If you’re looking for something to occupy your time, why don’t you consider starting a garden this spring? There have been many people asking questions recently about starting to garden, raising chickens, and composting. While I fully plan on writing about my own personal thoughts and experiences, I wanted to share with you all some of my absolute favorite books on the subject!
If there was EVER a time to begin taking responsibility for your food production… it’s now!! Whether you’re converting your lawn, utilizing your porch with pots, or decide to join a community garden, there are so many ways to get involved and create more food security! Also know, if you’re not able to grow your own food, you can look for local options and team up with like-minded farmers.
They need your support!
(Note: Most, if not all, of these books can be purchased as an Audio book through Audible so you can listen as well!)
I have them listed in groups by author, as I’ve read and enjoyed several books from some of these authors!
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David the Good:
His books are a great resource. He’s funny, a little wacky, but offers some inexpensive and practical ways to start your garden. These books will empower you to start taking charge of your own food production!
Compost Everything: The Good Guide to Extreme Composting
Grow or Die: The Good Guide to Survival Gardening
Free Plants for Everyone: The Good Guide to Plant Propagation
The Easy Way to Start a Home-Based Plant Nursery and Make Thousands in Your Spare Time
Totally Crazy Easy Florida Gardening: The Secret to Growing Piles of Food in the Sunshine State
(Why did I read this last one? I haven’t the slightest idea. I don’t live in Florida, and have completely different growing conditions! But I enjoy listening to his books, and couldn’t help myself!)
Joel Salatin
Good old Joel. You really can’t go wrong with any of his books. We hope some day to meet him!
Folks, This Ain’t Normal: A Farmer’s Advice for Happier Hens, Healthier People, and a Better World
Marvelous Pigness of Pigs (This is his call out to the church to rise up as stewards of the Earth. To take responsibility and accountability for how we manage our food.)
Everything I Want to Do is Illegal: War Stories from the Local Food Front
Allan Savory
His life’s work has been to study the affect of animals on the land. He has found and created a beautiful program with proper animal husbandry to allow livestock to not only improve the soil health and quality, but to maintain healthy animals for meat production. A great piece, even if you’re doing something on a small scale. #rotationalgrazing
Holistic Management: A Commonsense Revolution to Restore Our Environment
Jean-Martin Fortier:
This is another great read. I would probably recommend this for a more experienced gardener, who is looking to produce a higher volume of vegetables for a market-type setting.
Larry Korn
This book is written about Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese farmer who revolutionized the world of permaculture and regenerative agriculture!
Perrine Hervé-Gruyer
SO GOOD. Just. So. Good. This book follows the journey of one family to create a sustainable, biodiverse farm in Normandy. Packed full of information on the dangers of conventional agriculture and inspiring to do better.
Robin Wall Kimmerer
Also very good! She’s a Native American woman very focused on her heritage, a poet, and a botanist, so you get this beautiful painting of the connection between humans and the earth!
Barbara Kingsolver
An eye opening book on growing your own food and sourcing locally to help the environment, your health, and the local economy! Her writing is captivating and witty! I wrote more on this book in a previous post.
Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
Kristin Kimball
I haven’t finished this one. I joined a large homesteading book club group on Facebook, and this is what we’re currently reading! There is something about reading another’s journey on how and why they began working with the land that really speaks to me!
The Dirty Life: A Memoir of Farming, Food, and Love
YouTube Channels
We have also followed several YouTube channels and gleaned much information from them about gardening, homesteading, and animal husbandry!
Definitely recommend watching the Back to Eden Documentary!
The Gardening Channel with James Prigioni
Do you have any favorite authors or YouTube channels for gardening information? I’d love to hear about them in the comments! Also, make sure you subscribe to get notifications in your email when new blog posts come out!