21st-Century Smallholder: From Window Boxes To Allotments: How To Go Back To The Land Without Leaving Home

Description

Achieving genuine self-sufficiency of the kind described in John Seymour's classic guide is sadly beyond the vast reach of the urban majority today. Few have the space, and for those few there are comprehensive guidebooks. But where do the rest of us look for the answers to questions like how much effort does it really take to grow your own food? Is beekeeping difficult? Is solar power really worth the bother? From a small terraced house in the middle of a big city, Paul Waddington has made it his business to find out, and while trying it himself, has created a practical and absorbing guidebook along the way. It includes easy-to-read lists, tables, personal anecdote, and stunning illustrations, and more importantly demystifies the subject with practical tips that get to the heart of the matter to show you how you can enjoy the fulfilling aspects of the smallholding life without the hassle and expense of 'going all the way'. If you want to go back to the land without leaving home, this is the perfect guide.

Paul Waddington is the author of Seasonal Food and Shades of Green. He is also a newspaper columnist and professional writer. He takes a deep interest in food and environmental issues and grows vegetables, keeps bees and lives as sustainably as possible in Yorkshire.

Wittily written and very inspiring, full of sensible tips on everything from windowboxes to pickling your produce. It's a 21st-century version of John Seymour's Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency ... -- Josh Lacey * Guardian, Gardening section * ...a charmingly written, practical guide to setting up an urban smallholding, allowing readers to indulge Good Life fantasies, however small their balcony or window box. * The Times * A handbook packed full of green advice...Aesthetically pleasant guides to growing and raising your own food accompany serious food for thought on how you can, and why you should make a difference. -- Tom Ireland * The Ecologist * Beautifully written and illustrated, the 21st Century Smallholder is the bible for today's Tom and Barbara Good and anyone else who wants to live the dream. -- Rachel Savage * The Environment Magazine * If you have space for just a window-box, 21st Century Smallholder is for you. Subtitled "How to Go Back to the Land Without Leaving Home", it offers exactly what it says on the cover. -- Edi Smockum * FT magazine *