wombat
Biodynamic Farm - Hugh Lovel
One Straw Revolution - By what's his name
Intro to Permaculture- Bill Mollison
I just ordered these books...also on my list is "Designing and maintaining your edible lanscape, naturally" by Robert Kourik. I've got that one and it looks EXCELLENT!!! I've already got some good aphid info from it. (We lost a couple of young fruit trees to those suckers last year...) Too much nitrogen in the soil, hmmm? This year we licked the little ba$tards with boric acid ant traps...
A note on our ecosystem...We've got EVERYTHING! We don't use any chemicals on our property. Worms appear wherever we water. We have about a million kinds of wasps & bees. We have praying mantises, ladybugs & black widows(!). We have had a toad population explosion this year:).
We have birds galore. Yesterday I watched as approx. 100 California quail flew up from our front pasture, making all kinds of racket. The Cali quail is a funny bird, travels in HUGE groups, does NOT like to fly,..A minute later a Hawk of some sort flew up to the top of the garden gate with....a young quail. He proceeded to enjoy his feast atop his perch. Quite a spectacle!
Our philosophy, as far as landscaping goes, is share & share alike. We plant things specifically to attract beneficial insects. We don't consider others to be pests(wasps)....
We leave areas wild... :D