
• Seed Savers Exchange — Seed-saving technique and variety stewardship.
• USDA GRIN-Global — Crop germplasm and variety data.

Water on the land

• FAO Land & Water — Watershed, irrigation, and soil-water guidance.
• NRCS Conservation Practice Standards — Ponds, diversions, grade control, wetland and grazing specs.
• USGS Water Resources — Hydrology, groundwater, and surface-water science.
• EPA Soak Up the Rain — Rain capture, infiltration, and stormwater basics.
• WHO WASH — Drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene.
• Appropedia — Swales — On-contour infiltration earthworks.
• Appropedia — Check dams — Slowing concentrated flow in drains and draws.
• Appropedia — Rainwater harvesting — Roof catchment and storage.
• Oasis Design — Greywater — Household water reuse through soil and plants.
• Keyline Designs (Yeomans) — Landform-based water harvesting and soil building.

Animals, grazing & fertility

• SARE — Building Soils for Better Crops — Organic matter, rotation, and fertility.
• ATTRA — Livestock & pasture — Poultry, ruminants, and pasture systems.
• NRCS Prescribed Grazing — Rotation, rest, and carrying capacity.

Climate, maps & cold-climate place

• Climate Atlas of Canada — Local climate and future-scenario maps.
• Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation — Provincial crops, irrigation, and land resources.
• Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada — National research, soils, and climate services.
• Natural Resources Canada — Maps — Topography, geology, and earth-science layers.
• Alberta Geological Survey — Provincial landform and subsurface data.

Shelter, energy & appropriate technology

• Whole Building Design Guide — Building physics and site-integrated structures.
• Building Science Corporation — Moisture, insulation, and cold-climate envelopes.
• Open Building Institute — Open-source building systems.
• Appropedia — Appropriate-technology wiki: water, energy, sanitation, food.
• Low-Tech Magazine — Pre-industrial and low-energy techniques.
• Open Source Ecology — Open industrial machines for small civilization-scale production.
• Engineering for Change — Field-ready infrastructure and water solutions.