This is a great introduction to growing your own fruit and veg for a novice gardener. With just the right amount of expertise and common sense, accompanied by some stunning photographs, this is books takes the mystery out of home grown food and makes the reader want to get stuck in right away. The term “homestead” suggests its for an American audience but the advice is just as relevant for readers elsewhere.

As someone who is a modern homestead gardener, I expected a little more from this book. I'm not sure how different it is from an average garden book. It does have some good information, but I was hoping for more about truly sustainable and modern homesteading principles like permaculture, hugelkultur beds, wild edible foods (even those that volunteer on your homestead or in your garden, because there will be plenty and some are even better tasting than a lot of garden veggies), creative mulches and fertilizers, no-till gardening, and so on. This book reminds me of something I would have read 20 years ago, even though it is packed with information and filled with lovely color photos. There's lots of talk about things like which ingredients to purchase to make your own seed starting mix, or what fertilizers and grow lights to use. Never once does it mention concepts that I consider pretty standard for modern homestead gardeners who are sustainably minded, like using green fertilizers and cover crops, making nettle tea for fertilizer (you'll probably have nettles that are popping up free and they are superfoods for people and gardens), and so on. The section on edible landscaping was very standard -- apple trees and raspberries when you could go so much farther with elderberries, aronia, hawthorn, etc. for food and medicine. You can even take it farther by tapping your backyard trees for sap/syrup besides just sugar maples. We tap our Norway maple and our daughter Rhia's walnut and maple every spring to make small but delicious quantities of syrup. In other cases, plants were mentioned where I felt like saying "oh, you should have warned them about this though...".

This will be a great book for suburban folks who want to grow a nicely productive garden to help become more self sufficient. It wasn't quite hard core enough for me, but I am almost definitely an outlier. :)

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for review.

This was great! As a new homesteader, this was a great read. It is laid out well. The sections made sense, the charts were easy to figure out. The photo quality is excellent.

I find it easy to flip back through and find what I am looking for after the first read through too, since it's so well organized. Which makes it a good quality reference book long term.

I will definitely be recommending this book!

I started watching The Rusted Garden several years ago and was so excited when I learned that he was writing a book. I enjoy starting my day watching a video, but at heart, I am a book person, and to have so much of his gardening advice in my hands, to me, is worth a whole pile of compost, a/k/a black gold.
If you want to live more self-sufficiently and grow as much of your own food as possible, this is a great place to begin. The book is divided into ten chapters that cover everything from building your first garden, to seed starting, choosing the right variety of plants or seeds, disease, and pest control, and preserving or cooking with your harvest. The information is presented in a straight forward manner, and there are lovely pictures that accompany each chapter.
Whether you have room to grow a large garden or just enough room for some pots, you will find something to help you get started or improve your garden. I enjoyed my time reading this ebook, and I am looking forward to buying a physical copy when it publishes. A terrific resource shared by a great teacher.