Ok, because this book does offer some useful information, I'm giving two stars. But the language, the tone, and the overall... er... weirdness of this book was so off-putting that I can't recommend it to anyone. I was first a little freaked out by a blurb about compost reminding the compost-maker of her eventual demise every time she saw her pile of rotting vegetation. Um. Okay? For me, a compost pile can just be a compost pile. Secondly, I was somewhat enjoying the section on raising chickens until I was informed that I needed to "inspect their asses". I get that the writers wanted to portray this book as friendly and relatable, but I really just can't get over the ridiculousness of that statement. But i think the nail in the coffin for me was the espousal of "guerrilla gardening", or basically encouraging readers to find a space to grow their crops, even if that space happens to belong to your neighbor, a business, or the city. This handbook will even teach you how to make a seed-bomb to throw over those pesky private-property fences so you can really get that renegade, devil-may-care feeling when you garden. To top it all off, the author concludes with a bleak call-to-arms for homesteading involving a near-future shortage of resources and an impending apocalypse which will sweep all sinners and hipsters off the face of the earth. The humor of this epilogue was lost on me. I suppose I was just looking for a book to help me make the most of my backyard, and the awkwardness of the writing in this work can be easily avoided; all the information here is explained much better in other books on homesteading. I would highly recommend All-New Square Foot Gardening and The Backyard Homestead for someone who is looking for a wealth of homesteading info with a distinct lack of strange. Urban Homestead is a practical guide to detaching oneself from the commercial "grid." The format of the book is definitely more oriented as a reference book than a straight-through read, but this didn't detract me from reading it start to finish. I was impressed by the authors' experience in urban homesteading, especially in the challenging city of LA. Some of the projects in this book are not going to work for everyone. Some are bigger and more complex than others. Generally, I think there was a good balance between them (and if you read their second book, Making It, you will find it strategically laid out for this reason). Even if you didn't want to follow each project exactly, I think the spirit of the book gives you ideas and allows you to think creatively about how you live. I definitely recommend this to recent graduates and those more interested in reacquainting themselves with the DIY lifestyle.
What do You think about Doe Het Groen (2000)?
More of a reference book but it has some great projects and ideas.
—stella
A grab bag of ideas. Some great, some not so much.
—zuza123
