Book Review | The Suburban Micro-Farm by Amy Stross

I popped in and out of the secret bloggers group that day. Oh yes, we homesteaders have “super awesome” secret blogger groups where we network, talk girl talk, and live life to its fullest. However, this day, something really caught my eye.

I had been in the dumps about our upcoming garden this year. Very little space, and no idea how to utilize it to its fullest. I’ve gotten better over the years but I’m certainly no master of small-space gardening. That day, however, when a fellow blogger posted that her book was coming out soon, I had to have it. Why? Because it was all about small space gardening  for busy people!

“That’s me!”, I exclaimed.

If you’re a small space gardener, you just screamed the same thing right along with me.

I am so incredibly in love with Amy Stross and her book, The Suburban Micro-Farm, which is being re-published in full color, by Twisted Creek Press. Throughout the entire book I was saying, “yes, yes, yes!” This is the book I’ve been waiting to read all these years. I wish I would’ve found it sooner!

In these pages you’ll learn:

• How to make your landscape as productive as it is beautiful
• Why the suburbs are primed with food-growing potential
• How to choose the best crops for success
• Why you don’t need the perfect yard to have a micro-farm
• How to use easy permaculture techniques for abundant harvests

If you’re ready to create a beautiful, edible yard, this book is for you.

I’m not necessarily an extremely skilled gardener, but I’m not a newbie either. This book really pertains to any type of gardener, and will help all of us learn how to turn that space we loathe into a beautiful oasis of food, fruit, herbs, and more! Read more about The Suburban Mirco-Farm by Amy Stross by clicking here.

More about Amy Stross:

Amy is an avid permaculture gardener, writer, educator, and author of The Suburban Micro-Farm, with a varied background in home-scale food production. At age 33, Amy fell ill with an autoimmune disease, which made working difficult. She quit her job as a high school teacher and began exploring healthy lifestyle choices as a way to cope.

The first step in her journey was to join a local organic farm’s Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program where she collected a weekly share of fresh produce. She thought the program was so cool that she joined the administrative team, and helped to run the program that feeds over 100 families per year.

In 2009 she received her permaculture design certificate, and discovered that having her hands in the dirt was good therapy. She went on to work as a professional landscape gardener and permaculture designer specializing in ecologically regenerative and productive landscapes. Her own (former) 0.10-acre, home scale micro-farm became a thriving example of a productive yet aesthetically pleasing landscape, including earthworks to take advantage of the water from the roof, berry bushes, cherry trees, herbs, and flowers; all in the front yard.

Amy also led the development of a community garden at her local university, where, with the help of community residents, she transformed a forgotten hillside into a food-producing forest. She employed many permaculture strategies for regenerating degraded soil, managing water, and improving biodiversity. For this work she was awarded the Urban Bounty Award for ‘building community and changing lives through the harvest of community gardening’.

She holds a Master’s Degree in education and always seeks to continue learning and improving her own knowledge of efficient and natural growing practices. Amy aims to find more ways to apply permaculture design to today’s world for a more interconnected and respectful relationship with earth.

Her current adventure includes transforming a new 3-acre property into a biodiverse micro-farm with her husband and mischievous farm cat. A food forest, water management projects, and foraging strips in the woods are already underway. She reaches hundreds of thousands of people with her adventures and expertise in small-scale permaculture gardening on her popular website, TenthAcreFarm.com. She shares her discoveries and ideas for bringing permaculture to suburban and residential areas, useful for both residents of these areas and designer-consultants who serve them.

Go check out The Suburban Micro-Farm Now!