Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre

If you want to start a vegetable garden in a small space, this is an excellent resource to get you started. Lots of in depth information on how to set up and design the garden as well as lots of do it yourself projects to be self sufficient. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to garden in a small space just for summer produce up to someone who wants to grow enough to can/freeze and sell. It is al in how much space you have to use.

This book was long on words but short on information, except the bizarre chapter on chicken killing and the chicken plucking machine. There are many other more useful books on the subject such as Backyard Farming.

This book is for first time people starting to look at self sufficiency. But i found the information limited and too basic. And limited to America only. If you want practical information, look elsewhere.

Good in some areas, and superficial in others. More depth needed on raised bed construction using various salvage materials needed. Also could use better detail on starting plants from seed, and building and using cold frames. I have never ever in my 69 yrs of experience seen or heard of planting potatoes whole. Chicken section good, but show designs for variety of houses, brood boxes, etc. Same for goat pens, garden layouts, etc. Also, need to discuss more on diseases, parasites and first aid for chickens, goats, etc. May be trying to cover too broad a field in a relatively small publication. Good detail in some areas, presumably those the author is more familiar with.

I'm impressed, which takes a lot. I have been a proponent of the Square Foot method. This book takes that method ( and others) to the nth degree. I have yet read it cover to cover, but based in my quick skimming, it looks to me like a mountain of information, condensed into 225 or so pages. Very interesting and highly recommend.

This book is an excellent choice for the serious gardener. It takes you through the planning, planting, care, harvesting, and preservation steps in detail. I know others that have this book as well and they love it as well.

Language is simple enough for me to understand. A lot of it is good old comman sense but things that one forgets about. It explains the hows, whys, and simplicity of heirloom farming. Very refreshing.

We are moving to the country to a small spot (a little less than 2 acres) and hope to become a more self-sufficient family. This appears to be an absolutely outstanding reference for such an undertaking.

I'm impressed, which takes a lot. I have been a proponent of the Square Foot method. This book takes that method ( and others) to the nth degree. I have yet read it cover to cover, but based in my quick skimming, it looks to me like a mountain of information, condensed into 225 or so pages. Very interesting and highly recommend.

This book is an excellent choice for the serious gardener. It takes you through the planning, planting, care, harvesting, and preservation steps in detail. I know others that have this book as well and they love it as well.

Language is simple enough for me to understand. A lot of it is good old comman sense but things that one forgets about. It explains the hows, whys, and simplicity of heirloom farming. Very refreshing.

We are moving to the country to a small spot (a little less than 2 acres) and hope to become a more self-sufficient family. This appears to be an absolutely outstanding reference for such an undertaking.

Very good content with poor pictures, badly taken and with low quality. I'm a new edition I would suggest to change many pictures and add diagrams, sketches and drawings to be more clear in many explanations.

I bought this book, because I wanted to know how to take my garden to the next step. But there is hardly anything in this book that I would qualify as actual gardening advise. There's some rather technical advise on how to provide vitamins and minerals to your ground, there's some on how to harvest seeds (but really not much), some rather un-concrete on making compost. But for all gardening advise, that is actually useful on a more down to earth sense, like choosing and growing seeds in to plants, concrete advise on garden planing and starting (except for "raised beds" which is actually walked through rather well), it is sadly short. It is a very short book, with few illustrations and little practical advise. What little is given, is given more like an afterthought, or a side remark like planting beans, squash and corn together will be beneficial for all three plants. The two stars are earned only for those occasional nuggets. Mostly, the author just refers his readers to other books, who actually (apparently) cover gardening.

What really takes the biscuit, is that it devotes all of three chapters from a very short book to raising chickens! Not that it is not interesting (except for the one chapter devoted solely to the making and using of a chicken plucker), but it is hardly gardening.
I suspect that the author actually has more than a 1/4 acre, since he has three humongous compost piles each year, that he recommends letting cure for 1-2 years each.

I haven't had time to read this book yet im in the middle of garden season and i am harvesting veggies and eggs in my back yd ive browsed thru parts of it and will be very use full read this winter when things cool down if your interested id check it out you will like it
talks about crop rotation seeds planting soil compost ect ect

Good introduction to farming coming from a first time vegetable gardener who has had modest success over 3 years of building up my soil quality using the suggestions in this book. Good illustrations, easy to understand concepts.

My dad has a hoop house and I got this for him. He has used some of the tips in this book about natural sources for fertilizer and common sense reuse/recycling sources for farming. Any small farm/beginning farmer should read this from cover to cover!

I read both the pro and cons review and decided to buy this book. I was totally impressed. I had been gardening the way my dad taught me, and his dad taught him. However, this book introduced some new concepts that just make sense. It is really highlightws the raised beds method, which I never really held much stock in. However, I'm a believer now! Please disregard the one star reviews. I found this to be a really good book and very helpful in updating my vegetable gardening methods.

