The Self-Sufficient Garden

‘The Self-Sufficient Garden’ is a practical guide on how to grow the 30 most common vegetables. It illustrates how to get a year round supply of fresh vegetables from your own garden. This book is an essential guide to growing and maintaining a self-sufficient garden. It incorporates both sustainability and practicality. And it demonstrates the possibility to grow in a way that promotes biodiversity whilst producing a sizeable harvest. Introduction from The Self-Sufficient Garden The Self-Sufficient Garden conveys the fundamental preparatory measures for beginning a self-sufficient garden and it can be referred to for precise instructions on spacing and storing your vegetables. The book is based on a specific model which can be applied to any plot. Detailing the thirty most important vegetable crops, it is a condensed formula for self-sufficiency. It is also written in consideration of the traditional and modern obstacles facing gardeners today, The ‘Self-Sufficient Garden’ reaches for a natural and productive symbiosis. From the foreword of The Self-Sufficient Garden I grew up in a small village in south Germany next to the beautiful Neckar River winding its way along steep vineyards. The water so polluted that we were not allowed to even touch it. Then the neighbouring Black Forest started to die. In April 1986, the Chernobyl disaster happened and the nuclear cloud came directly over us. Life and business continued as usual for most people. Nothing was the same for me after that. I knew that a lot of things needed to change. Many things did change – the Neckar River is a lot cleaner now, there are fish again and some of the forests are recovering. Reason for writing this book I’m writing all this because I can see the same problems appearing here in this beautiful island of Ireland. Our rivers and lakes are polluted with numerous chemicals (weed killers and fertilisers). These chemicals have even found their way into the groundwater and are polluting wells. To have polluted water in a country with such a low population and so little industry is beyond comprehension. The solution would be so simple and effective and we could swim and drink water from every lake and river in Ireland. I know I am too extreme – I would ban the use of harmful chemicals that are polluting our environment. I can sense a major shift coming. I’m rejuvenated by a strange positivity and I can feel that change is coming soon. So many people now realise that we have to live in harmony with nature – that we are a part of nature. We can no longer view nature simply as a means for providing resources for our industries.