The forest garden greenhouse How to design and manage an indoor permaculture oasis

As founder and director of the Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute in Colorado, which he founded almost 30 years ago, veteran gardener and environmental sustainability expert Osentowski teaches what he embodies in his daily life. His passive solar home hugs the side of a mountain, and he produces food from five, state-of-the-art, greenhouses and a one-acre edible food forest. In this groundbreaking, user-friendly guide, Osentowski employs this same structure as the working model for his cutting-edge indoor growing techniques. A key innovation featured here is a solar heat technology called the climate battery, which uses a network of buried tubes that can keep plants warm and thriving even in the dead of winter. Along with clear instructions on installing a climate battery in existing greenhouses, Osentowski provides seasoned guidance on bed layout and soil techniques, successful companion planting, and cultivating microclimates in and around the greenhouse. His well-written, amply illustrated handbook also contains a wealth of information on permaculture-related growing practices that greenhouse amateurs and professionals will find invaluable.--Hays, Carl Copyright 2015 Booklist

Osentowski shows how building and maintaining a Mediterranean or tropical greenhouse full of figs, lemons, papayas, and bananas can be both affordable and practical. Drawing on his 30 years of experimentation and teaching in the harsh, dry mountain environment of his Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute, he offers lush descriptions of his five greenhouses and in-depth, layered advice on designing and constructing a balmy winter retreat. His method uses a "climate battery" consisting of tubes buried underground to collect and hold warm air from the greenhouse, which then recirculate it when the temperature cools, backed up in the coldest days with a pellet or wood stove that can simultaneously heat an attached sauna. Osentowski admits that he prefers a hands-on method of teaching, and his written tours through greenhouses are sometimes hard to follow. Novices may be intimidated by the lack of step-by-step, formulaic instruction. But more experienced gardeners, builders, and tinkerers, and even intrepid beginners willing to carefully observe, compute, and ponder, will find this readable guide jam-packed with enough information and inspiration to help them attempt their own indoor paradises. (Oct.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.