Cool book! I always go back to this book for information. I like the tables very easy to interpret and I enjoy Brett's style of writing also, I kinda feel like I'm sitting on the patio overlooking the garden listening to Brett's easy going tips and suggestions.

it also makes a pretty nice coffee table book. and once again it's an invaluable resource book for this gardener.

Good introduction to farming coming from a first time vegetable gardener who has had modest success over 3 years of building up my soil quality using the suggestions in this book. Good illustrations, easy to understand concepts.

My dad has a hoop house and I got this for him. He has used some of the tips in this book about natural sources for fertilizer and common sense reuse/recycling sources for farming. Any small farm/beginning farmer should read this from cover to cover!

I read both the pro and cons review and decided to buy this book. I was totally impressed. I had been gardening the way my dad taught me, and his dad taught him. However, this book introduced some new concepts that just make sense. It is really highlightws the raised beds method, which I never really held much stock in. However, I'm a believer now! Please disregard the one star reviews. I found this to be a really good book and very helpful in updating my vegetable gardening methods.

Cool book! I always go back to this book for information. I like the tables very easy to interpret and I enjoy Brett's style of writing also, I kinda feel like I'm sitting on the patio overlooking the garden listening to Brett's easy going tips and suggestions.

it also makes a pretty nice coffee table book. and once again it's an invaluable resource book for this gardener.

I purchased this book because I wanted to eat what I grow. I didn't want the part about raising animals because I couldn't eat them if I raised my own. I thought it was informative and love the pictures, that's why I didn't purchase the kindle version.

Too much text and not enough pictures. Im sure there is a lot of information in it to read, I just hate reading that kind of information without pictures. I would recommend getting "Backyard Homestead Guide to Raising Farm Animals" if interested in farm animal. gives detailed info in text AND pictures.

The book is thick, but the information is not so much as it seems from outside. Words are typed in big, and they are sometimes to me, pedantic. The information falls everywhere, making me hard to grasp the idea quick.

I dont normally put 1 star for items from the store...

We have never grown up on a farm or with farm animals nor a garden except trying to grown some things here and there in the back yard or patio.

We have found better books. I would suggest baker creek books and they have there seeds and other books too. I would recommend The Small Scale Poultry Flock. And farming on an acre or less.
There are alot of other books out there. I will be returning this.

This is maybe the book for you if you got a thought in your head of homesteading and has never seen a farm or garden and want to know how to get started. This did nothing for my husband and I.

The book is thick, but the information is not so much as it seems from outside. Words are typed in big, and they are sometimes to me, pedantic. The information falls everywhere, making me hard to grasp the idea quick.

I dont normally put 1 star for items from the store...

We have never grown up on a farm or with farm animals nor a garden except trying to grown some things here and there in the back yard or patio.

We have found better books. I would suggest baker creek books and they have there seeds and other books too. I would recommend The Small Scale Poultry Flock. And farming on an acre or less.
There are alot of other books out there. I will be returning this.

This is maybe the book for you if you got a thought in your head of homesteading and has never seen a farm or garden and want to know how to get started. This did nothing for my husband and I.

For anyone with any vegetable gardening background this book will be they same stuff
you might find in any gardening book. I was hoping for more photos and personal details
of his experience with his mini-farm. Also, some topics are so barely touched upon that they
really should not have been included. Anyone with any vegetable gardening experience really should give this a pass.

Great Book! I found it to be quite informative as a "How To" on self sufficiency. Being a "City Boy", I never even realized how darn big one acre actually is. It is 10,800 square feet! So, a quarter of an acre is over 2,500 square feet! I would read up about a house being sold with a quarter acre of land, and I would think: "Only a quarter of an acre? That must be pretty small." WRONG. I would imagine that a heck of a lot of good food can be grown on a 1/4 acre, as this book so clearly points out.

Great book, I just don't care for the part on killing Chickens. I could never kill anything and certainly couldn't slaughter anything. I'm no vegetarian, but it's just a personal thing where that is concerned. I would however be one before I'd kill an animal myself or even watch it. Outside of that chapter the rest of the book is fabulous & has great ideas. It did also inform me as to what the chicken industry is doing in our country and it did influence how I will purchase eggs now and in the future. I would however like to comment that the section on raising chickens for eggs was much appreciated & could be useful to anyone. It includes what to feed them, how to house them, when to get the eggs from the nests, what to do to prevent vitamin difficencies etc.. The gardening part of the book is well thought out and is an easy read. Much information is included, including how to collect your own seed so you do not need to always purchase seeds every year which is awesome :o The book also tells you how to fertilize etc. I combined this book with techniques from Container Gardening and 4 Season Harvest & have had much success in a patio garden that is 14X8 and have never grown anything in my life. I've been eating fresh produce for the entire summer now, and have a fall garden currently growning so it has been great and will continue to be wonderful through the winter. I do not plan to always live in a condo so that is one reason why I went ahead and incorporated techniques from this book into my current gardening plan. It's an easy read and can be used in manhy ways other than out in the country :o)

