In his first all-new book in fifteen years, renowned organic grower and bestselling author Eliot Coleman presents his “self-fed” growing method that continuously sustains soil fertility and produces delicious, exceptionally nutritious vegetables with no need for purchased fertilizer or compost.

The Self-Fed Farm and Garden presents the organic method as a self-sustaining system rooted in soil health care and shows readers how they can shift to a self-fed model that continually recharges the soil with organic matter, thus allowing the soil food web to provide all the nutrients crops need for healthy growth and excellent yields. Based on his long study of his library of classic farming and gardening books, Eliot Coleman re-engineered the way he managed soils and crops at Four Season Farm over the past decade so that he would never need to purchase off-farm inputs of compost or fertilizer.

The self-fed approach combines classic techniques practiced by the pioneers of organic farming, including:

• Growing green manure crops year-round and shallowly tilling them into the soil
• Growing leguminous plants to add nitrogen
• Devising effective crop rotation systems for disease and weed control

About The Author

Eliot Coleman is the author of The New Organic Grower, Four Season Harvest, and The Winter Harvest Handbook. He has more than 50 years’ experience in all aspects of organic farming, including field vegetables, greenhouse vegetables, rotational grazing of cattle and sheep, and range poultry. During his careers as a commercial market gardener, the director of agricultural research projects, and as a teacher and lecturer on organic gardening, he studied, practiced, and perfected his craft. With his wife, Barbara Damrosch, he was the host of the TV series, Gardening Naturally, on The Learning Channel, which featured their market garden and home garden projects at Four Season Farm in Harborside, Maine.