Reddit's favorite alternatives to Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition

Because I'm an asshole.

Because every storm cloud ought to have a silver lining....

Brexit + XR

We all know that economic downturns are the fastest, surest way to reduce carbon emissions.

Everything seems to be claiming that a hard Brexit will cause an economic crisis in Britain. That may well spread.

So maybe Boris is giving XR exactly what they actually wanted. The economic downturn (or crash) that will reduce, perhaps drastically Britain's carbon emissions.

Stay fed.

However you can.

Buy this book: The vegetable gardener's bible. It will guide you through everything.

And if you intend to have vegetables next spring. Buy the book now and start working your garden now ! So it will be ready next spring.

The great news is your goals and dreams are super realistic. Even a home on the smallest amount of land can be turned into a farm.

There are lots of good books on the subject, but check this one out.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0865717656/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_P6xlFbG6FJHFF

Personally, I've turned my small lot into raspberries, strawberries, blueberries and grapes. All super low maintenance and all super rewarding with how much they produce.

Start with this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Four-Season-Harvest-Organic-Vegetables-Garden/dp/1890132276/ref=asc_df_1890132276/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=266037656293&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=13938220152505893121&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hv...

That’s shredded newspapers!

Check out this YouTuber and this book!

JoeGardenerTV

Mycelium Running

I had the original as a kid. It was my favorite bathroom book.

https://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1629143693/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=5CIV2W3R3CAH&keywords=back+to+basics&qid=1666216249&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIzLjEwIiwicXNhIjoiMi43NCIsInFzcCI6IjIuNDYifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=back+to+ba...

Back to Basics

Hey there! So the broad fork is a tool used by a lot of organic and no-till/low-till to avoid conventional tilling and more destructive practices. After a few seasons of broad forking and proper compost amendments a lot of growers find the soil structure has improved so much they can retire the broad fork. The broad forks loosens the soil to about 8-9inches, but it doesn’t churn or turn it. Doesn’t destroy soil organisms and doesn’t expose underground carbon to the air, thus stopping the soils ability to sequester carbon.

I highly recommend doing some reading into the broad fork, or grelinette as it’s originally known as. Definitely check out The Market Gardner by Jean-Martin Fortier, a well known organic no-till farmer from Quebec. And The Living Soil Handbook by Jesse Frost, a well-known no-till farmer from Kentucky, he is also the host of the No-Till Market Garden podcast and YouTube channel.

Both sources talk about no-till/low-till and how the broad fork/grelinette fits in to those systems.

My personal background is in organic/sustainable production horticulture and ag.

https://www.amazon.ca/Market-Gardener-Successful-Handbook-Small-Scale/dp/0865717656/ref=asc_df_0865717656/?tag=googlemobshop-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=292984809546&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5254386317196992908&hvpone=&hvptwo=...

https://www.notillgrowers.com/livingsoilhandbook/d9z5gkf1bbnhu0w5xxb3trngiqhwgo

Fair enough, I am also slowly getting things ready. But I am also flying on a bit of faith for the moment.

I do not think we can organize and change the political and economic system at this moment.

Maybe we can when things begin to really fall apart and people are looking to change things. But at this moment, I'm simply working on things I can control. Learning skills. Learning how to grow food.

I bought this book, you may find helpful.

But realistically, what do you think can be done to get us to alter course before disaster comes ? I am not able to come up with much myself on that topic.

Gaia's Garden is a great book about planning and designing your garden space with permaculture principles. I've been enjoying it.

This book gave me a ton of info on a ton of stuff. It’s my first point of reference and inspiration.

Not that I’m a pro, mind you! I was a dreamer, a dabbler, and now I consider myself a beginner. Ah the many stages of being completely inexperienced!

After reading old a bunch of old Kitchen Gardener issues (sadly, no longer in circulation as of 2001) I was desperate to have a kitchen garden of my own. If you can find even one copy, it'll make you drool with excitement.

Also, The Vegetable Gardener's Bible offers a lot of inspiration and a wide range of edible plant advice.

As an individual it’s a lot of hard work. Just veggies, you can, if you have fertile soil and a good water supply, feed yourself on roughly three acres. The biggest problem with that type of farming are grains and livestock.