I bought this book based on the reviews, while this may be a good jumping off point for someone who has never held a shovel, this isn't really any type of manual for self sufficiency. It's really too narrow of a scope to cover most topics in detail, although it does have some helpful tips and wonderful photos. I would recommend The Self Sufficient Life And How To Live It by John Seymour for a much more comprehensive look at what it takes to actually produce enough to be free of the grocery stores for good. This book would be great for a suburban dweller with a small property and who is looking at a small garden.

This book just seems to be like all the other books on this subject that are popping up left and right. The information is nothing new if you own any other books on the same topics. I was very disappointed. Personally, I value John Jeavons or John Seymour's books, or even The Backyard Homestead, when it comes to information, over this book any day. Also, some reviewers refer to it as a coffee table book. Although I agree somewhat, it is a very poor excuse for one. I can't emphasize enough how bad the photography is in this book. If the intent is to go through the time and expense of creating a full color book of pictures, at least hire a good professional photographer. Every chapter opens with a full two page spread of a cheesy, stock photo which is a waste of paper and ink. But the pictures in the chapters, which one would think would be the most important examples to illustrate the written instructions, are terrible. They are blurry, poorly lit, badly composed, and look as though they were taken with a cheap point and shoot or disposable camera. If I had seen this book in person, I would not have bought it.

This book reads like an extended eHow or About.com article. The basics of farming and raising poultry are presented, but the author rarely goes into detail about any given topic. Those topics that are dealt with at length are often tangential at best. (Cinder blocks are good garden liners, yes. I don't need a paragraph explaining that they are heavy and just how many linear feet can be fit into a pickup truck bed. And there is an ENTIRE CHAPTER devoted to the design of a chicken plucker.)

More alarmingly is the author's tendency to revert into a late-night infomercial tone, throwing out facts and figures while relying on questionable leaps of logic to justify his economic arguments. He extrapolates figures, such as a garden bed growing $5 per square foot of produce, to demonstrate that, gosh darn it, your backyard is worth over $10,000 a year and you might as well quit your day job. How these figures translate into actually selling the produce is left to the reader's imagination; there is vague talk of selling to restaurants, and "value-added products like pickles and salsas." I would appreciate a book detailing the economic realities of raising and selling produce. This isn't it.

Finally, the overall quality of the layout is cheap and bloated. Large text, large margins, small amateurish pictures, and the same full-page photo of seeds facing every chapter. All in all, a disappointment. Returned to the store.

Overall it wasn't the right book for our needs. I was also really surprised to see two chapters dedicated to chicken farming, including farming for meat. I am vegetarian so this unexpected material was an unpleasant surprise. The author does say to skip the two chapters if you are vegetarian, but I really prefer not to have to look at chicken plucking and slaughtering tips while flipping through the pages--I just wanted information about gardening on a small scale. I am returning it for something more general.

Great resource for any gardener. this book focuses more on cost effective methods for high productivity which should sing to any gardener no matter how big his/her garden is. I would highly recommend this book to anyone.

Mini Farming was for the most part an excellent book, well written with plenty of excellent ideas for organic gardeners. It covers a wide variety of topics and gives fair comments to alternatives. Another bonus was that the author mentioned by name various websites and companies that a gardener can go to for information and products. The author is also upfront with the sort of problems you can expect with organic gardening. One part of the book that did surprise me was the amount of organic fertilizer the author recommends. I have no issues with the kinds of fertilizers he uses, but the weight required per 100 square feet was much higher than I'd expected.

The book covers just about everything a gardener needs to know, including watering, raised beds, fertilizing, disease prevention and saving seeds. There are sections for particular kinds of trees, cane fruit, grapes, nut trees and raising chickens. All these topics are covered in just enough depth to give gardeners a start (a more in-depth approach to all these topics would take a library), and there is a short bibliography at the end of the book for readers who want more information.

I'm tempted to give this book five stars, except for one reason I feel very strongly on. The author states that meat, dairy products and carnivore feces can be safely composted for garden use, as can weed seeds and diseased plants. He has obviously done this for a number of years, so it works for him, but only with a compost heap that reaches high temperatures for an extended period of time. A compost pile might not reach the required temperature for the required number of days to totally eliminate pathogens. Given the danger involved with contaminated food, I feel the risks involved in including these items in a compost pile is not worth the benefit. Weed seeds and diseased plants aren't nearly as dangerous, but possibly infected your plants with last year's disease or accidentally sowing weeds in your garden is something to avoid.

