Water for Every Farm: Yeomans Keyline Plan

by P.A. Yeomans

4th edition of this book since 1993. The first to be published outside Australia. Detailing the principles, techniques and systems for sustainable development of rural and urban landscapes. Keyline methods enable the rapid development of deep biologically fertile soil by converting subsoil into living topsoil. Keyline pattern cultivation enables the rapid flood irrigation of undulating land without terracing. Incidental results are the healing of soil erosion, bio-adsorption of salinity and the long term storage of atmospheric carbon in the soil as humus. The Keyline Scale of Permanence provides a priority guide to planning the various factors of broad scale development. This is a recommended text for Permaculture students. It includes updated selections and information; from P.A. Yeomans's The Keyline Plan (1954); The Challenge of Landscape (1958); (Water for Every Farm (1964 and 2nd edition 1968) and The City Forest (1971). www.keyline.com.au

Genres: Agriculture, Gardening, Nature, Nonfiction, Environment

366 pages, Paperback

First published June 3, 2008

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am giving this book 3 stars because it contained enough thought-provoking information to keep me reading, even though I don't yet have acreage.

But, this is really NOT an exciting book.

I really hope the author hires an editor for the next edition. This book could have been much shorter with some editing and keeping on topic per chapter and section. The author was probably trying to maintain the integrity of his father's original text from the 50's, but sometimes clear and concise is warranted to really deliver the intended message. There were also a lot of typos(misspellings), and some placement issues causing some of the images(plates)to be apart from the text that best described them. In some of these sections, a picture would have been worth a thousand words.

However, I am thankful Mr Yeomans is keeping his father's work out there. This is a fantastic system that I would LOVE to implement. I particularly enjoyed the sections on Keyline land planning, building dams, and the chapter on building soil.

[Nathan Titus · Rating 4 out of 5]

lots of great information here, but the book is written in such a dry textbook fashion that at times I had trouble retaining it. In order to apply these technique to my farming project, I will have to study this book in much greater detail. I think it will be more than worth it though. Water retention is crucial, and I LOVED the philosophy on soil growth/improvement, vs. "conservation." As human beings, we can choose to make the land better!

[Miquela]

I gave up on this because of how poorly it was written and edited. Pity because it promised to have good info. I MAY pick it up in the future, but at this point, I highly doubt it.

[Ben · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pro tip: start this book by jumping to the last quarter. That is where there is more practical examples and case studies. The first 3/4 of the book is quite dense and hard to follow - with some sections that go into excruciating detail on a very specific topic such as height and placement of survey pegs. Or which way to push dirt off a grader blade. Things that could probably be covered in a paragraph or two go on for pages. Plenty of sentences that just don't work as English grammar.

But this is an excellent resource for information about Keyline. There are lots of practical proven tips that are often missing from other farm/permaculture books. Remember that you need to work at this book to get at that information.

[Yngve Skogstad · Rating 2 out of 5]

Valuable concepts, but the author is simply not able to write a proper sentence. If you want to understand the basics of keyline design, just typing the appropriate searchwords into Youtube would be a much more productive way of going about.

[Mwalkes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I agree with the others; this really could use editing. The concepts are exceptional and very important for people to learn. More diagrams, better pictures, in addition to editing could make this book so much more valuable.