Hi Natalie and everyone,

Just my two cents on the various books:

The Designer's Manual was written before Introduction to Permaculture -- 
so I think there were some improvements in style as well as additions to 
the book. I didn't realize this at first -- I thought Introduction was 
just a boiled-down version of the Designer's Manual.

In other words, both are valuable, as much for the illustrations as the 
text. I do think the Designer's Manual is important for a detailed 
understanding of permaculture principles and the design process as 
Mollison conceived it. Also, if you plan to do any international 
development work or work in other climates, Mollison's work has a global 
focus. I think even if you aren't planning to do so, having this broader 
perspective is important.

The Edible Forest Gardens books are much more focused in terms of 
content. The emphasis is on temperate climate forest garden design and 
implementation, with a particular focus on  Eastern North America 
(though much is applicable elsewhere). If you're looking for lots of 
info on natual building, rainwater catchment, intensive annual 
gardening, animal systems, urban aquaculture, community LETs systems, 
etc., you won't find it here. It's not really an apples to apples 
comparison (more like apples to hardy kiwi).

However, Dave's books are much better written and organized than 
Mollison's, and volume two's design process section is worth the price 
of the set. In fact, you can easily apply this design process to the 
other aspects of permaculture (assuming you know what they are). Also, 
Dave and Eric Toensmeir's work on the tables at the end of the books is 
incredible, an invaluable resource for forest gardening at any scale. In 
short, their work is to forest gardening what I wish the Designer's 
Manual was to permaculture as a whole.

Lakis