If, for example, you decided to raise swine, you may be able to “trade “ pork for grains and/or silage.

This and a couple of other of Abagail Ghering’s books are an excellent introduction:

https://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1629143693/ref=sr_1_3?crid=3MW5PGCA2XZUT&keywords=abigail+ghering&qid=1650766719&s=books&sprefix=abagail+ghering%2Cstripbooks%2C113&sr=1-3

You are asking for beginners, I get that. But what if you could make one purchase and then not have to buy more books as time progresses? The Vegetable Gardeners Bible by Ed Smith is excellent.

Always always have a cash emergency fund. Read and practice personal finance first, even if your job is paying well you have to know how to really manage money and actually prepare for retirement and old age.

The “Dad, How Do I?” YouTube channel is amazing for learning self sufficiency.Dad

I like the book “Back to Basics” about skills everyone should know. Limited-time deal: Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills (Back to Basics Guides

I would highly recommend at least checking some of the ideas by this guy and his great book:

Jean Martin Fortier - The Market Gardener

“Grow better not bigger with proven low-tech, human-scale, biointensive farming methods

Making a living wage farming without big capital outlay or acreages may be closer than you think. Growing on just 1.5 acres, Jean-Martin and Maude-Helene feed more than 200 families through their thriving CSA and seasonal market stands. The secret of their success is the low-tech, high-yield production methods they've developed by focusing on growing better rather than growing bigger, making their operation more lucrative and viable in the process...”

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World. Even the character Paul Staments, is named after the author of this book.

Star Trek has been borrowing theories and turned it into tech for the show since the start, the spore drive is no different, its just different.

There’s a book, Carrots Love Tomatoes, and it has diagrams.

Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580170277/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_Y8CVNXCQ98YXR3ZJH85H

>I wish I knew how to grow indoors over our snowy winters. Something to learn I suppose.

If you have outdoor space, you can still grow outside using low tunnels and row covers. This book taught me how:

Four-Season Harvest

I highly recommend it. This guy grows year round in Vermont. I mean, you can't grow tomatoes year round but you can easily supply your greens and other cold tolerant vegetables. Pretty cool method.

Give this a read:

https://www.amazon.com/Paradise-Lot-One-Tenth-Making-Edible/dp/1603583998/ref=sr\_1\_1?crid=SUWPH2OQ9LPH&dchild=1&keywords=paradise+lot&qid=1634099830&sprefix=paradise+lot%2Caps%2C264&sr=8-1

Book: Gaia’s Garden, link below (don’t buy it from Amazon).

https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1603580298

YouTube: edible acres (link below) is my favorite but there’s a bunch more out there. They’re a little all over the place but their playlists help tame the madness.

Once you start to get ideas about things from the book or edibleacres or elsewhere, just Plug the terms into YouTube and you’ll find an insane amount of information.

https://youtube.com/user/EdibleAcres

There was a book I read awhile ago called Paradise Lot where the guys used certain plants to leech the toxicity from the soil where it had been contaminated by lead, etc.

Super interesting idea!

Gaia's Garden is the only permaculture book I use, but it is a general overview of everything related to permaculture, including food forests. I learned most of everything I know about permaculture / food foresting from Permaculture.com
just by talking to others, asking questions there,etc.

The basic methods and concepts of food foresting are the same everywhere from what I've seen. A good reason to have a book on it though is simply to have a portable version of those methods and concepts so you don't have to get to a computer to find out,say, if Siberian Pea Shrub is a nitrogen fixer or not,etc.

That said, I am sure this guy's method is just as good as anyone else's, but the same information can be found here and there if you piece it together yourself, the advantage of following a program is that it is packaged for easy digestion, I'm cheap, so I taught myself.

Yes, there's a good book on this. The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming https://www.amazon.com/dp/0865717656/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glc_fabc_X864GB7VGS8M5F1R2J9Y?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1

From what I've seen, cut flower gardening is more profitable than vegetables, mainly because it's more difficult. I'd start with what you know, and expand from there.

Depends on what you are looking for re: mushes.

