When I was fourteen years old, I planned to live by growing my own vegetables, keeping a few chickens for eggs, and buying a goat or house cow for milk. Bees for honey were also woven into the pattern of my imagined future existence.

One of my siblings shared the same dream. And we spent hours discussing whether it would be possible to grow everything we needed for survival. After careful consideration, we decided we would write, or paint, to earn money so that we could buy matches. Alternatively, we planned to sell some of our surplus stock.

I took the dream very seriously. I read every article I could find, not only on plants and poetry, but also on breeds of chickens and goats, bee keeping and animal husbandry.

Books on self-sufficiency

The following books on DIY and practical gardening, which have come my way recently, would interest anyone who dreams of self-sufficiency.

Dr D.G. Hessayon’s The Home DIY Expert, due out on April 2003, at £6.99, from Transworld Publishers, is recommended to everyone who has a home of their own.

This indoor version of the popular Expert gardening books, full of easy-to-find facts on plumbing, wiring, tiling, and maintenance jobs to do around a house, would also be helpful to people about to make a major purchase. For example, a new cooker or carpet: all the main types are described, with their advantages and disadvantages. Similar guidance is given regarding choice of windows and other parts of a house.

In the Home DIY Expert, under the heading ‘Subsidence’, we get this warning: ‘Do not plant a tree within 15m of the house if you expect it to grow to a considerable height’. The book is packed with tips to aid the average householder.

DIY book publication

Alex Pankhurst, a member of the Garden Writer’s Guild, successfully published her own non-fiction hardback, Who Does Your Garden Grow, recently. Pains-taking research led her to discover the stories behind plants named after people - for example: Dianthus ‘Mrs Sinkins’.

In her latest book, Scoffing the Primroses, published, in 2003, by Earl’s Eye Publishing (available from all good book shops in UK), Alex tells the story of garden writer Zinnia Peasmore. The book has an interesting theme that drew me into the story by the end of the first chapter. Set in Suffolk, this is a novel ‘for those who love gardening…and relish the quirky side of life’. The reader might also glean a little about a garden writer’s life!

The NEW Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency by John Seymour, sub-titled ‘The classic guide for realists and dreamers’, is just the book to help anyone setting up a smallholding or market garden. It would also prove useful to the owners, or renters, of gardens and allotments. And, of course, dreamers everywhere would enjoy reading this book.

John Seymour provides advice on a range of skills and crafts, including making cheese and bread, bottling fruits, creating pottery, and pig and poultry husbandry. (Dorling Kindersley Ltd., March 2003, price £20).

RHS GARDEN GUIDES

Dorling Kindersley are also the publishers of brand new Garden Guides. Titles in the series are Shrubs and Climbers, Annuals & Biennials, Fuchsias, and Perennials.

The formula for success in the Shrubs and Climbers volume, by Richard Rosenfeld, is simplicity. As part of the plant-per-page format, there is a large colour photograph, a plant profile column, one paragraph containing a description of the plant - mingled with cultivation details - and one to three lines for other varieties of the shrub or climber. A useful A-Z section, which forms the bulk of the guide, follows a short Introductory Text by Zia Allaway. And an index of common names provides further help. Look out for the other titles in these pocket-sized plant guides, at £8.99.

Books can help gardeners

Good books can help gardeners avoid costly mistakes. A wealth of experience has gone into the HDRA Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening – the complete guide to natural and chemical free gardening, from publishers Dorling Kindersley, edited by Pauline Pears of the Henry Doubleday Research Association.