That said, I feel the book is well worth the money paid for it, and I intend on keeping the copy in my library.

Instead, you should buy maximizing your minifarm, by the same author. Only $5 more, with literally the same content here, plus much more additional information on the specifics of planting and maintaining the farm. I understand why there are two books rather than one, but if I had to buy one, I'd buy the second, Maximizing Your Minifarm. Just thought I'd throw this out there as a heads up. Here's the book you should buy: http://www.the store.com/Maximizing-Your-Mini-Farm-Self-Sufficiency/dp/1616086106/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1396111833&sr=1-1&keywords=maximizing+your+mini+farm

Borrowed this from the library with expectations on how-to details across the spectrum of chapters. Most of the chapters lacked much depth into the topics and I felt it to be a general read without learning much. The book does cover raising and harvesting chickens in greater depth than the other topics, in case that’s something you’re interested in. The book has a few good tables on seeding timing, blanching timing for some vegetables, etc, as a quick reference, however I’ll be referring to other books for a clearer and deeper understanding on farming before moving forward with any plans. This just didn’t cut the mustard.

Mini Farming is a great book for beginning gardeners who want to maximize their output of nutrient-dense, organic food with minimal effort by growing intensively in properly amended, raised beds. Author Brett Markham focuses on organic methods and reducing expenditures as much as possible. Using his methods, a family can produce most of its own food and eventually produce enough to sell so that one parent can work from home if desired.

Markham introduces the reader to various intensive growing methods (e.g., French Intensive, Biodynamics, Grow Biointensive, Square Foot) and provides his own modification using within-row spacing of plants. He teaches how to build a raise bed, what soil to use, recommended amendments, trellising for vertical growth, acquiring seeds, growing from seed, transplanting, building compost, crop rotation, growing cover crops, extending the season, irrigation, dealing with pests and diseases, and growing fruits and nuts.

Markham writes: "Using traditional farming practices, it isn't even possible to raise food for a single person in a half-acre lot, but using intensive gardening techniques allows only half of that lot--1/4 acre--to provide nearly all the food for a family of four, generate thousands of dollars in income besides, allow raising small livestock plus leave space for home and recreation. Intensive gardening techniques are the key to self-sufficiency on a small lot."

Included are bonus chapters on keeping chickens, building a chicken scalder and plucker, storing and preserving food, and selling your extra produce. These chapters are very short and serve more as an introduction than in-depth coverage.

So if you're new to farming or think you need a lot of land to grow your own food, you can't go wrong with Mini Farming.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from the publisher.

What a book! It paints a logical, step-by-step picture of how you can build your garden, from starting a few raised beds and a compost pile, to all the factors that go into maintaining a healthy garden season after season, and even selling the excess once you've got the hang of gardening and built up your area after a few years. The explanations of how to do what and when feel thorough without being needlessly long - I wanted to just keep reading, and at the end felt ready for anything! He also explains the math behind various claims, such as the number of square feet needed to supply a certain percentage of your fruit, vegetable, and protein requirements for a year. (If you're not big on numbers, you can just skim over those parts and trust his conclusions, but I appreciated hearing how he figured it.) So far I've been looking at books such as this from the library since I don't have land yet, just a dream of a garden, but once I do have a place to start planting, this is the book I will buy first and refer to often.

...and what to is really what makes a garden succeed or fail. Mini Farming is pretty complete, putting a lot of current information all in one place. So that necessarily means it's long on theory, and unfortunately just a little short on practice. So Mini Farming is something of a reference, if that's what you're looking for. Do not expect to find short and to the point git-er-done tips. I agree with some of the author's advice (raised beds are the only way to go) and disagree with some of the advice (use the double dig method of cultivation- you've got to be kidding me!). So beginners could benefit from this book but will require additional sources of information, while experienced gardeners probably won't find enough new information to justify the cost or time spent wading through the book.

This came up as one of my the store recommendations and given the great reviews, I went ahead and gave it a shot. Totally not impressed. The pictures were dumpy, which I found irritating and the information seemed very top level. I love the topic and intent, but I wouldn't recommend this book.

A great many people these days are talking about being more self-sufficient, and many are planning on buying land in order to make this more feasible. Brett L. Markham's book Mini Farming promises food freedom with just 1/4 acre - significantly less than what most homesteading books suggest. So naturally, I couldn't wait to see how Markham does it.

