The Urban Homestead: A Manifesto

 

Everything Kiki and I know about gardening - or almost everything - we read in books. This is the first in a series of posts that I'm going to dedicate to reviewing the books that inspired us and that we followed in our first year here at Steepmeadow.

The Urban Homestead: Your Guide to Self-Sufficient Living in the Heart of the City by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is a manifesto. While their brand of city self-sufficiency might work in a more urban setting, I would not want to be their neighbors. They're not wrong, they just advocate a lifestyle that's going to make your home into a weedy, messy place with garbage can lids and grey-water collection bins. "Tater Tires" are one of their projects. It is a matter of taste, but I want our place to look tidy and alive rather than strewn with scavenged garbage. It's not that it's not noble, because it is. It is a great do-in-yourself aesthetic

They have a whole section on raising livestock. We want nothing to do with that. No chickens, ducks, or rabbits are going to be raised at our place. 

If you want to explore topics like how to dumpster dive and spread seeds around the city, this may be the book for you. 

With that said - if only we had listened to p.112 where they advocate no-dig gardening, we'd have saved ourselves a lot of time and trouble.

I like where they advocate that no plant should be wasted. Every one that you choose to plant should pay it's way with fruit upon the bough or in the soil.

This was one of the first books that I looked at when we first began to float the idea of homesteading. As I skim through it looking to write this review, I think it might be time to revisit it, now that we've had our first season. 

Four out of five stars. Recommended.