Will Bonsall's Essential Guide to Radical, Self-Reliant Gardening: Innovative Techniques for Growing Vegetables, Grains, and Perennial Food Crops with Minimal Fossil Fuel and Animal Inputs

This is *the* book. There are a lot of other fine books out there but if you want to achieve food self-sufficiency living off your own land, particularly if you won't be adding animal inputs for any reason, this is a very straightforward, well-organized and well-written guide. Bonsall's practices are a result of decades of research and experimentation. Because he lives in mountainous west-central Maine, his book is tailored to the short growing season and acidic, rocky, forest-derived soils of the area. He doesn't have the fertility of midwest soils, or the long growing season of the west. Bonsall has discovered how to maximize fertility for a difficult growing region, using the most inexpensive equipment and inputs. Everything in this book is directly relevant to what I personally need to know to produce well on my own property, including unusual self-sufficiency subjects like how to grow grain in a garden plot, how to construct a very efficient composing system, how to fertilize with available inputs like leaves, how to neutralize acid with available inputs like wood ash, how to choose the right cover crop, when to plant, what tools to use, I could go on and on. Bonsall is much in demand in his region for lectures because he is an engaging, entertaining speaker and this comes through in his book. In person, he answers a straight question with a straight answer, and that is how his book is. He gets to the point, doesn't dither, gives you concrete, practical information born of a boundless curiosity and long experience. What's more, all his decisions are backed by an essential desire to work _with_ nature and not against it, to farm ethically and eat ethically. You could love his book for his philosophy alone. Bonsall is known for his Scatterseed Project, which makes sure that plant diversity is maintained in an era when a few corporate seed giants have virtually eliminated thousands of plant varieties. The danger of our food sources being reduced to only a few landraces is that this threatens a food with extinction if a disease or insect should wipe out the breed. Bonsall's Seed Saver's network is literally behind ensuring that we and our progeny will have food in the future. This is only relevant to the book in that he mentions certain varieties of vegetables and grains that work with various climatic or soil challenges. He demonstrates that the choice of plant variety alone can make you productive when the industrial seeds do not work in your region. Get this book. It's terrific.

This book exceeded my expectations! I have been gardening for over 40 years and I learned new, valuable things from Mr. Bonsall's book. I love his writing style, his sense of humor, and the practical information he shares. He doesn't give shallow, general information like so many gardening books but goes deeper and shares the results of his garden experiments and experiences, shares time and energy saving tips, companion planting tips that actually make sense, tips on cover crops, growing and harvesting grains, growing fruit crops. I own dozens of gardening books on various topics and I'll have to say that this is one of the most informative and entertaining gardening books I have ever read for the experienced gardener. It is probably not the best for the beginning gardener looking for the basic how-tos but it is a joy to read anyway!

This book is a window into a life's work. Mr. Bonsall's farm is among other things, the scatter seed project [...] He saves seed of more than 2000-3000 varieties of vegetables, grains, fruit trees, etc. He is maintaining our crop genetic diversity in the face of industrial hybrid seed commoditization. For that reason alone you should buy the book and support his work. The book itself is a trove of useful information, wittily conveyed. His aim is to grow most if not all of his food without the use of petroleum products, soil amendments from fertilizer to mined products like green sand or rock phosphate, and without the use of animal manures. Therefore the book covers intensive composting, cover cropping, seed saving, thoughts on growing specific vegetable crops in northern climes (his farm is in central Maine), growing small scale grain crops from oats to quips and much more. Anyone who is interested in growing food or self sufficiency will like this book.

All actions are the results of thoughts. This well thought book offers a glimpse of the path Will Bonsall has taken. It is a book-journey I would highly recommend and felt privileged to read. He has embarked (no pun intended-ramial) on a minimalist traverse of this world. Fortunately he has given a written record before like all of us he returns to earth. Like any visionary his path of life and sustenance deviates from the majority opinion. There is much to learn from his musings and dry humor. One can see he has made his Garden of Eden and has well tended it. I loved his chapter on tools showing what little he needs and pictures of the same well used. In our lives filled with ticky tacky he reverently seeks the necessary, renewable and sustainable. His spirit and passion is zealous and this is a writing to read. There is much to be learned in his writing and I wish him well. Hopefully there is more writing to come. ER Lindsey

Great condition. Carefully packaged and arrived earlier than expected.

Really enjoy your book. Thank you Will for sharing. Very good info on gardening compost soil cover crops. Using tree leaves and growing all sorts of grain corn smaranth wheat. Great pictures full color. Thick book. Funny guy

In the tradition of "nothing is too crazy for Yankees," this guy gives you a taste. This is not a text style book nor is it hypothetical. Like all Yankees - I live with one - this guy has a list of modern conveniences that piss him off. He seems to live and eat pretty well within those boundaries. It's a fun read and bon mots to anyone who gardens in godforsaken, rock infested Maine.

Most gardening books are written based on information from other gardening books - I never realized that until I read this book. It isn't that he disagrees with conventional information, it is that he seems to have developed his knowledge and skills in a vacuum. Every chapter contains ideas that blow my mind. For example, composting books all talk about manure, manure, manure. In chapter one, this author points out that manure is less efficient than just taking the same grass and composting it. It is obvious, but it provided a totally new perspective to me. In chapter two, he casually gives a run down of green manures (cover crops) and each of their individual strengths and weaknesses that is better than anything I have read elsewhere. In chapter three, he makes a very strong case for just using shredded leaves as a primary fertility builder for a garden, rather than smaller amounts of richer fertilizer - again, something I had not heard of before or seriously considered. He goes on like this, chapter after chapter. Part of the reason his viewpoint is so unique is precisely because he is so radical. He still uses an outhouse and based on his writing style, I think he is probably a very uncompromising man. Plus, he is in Maine, so anything that works for him will probably work anywhere. I have read a lot of gardening books, and this is a rare masterpiece.

Good Purchase Thank You

Really enjoying this book, tons of great ideas that I plan to implement, some ideas that I am currently applying. A resource one can keep visiting. Will's writing style is very enjoyable to read and many ideas are very thought provoking and useful as we develop our property and learn to live healthier, better, and more connected to our food. Tim Ross

Excellent book! I looked everywhere for veganic farming. I am so glad to have found this. There is so much good information.

I found this book really interesting, more for people who own large land or acres, but theres are lot of useful tips in terms of how to grow veg, wheat, herbs etc, how to improve soil and how to reuse everything and save money.

This book has all that you'd ever need to know to grow plant foods on a smallholding or home farm, independent of externally sourced fertility. It's written beautifully and provides enough confidence for families worried about the current economic climate, to become as self sufficient as they choose to be. A timeless heirloom tome that will be highly valued as it's passed down the generations.