Start a mini farm on a quarter acre or less and provide 85 percent of the food for a family of four and earn an income."

Make the most of your vegetable garden with Brett Markham, author Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on ¼ Acre. This comprehensive new handbook covers everything you need to know about maximizing and harvesting the best vegetables you can possibly produce. With each chapter addressing a different vegetable, you’ll learn tips and tricks about varietal selection, nutritional merits, how to begin, special hints for growing, and how to deal with particular pests and diseases, plus one or two creative recipes to get you started. With over 150 of Markham’s own photographs guiding you every step of the way, you’ll find this an honest, straightforward guide and a must-have for any vegetable mini-farmer.

Mini farming describes a holistic approach to small-area farming that will show you how to produce 85 percent of an average family’s food on just a quarter acre—and earn $10,000 in cash annually while spending less than half the time that an ordinary job would require. Now expanding exponentially on his bestselling Mini Farming: Self-Sufficiency on 1/4 Acre, Brett Markham gives you tips, tricks, and planning advice on how to make the most of your mini farm. New topics include: Soil and Fertility Tools and Techniques Planting Guides and Seeders Easy Trellising Weed Control Techniques Greater Food Self-Sufficiency Making Your Own Country Wines Making Your Own Vinegars Making Cheese at Home Cooking for Self-Sufficiency Keep your costs down and production high with this complete guide to maximizing your mini farm—whether it’s a rooftop urban garden, a suburban backyard, or a more substantial plot of land. Materials, tools, and techniques are detailed with tables, diagrams, and 200 color illustrations and author photographs.

Bestselling author Brett Markham’s new handbook gives us the mini farming basics along with in-depth tips on vegetable gardening, fermenting, composting, and self-sufficiency in a handy new format and design. Includes: • Soil management and making your own fertilizer • Crop rotation and cover cropping • Composting • Seed starting and timing/planning • Raised beds and pest management • Pvc trellising and planting spacers • Raising chickens, making your own chicken plucker, and butchering • Growing fruit/nut trees and vines • Food preservation (canning and freezing) • Fermenting wine, vinegar and cheese With the full color photographs that made the original Mini Farming so popular, and step by step drawings, projects, graphs, and tables, you’ll have everything you need for your new or established mini farm at your fingertips. So dive in a learn how to begin and cultivate your own mini farm on less than a quarter acre.

Farming in cities and small spaces is becoming increasingly popular, but it has its challenges. City Farming addresses the problems the urban farmer might face and turns them into creative solutions. It assists the new grower to gain expert understanding of how to create a production urban farm, as well as helping established farmers to troubleshoot and discover new ways to bring their space into greater harmony and production. From the perspective of a holistic gardener, growing plants and raising livestock are covered as well as integrated approaches, which bring together the whole farming system in a small space to produce high yields with minimal energy and effort. The content is organised by themes of importance to urban farmers‚ sun and heat, water usage, seasonal production, spatial planning, soil quality and usage, propagation and breeding, pests and diseases, farming under time constraints, sustainability and community initiatives. These are all discussed within the context of urban farming and include common issues and strategies like microclimates in built-up areas, natural and organic approaches, water harvesting, toxic land, roof gardening, converting ornamental gardens to productive edible gardens, municipal regulations, vertical gardening, aquaponics, composting methods, livestock suitability in limited space, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes, permaculture in small spaces, community gardens and trade & barter schemes. Each chapter unfolds a piece the story of The Micro Farm Project that provides an overview of the theme, and then discusses the crop and livestock considerations relating to the theme of the chapter in the form of the challenges they present and practical solutions to the problems such as lack of space, high population density, poor soil quality, planning restrictions etc. Case studies giving examples of different methods used within urban farming from different regions throughout the world are included. City Farming is a beautifully illustrated source that can be valuable to both beginners and more experienced urban farmers. 5m Books

Cover crops slow erosion, improve soil, smother weeds, enhance nutrient and moisture availability, help control many pests and bring a host of other benefits to your farm. At the same time, they can reduce costs, increase profits and even create new sources of income. You¿ll reap dividends on your cover crop investments for years, since their benefits accumulate over the long term. This book will help you find which ones are right for you. Captures farmer and other research results from the past ten years. The authors verified the info. from the 2nd ed., added new results and updated farmer profiles and research data, and added 2 chap. Includes maps and charts, detailed narratives about individual cover crop species, and chap. about aspects of cover cropping.

It's wonderful to grow your own fruit and vegetables but what do you do when it all ripens at once? How do you cope with the glut which threatens to overwhelm you? Will help all those who grow their own fruit and vegetables to store their produce properly so that it will last for months and feed the family when the garden's bare. Easy and practical advice on how to bottle, dry, freeze and even salt home grown fruit and vegetables. Discover the taste of your delicious homemade jams, chutneys and ketchups. John and Val Harrison reveal just what you can do with that bountiful harvest and share their 30 years' experience of growing fruit and vegetables and you'll never waste another tomato or courgette again. Praise for John Harrison: 'Britain's greatest allotment authority'. Indpendent on Sunday.