This book by Paul Stamets is considered the Bible on mushrooms and how they work. It’s also easy to read and pretty quick to get through. There’s also an awesome doc on Netflix rn “Fantastic Fungi”

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World https://www.amazon.com/dp/1580085792/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_glt_fabc_3G3HWJATYDCARDCC7FYZ

If you are interested in identification, find a book that is as hyper local to your region as possible. Mushroom ID is hard, and the same species of mushroom can present wildly different depending on its age and region.

Are you sure that book is by John Jeavons and not Eliot Colman?

I see this book by that title: Four-Season Harvest: Organic Vegetables from Your Home Garden All Year Long, 2nd Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/1890132276/ref=cm_sw_r_apan_glt_fabc_QGF3Y7MXQ3FK6KNG3W4F

I see a handful of books by John Jeavons, mostly editions of "How to grow more vegetables"

Thanks.

honestly that's an awesome yard and you have allot to work with.

If I were you i'd also pick up a copy of gaia's garden and use some of the permaculture principles to come up with some long term goals/projects that you can work on gradually.

https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1603580298

Maybe also head over to r/Permaculture once you've looked into it a bit and gather some other recommendations too!

I too recently, by happenstance, came across a book written by a Paul Stamets about the mycelial network and I had a little giggle.

Gaia's Garden by Toby Hemenway is a great book on permaculture (read: nature + agriculture style gardening) that he will either love or be meh on, but it does have a cult following around the world.

For the Korean face sheet masks, I'd recommend steering clear of anything like snail face masks that might spook her. I got her the Celavi Collagen face masks specifically, but there's tons more to choose from.

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save The World by American mycologist Paul Stamets. This book is full of hope, fascinating science, and a positive philosophy.

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills

I will for sure! Will likely post to /r/homesteading, but that's not for a while to come yet, haha.

A book that is well worth reading for small scale farming is The Market Gardener. Although much of this book is geared towards food production for sale, there is a wealth of information in there about how to manage weeds, improve soil, and maximize production without any use of synthetic additives (fertilizers, herbicides, etc).

To reduce your weed pressure, you might consider placing a large, black tarp over your growing area for a period of time. If you cover for 2 weeks, that should be enough time for many weed seeds to germinate, but then fail to grow because of lack of sun.

Just something to consider to work smart instead of hard!

This book will guide OP through some winter growing. OP’s got the right idea sealing the greenhouse up right. The pieces they are missing are, variety selection, and timing. You can harvest arugula, spinach, chard, kale, leeks, scallions, carrots, turnips, etc all winter long. You just have to get them up to 75% fully grown by the time your Persephone period starts. After that it doesn’t matter if it’s too cold there just isn’t enough sunlight for any appreciable growth.

I agree on hard copies. No equipment needed, and durable enough to be passed on to others. My favorite is “Back to Basics”, by Readers Difest.

Readers Digest: Back To Basics

Definitely check out this book:

Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World https://smile.amazon.com/dp/1580085792/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Gv.mFb63D38F5

Paul Stamets is the king of mushroom horticulture and this book is a great introduction to this fascinating hobby. I grew oyster and shiitakes for years and it is indeed a lot like brewing. A lot of the same contamination issues, so it’s a lot of cleaning and fussing about little critters you can’t see. The only reason I stopped is that my wife hates mushrooms and she wouldn’t eat them. She likes my beer though.

Once you get your mycelium cultures going you can grow oysters completely for free. 50/50 spent coffee grounds and cardboard. I used to get the grounds from Starbucks and the cardboard from their recycling bin. It is extremely satisfying to see delicious food growing straight out of garbage.

This book is like the homestead bible!

Back to Basics: A Complete Guide to Traditional Skills (Back to Basics Guides) https://www.amazon.com/dp/1629143693/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_5-klFbAQAYCGC

Such a great resource for so many things!!

