Books in the Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series series

Soil Science for Gardeners is an easy-to-read, practical guide to the science behind a healthy soil ecosystem and thriving plants. The book debunks common myths, explains soil science basics, and provides the reader with the knowledge to create a personalized soil fertility improvement program for better plants.

The second edition of bestselling Keeping Bees with a Smile shows beginner and practicing beekeepers how to attract local bee swarms, keep bees healthy and productive, build simple bee-friendly hives, and harvest honey without stressing bees. Chock-full of techniques for natural beekeeping.

The Edible Ecosystem Solution explores how humans benefit from edible ecosystem abundance, the immense opportunities in society for landscape change, and how anyone can build their own 25-square-foot edible ecosystem as a launch pad for community land transition and cultural transformation.

DIY Sourdough is the essential beginner's guide to crafting simple whole grain sourdough starters, breads, snacks, and more that can be incorporated into your weekly routine. Packed with tips and tricks for consistent, nutritious, and delicious results.

Microhydro features the smallest version of the renewable engery technology dubbed the simplest, most reliable and least expensive way to generate power off grid. Highly illustrated and practical, it is a complete guide to designing and constructing reliable hydroelectric power systems.

Discover forgotten low-input food gardening methods for surviving uncertain times ahead. The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering. Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food. Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies-working an average of two hours a day during the growing season. Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series

The only how-to manual on the subject directed to mainstream owner-builders