Growing Herbs Organically For The First Time

by Susan Honeywell It can seem daunting to begin with an organic vegetable or herbal garden for the first time, but there are few better ways to be good to the planet while also being good to yourself and enjoying yourself. photo credit: themissiah As you may know organic herbs and vegetables are a better alternative than industrially grown ones, but they can be quite expensive. By setting up your own organic garden you will be able to have a fresh supply for a fraction

Organic Garden Fertilizer ” How to Worm Compost

by Rhonda Abrons Vermiculture is the fancy word for worm excretion which is worm compost. Heres how to do your own worm composting. Choose the Proper Container You will need a container at least 8 to 12 inches deep. Wood is better as it absorbs moisture and insulates the worms. A rectangular plastic container is often used, but the compost tends to be soggy. Aerate the bottom It is important to drill holes at least two inches apart all across the bottom of your container. If you ar

A Newbies Guide For Organic Gardening

Organic gardening is not as difficult as many beginning gardeners believe it is. It is true there is a bit more work and increased attention levels to the details of an organic garden than a regular garden. However, with the proper guidance you will soon discover it’s not anywhere near as difficult as you thought it was. This guide will provide you with the basic steps you need to get you started. Assuming you know little to nothing about organic gardening lets make certain you understand what

The New Complete Book of Self Sufficiency The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers

The New Complete Book of Self Sufficiency The Classic Guide for Realists and Dreamers

Make the break, realise the dream and start living ‘The Good Life!’ Packed with comprehensive information on all the practicals, from ploughing fields to milking cows, as well as new information on how to create an urban organic garden and harness natural energy. This new and revised full-colour edition of the illustrated classic is an engrossing read and a wonderful handbook for realists and dreamers alike.

User Ratings and Reviews

1 Star European skills
Not wishing to bash this book excessively. However this book is twice the price of much better and more complete books on the subject. Also it has a European author and is not based on traditional American skills. Very general and short on details. I recommend Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills, Third Edition. This book was also once published as “Back to Basics” by READERS DIGEST. Keep is mind that all these books teach principles and provide little in detail.. The Storey series are good too.. If you have time and a fast internet connect most of the info can be found on the many State extension service websites. Some books seem to copy these websites material..

1 Star Daydreaming for adults
The author does not deal with the major problem here, which is there aren’t enough hours in the day to do all of this. People who intend to escape a life of drudgery do NOT want to do this. We need to realize that even farmers are not “self-sufficient,” and this book does not describe the “old-fashioned way of doing things.”

I wonder, for example, how many of the readers have actually worked on a dairy, or taken care of a milk-cow. (I have.) You get to choose between 2x and 3x milking — that is, two times a day or three times a day. If it’s 2x, those times need to be 12 hours apart. 6 AM and 6 PM would work; so would 2 AM and 2 PM. Oh, and no holidays. This is the way to escape a life of drudgery, right?

But that’s just putting milk on the table. Do you want to churn your own butter, too? Better allow a good slice of time for that. Oh, and the toast you’re going to butter. Well, as “self-sufficient” people, that means you are running a wheat-field as well. No fair dropping by the grocery store and picking up a loaf of bread (which is what Real Wheat Farmers do, anyway).

The problem here is very simple. At least since the time of the agricultural revolution, people have been making progress through two things called Specialization and The Division of Labor. That means we can all do the things we do best, or like most. People who love growing wheat will do that (and buy their milk at the store). Other people may thresh the wheat, and it’s a near certainty that others will turn the flour into loaves of bread. This process makes everyone better off.

Still, it’s an amusing daydream. Just don’t take it too seriously, and add “making your own bricks” to your list of daily chores. In fact, trying to do this stuff will lead you straight to overwork, anxiety, hyperstress, and the poor-house.

3 Stars Actually not very useful; a disappointment.
I’ve been looking for a general self-sufficiency skills handbook to help me with the myriad tasks farm life requires, an aid to improvised problem solving in a very remote area where many of the old skills are dead or dying or unaffordable. Positive Amazon reviews pointed me to this revised classic. What I discovered is a far-ranging, beautifully-illustrated, weighty tome that somehow manages to answer very few do-it-yourself question with enough depth to be useful. The author lives in Ireland, and in some cases the materials available to him are almost impossible to find in America: osiers? Slashing hooks? Peat knives? So, here in the American west many of the suggested solutions are simply out of reach. And I was immediately suspicious of the less familiar chapters when I saw that the sections on animal husbandry cover just a few pages. This topic is perhaps the most demanding that a farmer can face, and many beginner’s guides are hundreds of pages long. This book leaves the reader with the misapprehension that keeping a hog is like keeping a stuffed bear. I think the subtitle should read: “a Classic Guide for Dreamers”, so as not to mislead the realists into thinking that this book actually proposes any farming solutions. The one thing it does perfectly is underline the fact that a small farm is an intensive, demanding, all-encompassing undertaking for which no amount of pretty pictures will ever suffice. I love the idea, and I enjoy flipping through the book, but don’t be fooled into thinking that there is much practicality to match the folksy wisdom in this book.

5 Stars Thank you
Thank you for the excellent book and delivery

from Vassie and Gordon

5 Stars Amazing!
This book helps you learn how to become completely self sufficient, from growing and storing your own food to making your own bricks to build with. For the people out there who like to do things the old fashion way, this book IS A MUST HAVE!

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Indoor Organic Gardens – Know These Tips Or Fail

For those of us that live in the country that have land to actually grow an organic garden on, there is no problem when it comes to having enough light, achieving the necessary temperature, and the proper amount of humidity. If you want to grow your organic food indoors, you need to know a [...] Related Articles: Organic Gardening to Save Money on Food Organic gardening is a great way to save some extra... Indoor Bonsai Basics One of the beautiful things about bonsai is that it...

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