Overall, I think Markham does an excellent job with this book, covering many areas other homesteading books neglect. He clearly grows or raises most of his family's food. Most - so I find the sub-title a little misleading. But if you're looking to grow produce and raise chickens for eggs - and if you especially want to do it on a scale so you don't have to buy either of those items and still have enough left over to sell, Markham's book is a definite must read.

First, let me explain my quibbles with the book.

Readers should know Markham uses an intensive gardening method. This shouldn't be too much of a surprise, since he suggests gardening on so little land. My only complaint, then, is that he fails to mention that without plenty of water and fertilizer, you're not going to be at all self-sufficient using intensive methods. In other words, while intensive gardening works well when water is plentiful and not too expensive, it fails miserably if there is a drought or the gardener can't afford to pay the water bill. And if there's no money to purchase the supplements for the soil Markham suggests, the garden isn't going to do well, either. A heads up to readers on this matter would have satisfied me.

Markham also repeats the old idea that vegetable garden rows come from "agribusiness" and have no place in a successful homesteading garden. But wide row gardening actually dates far back into history and was most likely adopted because vegetables grown far apart require far less watering. (Their roots spread out better, and it's easier for them to find water already in the soil.)

Markham also suggests planting one seed per hole, in order to save money on seeds. But he fails to mention that even the best seeds don't have a 100% germination rate. Certainly a gardener can follow his advice and have a fine garden, but they should be warned that not every seed will sprout.

But Markham does such a superb job in other areas, I can't help but recommend his book. For example, he may offer the best guide to starting a new bed that I've ever seen. He also gives some good, solid ideas of how big intensive gardens should be (700 square feet per person, in his estimation). He also provides great information on maintaining the soil in the garden, and even attempts to answer how many vegetable plants should be grown, using the USDA pyramid as a guide. He explains why growing grain on a small scale isn't economical. He teaches pest control through prevention first. He offers good advice on starting seeds on a big scale and discusses the difficulties of seed saving due to inbreeding in a relatively small garden. He covers cleaning eggs for sale, butchering meat chickens, and how to build a plucker and a thresher.

He briefly mentions graywater for irrigation; but here he should have mention that graywater (the dirty water from the washer, for example) can contain feces. (If you wash your undies, that is!) And that in many areas it's illegal to use graywater. He offers the basics of canning and covers freezing with a sealer. And - more briefly than I'd like - covers selling produce and eggs. He also does an excellent job of explaining soil tests and how to amend the soil so a garden can thrive.

So whether you just want a backyard veggie garden (and maybe some hens) or you want a 1/4 acre intensive garden, you're sure to learn something from Markham's personal experience, years in farming, and skill at making the complex simple and understandable.

Kristina Seleshanko
Proverbs Thirty One Woman @ blogspot.com

I have this book & LOVE it. I have recommended it to a lot of my 'hobby farming wanna be' relatives, friends and neighbors. The first time I saw this book was @ the library. I checked it out & was amazed at the quality of the paper and pictures in the book & I got so much information from this book that I wanted one to purchase for myself. If you only have a home with a yard and want to turn your back or side yard into a vegetable/fruit garden domain, don't start until you read this book. It lets you know the best places to put plants based on which way your home faces, North, South, East or West, and gives you some great things to think about when it comes to rotation, placement in the yard, etc. I'd recommend this for a great Christmas present to give, as it gives someone something to chomp their teeth into during the winter and come spring they are 'reved up and ready to go for the gusto'. I have pulled my flowers up in the back yard & turned my backyard into a vegetable garden jungle, including fruit trees & backyard chickens. I cann vegetables, homemade wine, and I have PLENTY of produce running out of my ears and this is only on a 8100 sq foot lot, including my home sitting on it. If you are wondering whether you can do it or not, just get this book, read it, and then jump in. YOU CAN DO IT!

I bought this book expecting a good general overview based on the cover and table of contents. In my opinion, Markham delivers exactly what the cover promises. Because he covers a lot of topics, the level of detail is broad and focused around general knowledge: gardening, raising poultry, food storage, etc.

In terms of criticism, the level of detail is sometimes at too high a level to be useful. At other times, the author goes very deep into tagental topics.

Overall, I liked the book and feel like I got my money's worth. I wouldn't recommend it to experienced farmers though. This book is best suited to someone who is just starting out on a mini-farming journey.

First off, buy Maximizing Your Mini Farm instead. It has most of the original books content plus more detailed info on individual crops. This book does have alot of information in it. however, im skeptical if the author actually puts what he preaches into practice. i believe he extrapolates alot of his claims from math as apposed to actual experience in regards as to the money you supposedly could make by selling your produce. he makes it seem as if he feeds his entire family from the garden but i never see a picture that tells me he has more than just a couple of raised beds in his yard. and on a side note, don't expect to hear back from they guy if you send him an email question.

