Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

General Sustainable and Self Sufficient Living Books

Backyard Self Sufficiency – Jackie French – Aird Books (AUS) 2009 ISBN 9780947214586 – This is THE book on living more sustainably in a small area. Jackie’s stuff is always good but this is excellent, covering growing staples, fruit, vegetables and herbs, animals, preserving and even housing for self sufficiency.

Household Self Sufficiency – Jackie French – Aird Books (AUS) 1994 ISBN 0 947214 42 9 – You guessed it! This is the companion volume to “Backyard Self Sufficiency” but seems to be much harder to get. This takes over where BSS leaves off and takes you through herbal remedies and skin care to cleaners and polishes, candle and paper making and even pest control. Another good one.

Self Sufficiency in a Flat – Joy O. I. Spoczynska – Wildwood House Ltd (UK) 1980 ISBN 0 7045 0214 3 – This small paperback covers indoor and kitchen gardening, making your own butter, yogurt and cheeses well as preserving, foraging and brewing. A well rounded book of skills to have, even if you don’t have a lot of land.

Hard Times Handbook – Keith and Irene Smith – Thomas Nelson (AUS) 1984 ISBN 0 17 006364 X – This little paperback is chockfull of information to make your life more resilient, self reliant and sustainable. It covers being frugal, a bit of history around what things were like in the great depression, preparing for emergencies, making your home more sustainable, backyard food growing, how to make your food supply stretch and handy household hints. Good, basic information. There is a companion volume, “The Hard Times Kitchen Book”.

Living the Good Life – Linda Cockburn – Hardie Grant Books (AUS) 2006 ISBN 1 74066 312 8 – This is the story of how a family in Brisbane went virtually self sufficient on their large suburban block for six months and what they learned during the experience. Well written and a good read as well as being informative.

The Good Life in the ‘90s – Mary Moody – Simon and Schuster (AUS) 1995 ISBN 0 7318 0466 X – This is an update and re-release of her book “The Good Life” originally released in 1893. It covers lots of stuff about growing and making your own as well as greening the house, reducing waste and keeping the family healthy, naturally.

Towards Self Sufficiency – Bill Connor – Australia and New Zealand Book Company (AUS) 1980 ISBN 0 85552 102 3 – The by-line “country skills for city dwellers” covers this pretty well. As well as the areas on backyard vegetable growing and animal raising, there are chapters on water supply, energy for the home and recycling. Preserving the harvest and setting up and using a food storage program is also covered.

Sustainable House – Michael Mobbs – University of NSW Press (AUS) 2010 ISBN 978 1 92070 552 7 – This is a recent (and I think more well rounded) update of his 1998 classic. He is a pioneer of the urban sustainable house in Australia and was doing this stuff well before it became popular. This book is a “must have” covering all aspects of making our houses and lifestyles more sustainable from his experience rather than theory.

The Integral Urban House – The Farallones Institute – Sierra club books (US) 1979 ISBN0 87156 213 – The sub-title “Self Reliant Living in the City says it all! The book covers how the concept of the integral urban house was developed, how to conserve energy and resources, urban vegetable growing and small stock raising, solar technology and the wider world outside the house: the street and the neighbourhood. If you can find it, grab it!

Toolbox for Sustainable City Living – Scott Kellogg and Stacy Pettigrew – South End Press (US) 2008 ISBN 978 0 89608 780 4 – I love this book! It works through the major issues of city sustainability: food, water, waste and energy as well as providing a section on recovering urban spaces to production  call “bioremediation”, all in a very much hands on “how to” style. Well worth having!

The Australian Self Sufficiency Bible – Ken Fin Books (AUS) 1999 ISBN 0 7343 0111 1 – This big book is a collection of articles originally printed in Earth Garden Magazine 1972 to 1991.The articles are group together under such headings as “build your own house”, grow your own food”, “produce your own power” and “your own water supply”. While not specifically directed towards the urban/suburban environment there is much in this book that is still applicable to those areas. 



The Self Sufficient-ish Handbook – Andy and Dave Hamilton – Hodder and Stoughton (UK) 2008 ISBN 978 0 340 95101 9 – This book was put together by a couple of friends of ours and while the title doesn’t say it, it is an ideal book for the urban/suburban dweller who wants to live more sustainably, covering home, outdoors, lifestyle and food. There are some bits that don’t translate well to Aus, like stuff about allotments, but overall this one is well worth having.



The Urban Homestead – Kelly Coyne & Erik Knutzen – Process Media (UK) 2010 ISBN 978 1 934170 10 6 – This is 330 pages of how-to hands-on skills for living a more sustainable life in the city and suburbs. It covers starting your own urban farm, lots of stuff on veggie growing, livestock, foraging, providing your own water and power and even sustainable transport. This is a great book even if some of the things they talk about don’t translate exactly to the Australian experience. Unfortunately it does not appear to be available locally, I had to order it in from the US.

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