breelandwalker:ean-amhran:falanx:whoreofabaddon:onlyashremains:whoreofabaddon:thegikitiki:Self Suffi
breelandwalker:ean-amhran:falanx:whoreofabaddon:onlyashremains:whoreofabaddon:thegikitiki:Self Sufficiency, 1970sThis is actually kind of like what I’m doing, except my animals aren’t for meat.There’s actually a great book I found (of course you probably already either have it or know the material it covers) called The Backyard Homestead. It’s a good resource for anyone who wants to do this, regardless of the size plot of land you have. It covers planting seasons, canning, livestock, etc. but also has several plot layouts like the one above based on different yard sizes.For example, if you have 1/10 acre:I actually have several hundred acres to work with right now, but I would still be very interested in reading that. Thank you for the recommendation!I have a few friends who have significantly less land but would be interested in doing some self sufficient farming. Also, I like to read everything I can on subjects, because you never know where you’re going to discover great advice. I will see if I can add it to my amazon wishlist for the next time I get a gift card!I’ve read The Backyard Homestead and it’s great! Second the recommendation.Also, this made me think of this, although it’s not entirely in the same vein: A Pattern Language is a book about architecture, mostly, but also building communities and increasing efficiency and self-sufficiency. I highly recommend it for anyone who is trying to build their own homestead, house, or intentional community. It’s pretty expensive, so I when I want to read it I borrow it from the local university library, but if you’ve got some spare funds it’s a truly incredible book. My father has worked in community-building & civic leagues (and lived on a farm) for most of his life and it’s one of his #1 recommendations as well. It’s just a really amazing and interesting book. @onlyashremainsI have The Backyard Homestead and I can’t recommend it enough. It’s been my top book for planning out my Garden these last couple of years and I’d probably be lost without it. If you’re seriously interested in this kind of stuff, I would also recommend 5 Acres and Independence, too… Even if you don’t have 5 acres to spare, I found the information invaluable, and the information in it is definitely adaptable to whatever sized plot you can spare. Getting more specifically into the Gardening and Farming aspects, I have a few more suggestions for reading material: Pirating Plants is about Propagation, grafting, and Seed Saving; it’s old but it’s solid and I definitely recommend it if you want to Garden on the cheap- especially when it comes to “larger than average” farming. The New Complete Guide to Gardening by Better Homes and Gardens. Despite focusing mostly on your typical garden flowers, it does have some great information in it about a few Herbs and Fruit varieties, and all around has a lot of valuable information in it. The Complete Illustrated Book of Herbs by Reader’s Digest, as well- though this one is obviously about Herbs specifically. But it covers basic remedies, culinary uses, planting, harvesting and storing, and a lot of other information.I also have The Backyard Homestead, as well as The Complete Illustrated Book of Herbs, and I’ve found both to be extremely useful in my gardening and in planning my future house’s yard plots. I’m also looking into picking up a number of books on forest gardening and building simple greenhouses. -- source link