Half way through the book and I dont know if I can read some of these ranting paragraphs anymore. I did just graduate from penn state with an ag science degree so I like reading books about others experiences with farming...yes the book has good basic information to help anyone get started. The downfall for me is some of the claims. Such as adding charcoal to the soil will help decrease soil acidity, increase biodiversity in the soil, and help with prevent global warming...this book doesnt take the extra step to explain anything. Yes charcoal will reduce acidity, but you would only add it if you NEED to lower the acidity. Do tou see farmers adding charcoal to their fields every year? Yes it could increase biodiversity IF your soil had a high pH. As for global warming...i dont think making a row of your plants and burning them in the garden bed is helping! You should add them to your compost piles and not burn off all of the biodiversity you were just talking about saving.
The next big one that ticked me off was only using cedar for garden boxes. A simple google search will show you that pressure treated wood has not had any harmful chemicals added to it since 2003! MANY universities have done extensive research and published papers explaing why pressure treated wood is safe for raised garden beds. O and kiling chickens in a mini farmng book...really?

I got this from the library and after reading about half the book decided that I needed to buy it. I'm amazed that a book printed on thick magazine stock is so inexpensive. Back to the content, the author farms in the northeast which mirrors my own climate, so I didn't need to evaluate the information through a USDA zone 6, 7, or 8 filter. When a subject is outside the scope of the book, a good reference is provided. Whether your aim is to expand your home garden or become a market grower, this book is a MUST HAVE!

Wow. I never realized that you could raise almost all the food you need to live on just one quarter acre of land--or earn thousands of dollars a year. This is a great book for getting started--clear, easy to read, step-by-step. It's really helpful about how to keep costs down and get the most from your efforts. The discussion of materials and tools is helpful too. Also, it has lots of color illustrations and diagrams to get you off the couch and out working your own little patch of Eden!

I thought that the author would have something innovative to say, and he doesn't...he sites a lot of math to back up his way of gardening, ...nothing new, or really interesting... square foot gardening is amazing--> this book is not...waste of money...

Awesome book, covers everything you need to garden in small areas and maximizes space. The book goes over every detail to get it setup and maintain. I have been readying tons of these types of books and this is the best one yet. with the price of food going through the roof and not to mention the genetically altered stuff they are putting in stores. Another book I really like is What Is Aquaponics: How to Master Aquaponics. This book answered all of my questions for setting up my backyard aquaponics tank. It is the most extensive book I have found on aquaponics yet.

I've read this book cover to cover three times now. I appreciated his practical economics, because a lot of gardening books just sweep that aspect under the rug. I appreciated a book that valued organic produce but also addressed the fact that not everyone is willing to pay a lot for it (my reason for growing my own in the first place).

It's like sitting down with the grandfather farmer you don't have and getting all of the practical advice you never had growing up in the suburbs. It's more substantive than the Backyard Homestead, however, definitely less pretty.

I would get this book and "Backyard Harvest" by Jo Wittingham to have a great marriage of information on farming. Mini-farming has the text, Backyard Harvest has the photos to visualize it and charts to implement it.

I loved the idea of this book. The cover and pictures were very attractive and really made me want to buy the book. Once I got the book home and started reading it I found fluff. There were too many pictures and it didn't say anything different than the other 20 books I had on the bookshelf. This was pretty but just not one of the must haves that gets to take precious space in the bookshelf. I returned it.

I purchased a previous book on the subject from the author in 2006. Was very pleased with how everything was presented as I was a complete beginner in this area. I have not read this new edition so I base my opinion on my own experiences. If Brett has expounded on his writings from 2006 with additional information from more trials this book should be exceptional. Again, this is just my humble opinion and I'm sure others have resources they say are better. Fine, this author has proven himself to me as one who knows and cares about what he presents. To me, that is what truly matters. If you follow his planning, your family will benefit.

This book is a real lightweight. Written poorly. Idiosyncratic ideas and questionable logic. Plays loose and fast with the numbers. And the self-sufficiency on 1/4 acre parts is complete rubbish, unless you are growing cannibus sativa or papaver sominifiurm.

I've been working on a self sufficient garden for a while and have ordered and bought many books but this one and Homesteading are the single best ones on the subject. they allow you to fully understand what you need to know in layman's terms and has been so helpful to me and my family I'm constantly turning back to it as my reference guide. Don't waste your money on other books buy this one and homesteading and you wont need any others.

I have to say I didn't think that this book would be a fun read. I was completely wrong! Not only was this book informative but it was highly addictive. The author does an excellent job of explaining a complicated process in everyday common sense directions. The pictures are a great help and he has a good sense of humor. I highly recommend this book for any one interested in farming or homesteading. Spending thousands of dollars on equipment and land will do you know good if you do not possess the knowledge and skills for self-sufficiency. This book is worth its weight in gold.

