The Productive Garden: An Essential Guide Toward Self-Sufficiency

Grow your own food and make your own household essentials in this self-sufficiency bible. Written by No Dig guru Stephanie Hafferty, and photographed by Jason Ingram.

Self-sufficiency needn't be something you dream of as you shuffle down the supermarket aisles. It's far easier than you think to grow your own, save money, reduce your consumption, increase your resilience, and care for the planet - all from your own back yard. Stephanie Hafferty does it every day. From her No Dig garden, she grows the food she needs to eat and the plants she needs to help her produce everyday household essentials. With more than 30 years of experience, she knows how to make a harvest stretch further, and how to feed the earth so that it can give back, year after year.

In The Productive Garden, Stephanie introduces you to everything you need to grow abundant and useful crops, and teaches you what to do with them.

Part One: In the Garden

• Planning a self-sufficient garden
• Effective techniques for making compost, storing water, protecting crops, and improving your soil
• Working with nature to increase biodiversity and control 'pests'
• Creating a planting plan unique to your space
• Sowing and propagating

Part Two: Seasonal Produce

• A complete guide to Stephanie's tried-and-tested plants and unique varieties, covering vegetables, fruit, herbs, and flowers

Part Three: In the House

• Recipes for a homegrown larder - including preserves, oils, ferments, vinegars, cordials, and more
• Chemical-free cleaners - including fragrances, soaps, and food wraps
• Using produce to improve wellbeing - such as making body care products and herbal remedies
• Garden crafts - including preserved flowers and flower-pounding techniques

As a leading No Dig expert, Stephanie can show you sustainable methods of cultivating a generous and abundant garden, bringing together affordable homesteading with the reality of modern life. Whether you want to start small, have already embarked on a journey to self-sufficiency, or are looking for a complete lifestyle change, this will become your go-to book and essential guide.