Product Description

The complete illustrated guide to planning, growing, storing and preserving your own garden produce from 'the grand master of self-sufficiency' (Kitchen Garden), John Seymour John Seymour’s classic guide gives you the knowledge and expertise to create your own self-sufficient garden and produce what you need. Whatever the size of your space, discover how to garden organically and maximise your harvest, without the need for radical changes to your lifestyle. From cultivating vegetables to making cider, keeping chickens to training vines, you’ll garden in tune with the seasons, growing for the year, eating for today and storing for tomorrow. No specialist knowledge required: just clearly explained principles and practicalities ideal for any gardener.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8036 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 256 pages

About the Author
John Seymour, the acknowledged founding father of the self-sufficiency movement, was an active campaigner for the countryside and the environment. Students come from around the world to learn about his lifestyle & philosophies at the centre he established in southern Ireland. He died in 2004.

Customer Reviews

review
A great book full of knowledge. Similiar to his complete book of self-sufficiency but goes into veg growing etc in plenty of detail. This is a complete guide for someone starting and already started with gardening. Something you will have to hand from season to season.

One book you have to own
If you even have a slight leaning towards 'self sufficient' lifestyle, this book is invaluable.
Well laid out and illustrated as you would expect from DK, but stuffed with useful information from the one and only John Seymour.
Buy this book, The Complete Guide to Self Sufficiency and The Fat of Land and will have all you need to know about this way of life.

Dated, but still an inspiration
This is a reprint of Seymour's 30 year-old classic with its still-inspirtional illustrations, but with a text that is out of date in so many ways. What is out of date is that there is no account in this book of recent technical developments and advances in our understanding of plants, soil microbiology and the environment (the book has a pre-Permaculture view of the world) and also the naive presentation of insecticides and other garden chemicals that organic gardeners would no longer sanction. Also, there is no reference, of course, to climate change and other pressures on the global and local environment and economies which make food self-sufficiency an imperative, not just a lifestyle choice.

Get this book for its timeless inspiration (where it is in a class of its own), but complement it by looking elsewhere - preferably in books on Permaculture written for your part of the world since 2005 (i.e. taking into account peak oil and climate change) for practical guidance. For example, books by Toby Heminway, Aric McBay, David Holmgren, Patrick Whitefield, Bill Mollison. Also, join your local Permaculture or organic gardening group to round out your practical knowledge and enrich your worldview.