I bought this book expecting it to be a detailed outline of how to utilize a quater acer, the key word being DETAILED. This book gives a vauge overview of how to use your land, with little details. If you are looking for a book with plans and diagrams on how to build the garden beds, compost bins and chicken coops... THIS IS NOT THE BOOK FOR YOU. If you are one of those people (which I am NOT) who can build things from a "general idea" then this would be a wonderful book of "general ideas". I was dissapointed in the book... it came with such high reviews! It is a larger print book (a plus) and the full page glossy pictures are nice, but I was looking for a book with PLANS in it, not general ideas! I already have the "general" idea lol, I needed PLANS and SKETCHES! argh!

The book was mostly common sense stuff. If you were raised in the country, you know most of this. There were some useful things: Chicken Tractor and the chicken plucker. Overall this book was a very good reference guide.

Would I buy it again?
Yes.

Brett is very thorough, almost to the point where it's too much detail to know how to farm in your own yard.

If you had zero knowledge about gardening and all you had was some seeds and a bit if land on a stranded island this book has everything you need to make it.

This is quite an excellent book for a beginner, however not everything in this book is 100% accurate so watch your facts. Point in case, pears have a good amount of pectin in them. And yet this book sadly states that it does not. I found that this book was quite informing until it moved from gardening to the other topics, that is where the facts started to become interesting. All in all it is still a great read and I do recommend it.

This book looks good from the outside and is just as good on the inside. It has lots of great details on how much you can grow in a small space, intensive planting and the benefits of planting cover crops to increase soil nitrogen levels for next years crops.

This is a very helpful book with useful and pertinent information. The suggestions and steps to follow are realistic and doable. The photos are informative and beautiful to look at. I found the information regarding plant yields especially helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. Full of info, great pictures to keep your interest, but if you live in the southwest as I do, where it can get up to 120 degrees in the summer, then I would go for Dave Owens 'Extreme Gardening' book.
Daves book focuses on gardening in the hostile deserts with high alcali soil and intense heat. As a resident of Scottsdale, this had been most helpful.

This was such a nice read. I finished the whole book in a week. I recommend this to anyone interested in starting their own garden. I have already put into use the knowledge I attained from this book. Great reference guide too.

By putting things into manageable arraignments in a system I feel like I can live with. i will go and buy a daily planner tomorrow, and finally get on with the game plan. it's cool how just a couple of simple tools can make it so clear.

This is a book that should have been written years ago, just what is needed for people who are fed up with modern life and want to live harmoniously and get some real satisfaction in life. I tried self sufficiency 30 years ago and it was tough and I failed. I wish this book had been around then.

The book was mostly common sense stuff. If you were raised in the country, you know most of this. There were some useful things: Chicken Tractor and the chicken plucker. Overall this book was a very good reference guide.

Would I buy it again?
Yes.

Brett is very thorough, almost to the point where it's too much detail to know how to farm in your own yard.

If you had zero knowledge about gardening and all you had was some seeds and a bit if land on a stranded island this book has everything you need to make it.

This is quite an excellent book for a beginner, however not everything in this book is 100% accurate so watch your facts. Point in case, pears have a good amount of pectin in them. And yet this book sadly states that it does not. I found that this book was quite informing until it moved from gardening to the other topics, that is where the facts started to become interesting. All in all it is still a great read and I do recommend it.

This book looks good from the outside and is just as good on the inside. It has lots of great details on how much you can grow in a small space, intensive planting and the benefits of planting cover crops to increase soil nitrogen levels for next years crops.

This is a very helpful book with useful and pertinent information. The suggestions and steps to follow are realistic and doable. The photos are informative and beautiful to look at. I found the information regarding plant yields especially helpful.

I really enjoyed this book. Full of info, great pictures to keep your interest, but if you live in the southwest as I do, where it can get up to 120 degrees in the summer, then I would go for Dave Owens 'Extreme Gardening' book.
Daves book focuses on gardening in the hostile deserts with high alcali soil and intense heat. As a resident of Scottsdale, this had been most helpful.

This was such a nice read. I finished the whole book in a week. I recommend this to anyone interested in starting their own garden. I have already put into use the knowledge I attained from this book. Great reference guide too.

By putting things into manageable arraignments in a system I feel like I can live with. i will go and buy a daily planner tomorrow, and finally get on with the game plan. it's cool how just a couple of simple tools can make it so clear.

This is a book that should have been written years ago, just what is needed for people who are fed up with modern life and want to live harmoniously and get some real satisfaction in life. I tried self sufficiency 30 years ago and it was tough and I failed. I wish this book had been around then.

