Timberline Homestead A self sufficient homesteading life
The gardening section in my library is still small. I find a lot of information online as its so easily accessible but I like to have hard copies of useful information as well. Currently my gardening books include:
Country Wisdom & Know-How Everything You Need to Know to Live Off the Land
This book is packed full of information in its 475 pages as the title suggests. This book is larger than average books, roughly 10″ x 13.5″ with small print to give you an idea of the amount of content. Ive marked up the pages with things that I found really interesting and useful and tabbed things I know I’ll need to come back to. This is one of those books that you will pick up something new every time you page through it. The gardening section is roughly 130 pages and includes planting and harvesting charts, diagrams and illustrations. This section covers everything from soil preparation, to identifying pests, proper pruning methods, starting seeds indoors, inter cropping, information on different plants, and a few recipes.
The Self-Sufficient Life and How to Live it by John Seymour
The New Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency The classic guide for realists and dreamers by John Seymour
I have both of these and their content is much the same. They are written with the specific intent to educate its readers on a self sufficient life style of varying degrees. Very interesting read and I highly recommend it. It opens with The Meaning of Self Sufficiency and different self sufficient living scenarios that really can get your imagination going. This is standard text book size with about 300 pages of content roughly 65 of them pertaining to gardening. This book shows ways to utilize your different sized garden/farm plots from the urban garden to the 5 acre farm with the authors opinion on how to divide up your space to get the most out of your land. Also covered in the gardening chapter are organic gardening, digging beds, starting seeds, different tools and greenhouses, pests and controlling them, descriptions of veggies and fruits and their needs, planting/harvesting chart, and possibly my favorite part- what to do with your garden in each season. The illustrations of the garden plots are a great visual tool of how to use your land.
Crisis Preparedness Handbook by Jack A Spigarelli
I don’t consider this a gardening book but it does have a short 10 page chapter called Growing Your Own. This book covers all aspects of preparedness, food being a major portion of the book. This book touches on the importance of being able to grow your own food in a prolonged food shortage situation. This all starts with storing seeds and how to properly do so to get the longest shelf life out of them. The author also covers how much of each vegetable type should be alloted per person. This is interesting to read but as I mentioned its short and if you’re looking for gardening info only this wouldn’t be my recommendation. However, as a whole its a great book.
The author does mention the following books that I plan to add to my collection:
How to Grow More Vegetables and Fruits, Nuts, Raising Grains… by John Jeavons
Grow-Box Gardens by Jacob R Mittleider
Square Foot Gardening & Ca$h from Square Foot Gardening by Mel Bartholomew
The Farmer’s Wife Guide to Fabulous Fruits and Berries by Doyen