Vegetable Gardeners Bible, by Ed Word....A to Z vegetable guide, how to build and fill beds, weeding, composting, ect ect ect.

https://www.amazon.com/Vegetable-Gardeners-Bible-2nd-R-D/dp/160342475X

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.amazon.com/Carrots-Love-Tomatoes-Companion-Successful/dp/1580170277&ved=2ahUKEwjCudi9n9zlAhULrZ4KHdLZD1IQFjALegQIAxAB&usg=AOvVaw3D2HYBuuOmjFgxm5qjqO59

You might want to look into the food-forrest concept that originated in the tropics, harnessing biodiversity, etc. Most of the books I know about are about trying to apply the techniques in temperate regions, though.

https://www.amazon.com/Gaias-Garden-Guide-Home-Scale-Permaculture/dp/1603580298/

This will be harder if you are trying to do it all in pots, though.

Some of it comes down to how much are you willing to "share"

Let us know how things go.

A small yard can still grow a lot of food. I'd recommend a book called Carrots Love Tomatoes, and it will help you to design a space that can support a more dense garden :)

It's not necessarily a survival guide but this has been a staple in my library for basic stuff and its a great easy read. https://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1629143693/ref=pd_lpo_sbs_14_t_0?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=JRA6ZK4QFMRCW0KAB1KE

The Market Gardener: A Successful Grower's Handbook for Small-Scale Organic Farming https://www.amazon.com/dp/0865717656

It's focused on food crops you can grow at home (even in very small plots) but the techniques of gardening for high yield per area are extremely useful.

If you get some heirloom crops you like, this would be a great way to get started while giving you a great long term growth strategy.

I've really been studying winter gardening techniques this fall - two big take aways are double covering makes the best microclimate, and go for cold hearty vegetables like cabbages, lettuce, turnips, radish, etc. I've got radish and cabbages too, but they weren't as photogenic that day ;)

Check out this book https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Harvest-Handbook-Deep-Organic-Greenhouses/dp/1603580816/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544626457&sr=8-1&keywords=the+winter+harvest+handbook+by+eliot+coleman

I've been reading it cover to cover!

I second what u/Lo452 is saying here.

There's a big difference, I think, between making money off of the property and growing for self-sufficiency/diversity. If I were to land a property like that, I'd totally turn it into a permaculture heaven: lots of perennials: trees, bushes, leafy greens, vines, etc. Check out the book "Paradise Lot: Two Plant Geeks, One-Tenth of an Acre, and the Making of an Edible Garden Oasis in the City".

Mushrooms could be a great business: high price point and low foot print. Also consider micro-greens. A friend of mine grows them out of a south-facing window in her house and she sells at the farmers market every week.

thank you for your reply it always seems like there is way more to consider than trying to get a straight answer. Ill keep this in mind In the market garden book https://www.amazon.com/Market-Gardener-Successful-Handbook-Small-scale/dp/0865717656/ref=sr_1_sc_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1529224875&sr=8-1-spell&keywords=nmarket+garden

he states that a well wont cut it and you should be thinking about making a pond as a reservoir. It didnt really state how many gallons you would get out of it but I know my city doesn't like ponds or even big water holding tanks

Check out Mycelium Running by Paul Stamets. He also has a great Ted Talk.

I'm a huge myco-nerd.

Valid point re: squash. But for other veggies, I liked this book:

https://www.amazon.com/Winter-Harvest-Handbook-Deep-Organic-Greenhouses/dp/1603580816/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1504882936&sr=1-5&keywords=winter+garden

I just purchased the updated and revised 4th edition earlier this year at my local Tractor Supply Co. but I never read any of the earlier versions to give a comparison. Edit: Correction, I have the 3rd edition which is available on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1602392331

its awesome! a good book is Gaia's Garden

edit: its a good intro to homescale permaculture and its a really powerful feeling to be able to start to move towards self-sustaining behaviors and practices

Between "Back to Basics" and a trusty copy of Fannie Farmer for cooking, you can cover a LOT of good ground. There are lots of great books, but those are two I can't live without. To be clear, both are about techniques and methods, not so much the theory behind it. They're fantastic reference books though.

Mycelium Running: How mushrooms can help save the world is a good read. Furthermore, Paul Stamets is the man; a myco-champion on a mission.

First thing I would do is map the property. You can do some pretty good mapping with just some basic tools. I'd also map elevations as well with a transit. Once again, pretty easy to do if you do a little research.