If you are an experienced gardener, this book has almost nothing to offer. Aside from how to butcher a chicken, that is. I did learn about that, and how to pluck said dead bird. The rest of the book was an overview of gardening, few specifics for the experienced, and overall a book of little depth. Glad I got a library copy and didn't waste my money.

I'm a novice farmer, and have found this book EXTREMELY informative and helpful.

While I worked on a farm as a kid and had a tiny bit of knowledge, this book has opened my eyes to the wonders of mini-farming and worded in an easy-to-understand way.

I told my Uncle who lives in Northern California and has a "Mini-Farm" in his backyard about this book, and a week after buying it he was raving about all the changes that he had made and that this book was taking his garden to heights he didn't think we possible!

For me personally, the information on which seeds to use and how to pick them, along with improving your soil was the biggest help to me, and I'm sure that this book will take me from a novice to a professional in no time.

I could have just borrowed this from the library. It's not a keeper for someone who lives as far north as I do - Calgary Alberta Canada. Our season is too short for a lot of his recommendations. The author could/should have used different photographs as his chapter headers. His charts of seeding and planting out dates could be very valuable to someone living further south. There not much guidance in here on compost tea use or microbes, or soil sampling.

It looks like a nice book and unless it was very small I don't remember it arriving.
However I have been very ill and someone might have taken it for me from the delivery person and I forgot about it. This is a topic I have been very interested in, a lot like the French Intensive method of double digging in gardening in a small spot. With these techniques one can even grow much food on a very small spot, like even a 6x8 foot terrace in a city. I have liked this subject and assume the book arrived and was put away for me somewhere.

This was a great buy for me, I am just getting into gardening in my yard and this book was extremely helpful. It shows you how to build a raised bed and some ways to maximize crop yields. Even if you are not interested in mini farming this is a great book you can use for fruit and vegetable gardening

If I purchased this product I never received it. Have not read it anywhere either.

I had forgotten I ordered the Kindle edition. it is on my Kindle. Haven't read it yet but looking forward to reading it.

I didn't realize that the author had a league of these books on subtly different subjects. I am not enthusiastic about survey courses. I need to examine it more closely when I have free time. Yeah, right, free time.

Very disappointed with this publication. There is so little usable information. Why did anyone write, publish and print this useless book.
If you know anything about gardening or farming this will do nothing for you. I was hoping for information on intensive gardening but was not useful.

If you are an experienced gardener, this book has almost nothing to offer. Aside from how to butcher a chicken, that is. I did learn about that, and how to pluck said dead bird. The rest of the book was an overview of gardening, few specifics for the experienced, and overall a book of little depth. Glad I got a library copy and didn't waste my money.

I'm a novice farmer, and have found this book EXTREMELY informative and helpful.

While I worked on a farm as a kid and had a tiny bit of knowledge, this book has opened my eyes to the wonders of mini-farming and worded in an easy-to-understand way.

I told my Uncle who lives in Northern California and has a "Mini-Farm" in his backyard about this book, and a week after buying it he was raving about all the changes that he had made and that this book was taking his garden to heights he didn't think we possible!

For me personally, the information on which seeds to use and how to pick them, along with improving your soil was the biggest help to me, and I'm sure that this book will take me from a novice to a professional in no time.

It looks like a nice book and unless it was very small I don't remember it arriving.
However I have been very ill and someone might have taken it for me from the delivery person and I forgot about it. This is a topic I have been very interested in, a lot like the French Intensive method of double digging in gardening in a small spot. With these techniques one can even grow much food on a very small spot, like even a 6x8 foot terrace in a city. I have liked this subject and assume the book arrived and was put away for me somewhere.

If I purchased this product I never received it. Have not read it anywhere either.

I had forgotten I ordered the Kindle edition. it is on my Kindle. Haven't read it yet but looking forward to reading it.

I didn't realize that the author had a league of these books on subtly different subjects. I am not enthusiastic about survey courses. I need to examine it more closely when I have free time. Yeah, right, free time.

Very disappointed with this publication. There is so little usable information. Why did anyone write, publish and print this useless book.
If you know anything about gardening or farming this will do nothing for you. I was hoping for information on intensive gardening but was not useful.

The cover of this book give me the impression that it was a beautiful book inside, but when I received it and flipped through it, I was shocked at how poorly done it was. What is the deal with using the same crappy 2-page stock photo at the beginning of each and every chapter? Also, the format is over-sized for no good reason, as is the font. This book could easily be reduced in size by 50% and the money saved spent on hiring an art director who actually knows what the hell he's doing. As for content, there is nothing new here. The author is a self-proclaimed polymath who's a jack of all trades and clearly a master of none.

Save your money. Seriously.