Second would be to come up with a plan. Write it down and the prioritize what you would like to be done when. Since we all need to eat I would focus on food. By the time you get the mapping and planning it might be too late to plant anything this year. However, that shouldn't stop you from getting some infrastructure in place for next year. Setup your beds, run waterlines if needed, etc.

I would suggest you checkout The Market Gardner. Even if you aren't looking to sell produce it has some great ideas on gardening in general.

For anybody who doesn't want to die of this, please purchase and read and implement a book called Gaia's Garden: Home Scale Permaculture, by Toby Hemenway.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1603580298/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1603580298&linkCode=as2&tag=postapocaly06-20&linkId=H4IG4LBBPBLWVVGQ

We can't control The Middle East or even our own national legislatures, but we can change our personal ecosystems, our neighborhoods and villages.

This is a very inspiring but practical book that offers concrete solutions about how to improve water retention, soil quality, energy use and food production on your own land. It teaches a set of principles from a "design science" called permaculture, or regenerative agriculture. It CAN help.

Cheers.

Reminds me of the trestle table in <em>Back to Basics</em> which is kind of like this table.

I do sevin and diatomaceous earth for moths and caterpillars.

For rabbits, mice, etc. I only give the cats their food out in the garden around dusk every night. It doesn't always work out.

I had a large patch of sweet potatoes last year that I thought would do great with a mulch weed cover. Rats (a rat?) had a hayday and gnawed every single sweet potato. My army of cats achieved nothing. I have avoided that this year with landscaping paper but that might only be because I have more cats. I don't know. Last year made me consider getting a rat terrier. This year has had me researching water redirecting berms.

I follow Dick Raymond's advice like gospel and unless there are extreme mitigating circumstances, his methods always show good.

Edit: I apparently failed to link a Dick Raymond book. The guy I linked to is good and mostly follows the same principles, but the Dick Raymond books are what my dad passed on to me.

Here is a book that is AWESOME and cheaper.

http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1629143693/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1441825882&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=back+to+the+basics

Here's the book from Amazon, called The Market Gardener

This completely ignores your pots comment but if I had to do it all over again, I would start by reading this book: http://www.amazon.com/Vegetable-Gardeners-Bible-Edward-Smith/dp/160342475X

Luckily we've already taken so much of his advice without knowing it, we installed raised beds which I highly recommend (it'll help with your soil issues) and I agree with the other comments about fencing for those pesky (but adorable) rabbits.

Good luck!

I'm a big fan of Permaculture. If you were interested Toby Hemenway's Gaia's Garden is a great starter book to read.

There's different groups, but it's going to be difficult in such a dry state... to find enough people to meet regularly.

Try going to the store and looking at who's supplying fresh mushrooms to them? The stores usually want to have local growers for such time and heat sensitive products and like I said, there's going to be other interested people working at farms like that.... I've made some great experienced contacts via the local professional growers over the years.

It's just another type of gardening.

Baker Creek's Forum

You'd have time to grow lettuce, spinach, radishes, mustard greens, beets, scallions, some herbs, and a whole lot more. Grow what you like!

You can also read quite a bit by looking up gardening books on Amazon and reading the "Look Inside" parts. I'd suggest Four-Season Harvest because of the specific tips it gives for a wide range of crops, but there are a LOT of books worth examining.

Back to Basics....old but golden. The book you are currently looking at has expensive solutions, not realistic ones. http://www.amazon.com/Back-Basics-Complete-Traditional-Skills/dp/1602392331/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;s=books&amp;qid=1275437177&amp;sr=1-1

I have the first edition. It's a hard bound yellow book. It covers everything. I would stick with an older model if you can, but it's cheap!

Yes, fungi are the grand molecular magicians of our time, and all time. If you like this, definitely take a look at Mycelium Running. If humanity truly decides to heal the planet from this Chemical Industrial age, fungi will be integrally involved. Paul's theories are open thoughts of potential for a better understanding of how the natural world works with fungi.

This article is absolute garbage. Garbage In, Garbage Out. It assumes that one either trucks in food or uses fossil fuels to heat a green house to grow them. Even in Maine, arugula can be grown with nothing but solar gain through single or double walled hoophouses throughout the winter. Read Eliot Coleman's Four Season Harvest or Winter Harvest