The following books and collections written by John Jeavons, Ecology Action staff, and apprentices, are available online from Bountiful Gardens.

The Backyard Homestead | The Basic Biointensive Library Collection
The Complete Ecology Action Library Collection | Future Fertility
How to Grow More Vegetables (English) | Spanish | German | Arabic | Hindi | French
One Circle | Proceedings of the Soil, Food and People Conference
The Sustainable Vegetable Garden (English) | Spanish

The Backyard Homestead

Mini-Farm & Garden Log Book
Jeavons, Griffin, and Leler, l983 - spiral bound, 234 pp.

For those who want to develop more self-reliance, earn an income from mini-farming, or just to learn how to become more effective food growers. This companion book to How to Grow More Vegetables is the result of ten years of practical garden research and covers such subjects as food from your backyard homestead, beginning to mini-farm, tools you can make (including the U-Bar), plans to build portable greenhouses, crop profiles and tests, calendars, essential bookkeeping, and much more. Spiral Bound only.

“...in his mini-green revolution John Jeavons is demonstrating that small is beautiful.”
-The Manchester Guardian

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The Basic Biointensive Library

While How To Grow More Vegetables... is all you need to start and to practice Biointensive gardening, we continue to produce additional materials of special interest. This collection of books provides a well-rounded education in Biointensive gardening for the advanced gardener or the professional.

The basic books are: How to Grow More Vegetables, Backyard Homestead, The Sustainable Vegetable Garden, One Circle, Booklets: 0, 1, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 21, 22, 24, 26 and 32.

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The Complete Ecology Action Library

All books, booklets and information sheets.

Everything Ecology Action has in print in the English language as of January 1, 2006: How to Grow More Vegetables, The Sustainable Vegetable Garden, Proceedings from the Soil Food and People Conference, Future Fertility, One Circle, Backyard Homestead, Booklets: 0, 1, 2, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, TB 1, PB 1, Complete set of Info Packets, Intensive Food Production on a Human Scale, Biointensive Sustainable Mini-Farming, Siberian Biointensive Research Report, Biodynamic Gardening in India, Living Quarters for Plant Roots, Appropriate Agriculture, Circle of Plenty Booklet, Man of the Trees, and Weaving a Lavender Wand--everything in the Basic Biointensive library plus more ( does not include videos or training program info).

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Future Fertility

Transforming Human Waste Into Human Wealth
John Beeby, 1995, 164 pp.

Returning the nutrients in human waste back to the soil from which they came is essential for the sustainability of agriculture worldwide. This detailed and practical manual describes both established and innovative low-technology methods of safely and effectively recycling the nutrients in human waste. More importantly, it describes the principles behind the methods, and criteria that any method must meet for safety and sustainability. A must for those interested in transforming their waste into wealth in the future.

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How to Grow More Vegetables*

*(and fruit, nuts, berries, grains and other crops) than you ever thought possible on less land than you can imagine
John Jeavons, 7th edition, 2006, 288 pp.

A fully revised, updated and expanded edition of the book that helped revolutionize food production around the world, and in our backyard gardens. Yes, it is possible to grow fresh vegetables for a family of four on the front lawn! The classic book on GROW BIOINTENSIVE(R) gardening for beginners to advanced gardeners. The most complete and practical book of its kind, proven effective in all types of garden conditions. This book is every gardener’s guidebook to healthier and more beautiful gardens.

This major revision updates everything, with the most current information, techniques and data, as well as important current topics like soil sustainability and the future of farming. All charts and plans are updated; the bibliography is expanded by 25%; more help in working toward sustainable soil fertility is included. Best of all, an index has been added to make the book easier to use, which readers have requested for many years. Everyone who has used and enjoyed previous editions will want this book--the best thing any gardener can do for their garden!

“...possibly the most detailed explanation of the Intensive gardening method available.”-The New York Times

Learn More About This Book

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Also available are the following editions of How to Grow More Vegetables... published in different languages:

• Cultivo Biointensivo de Alimentos (Spanish), 6th edition, 2004, 261 pp.
• How To Grow More Vegetables (Arabic), 5th edition, 1997, 300 pp.
• Comment Faire Pousser Plus des Legumes (French), 2nd edition, 115 pp.
• Mehr Gemuse Im Eigenen Garten (German), 1st edition, 82 pp.
• How To Grow More Vegetables - ( Hindi), 1st edition, 1987, 70 pp.

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One Circle

How to Grow a Complete Diet in Less Than 1000 Square Feet

By: Dave Duhon & Cindy Gebhard
1984, 200 pp , Language: English

Using the techniques described in How To Grow More Vegetables..., this book will help you explore your nutritional needs and then design and produce a complete vegetarian diet in as little as 700 square feet. Loaded with charts, annotated bibliographies, step-by-step instructions, and even cut-out slide rules for the calculations. You’re invited to participate in this bold, new cutting-edge of Biointensive development and research. You will need to read How To Grow More Vegeables... first.

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Proceedings of the Soil, Food and People Conference

Hugh Roberts, editor, 2002, 180 pp.

From a conference presented by Ecology Action and attended by Biointensive practitioners form all over the world. Attendees were inspired and energized by the sharing of work and experience. If you missed this conference held at UC-Davis in March 2000, or attended and want to review the information, you’ll love this book! Every speaker has been included, and there are photos and supporting material also. Some topics covered are:

• GROW BIOINTENSIVE Mini-Farming,
• Farming with a passive solar greenhouse,
• Heirloom seed preservation,
• Reports from projects worldwide
• ...and much more.

Relevant for everyone who enjoys using Biointensive techniques, but especially so for those who intend to teach these methods or work with them in other countries.

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The Sustainable Vegetable Garden

The Backyard Guide To Higher Yields and Healthy Soil
John Jeavons & Carol Cox, revised 1999, 118 pp.

This is a simpler, more basic version of How to Grow More Vegetables..., based on a simple garden plan. Formerly titled Lazy Bed Gardening, this book has been revised to include the latest information on GROW BIOINTENSIVE techniques. Includes a new chapter on seed saving. Especially suitable for teachers planning a school garden, or for anyone who prefers a shorter simpler introduction to GROW BIOINTENSIVE.

"A lazy bed is a deeply prepared bed (2’ deep) whose growing area can produce up to four times more than an equivalent area prepared less deeply and planted in rows. So the gardener has only one bed to dig, one bed to fertilize, one bed to water, one bed to weed - only one-quarter the area it would take to produce the same amount of yield by other methods.”

This book combines our experiences from How to Grow More Vegetables... and Booklets #14 and #26 into a new understanding of how to grow all your own food in the backyard, while also caring for the health of your soil and the planet. The emphasis is on food gardening and improving the soil through crop selection. New gardeners can now benefit from direct garden research in over 130 countries - this method has been tried everywhere, on every type of soil, in all climates, and it works for epicurean gardeners as well as third world farmers. It gives specific recommendations on the best crops for beginning gardeners, and how much to grow for a family’s needs.

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El Huerto Sustentable

The Spanish language version of The Sustainable Vegetable Garden is available as a PDF.
To download a copy, click here. (4.29 MB file)

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The following booklets, written by John Jeavons, Ecology Action staff and apprentices, contain basic information for learning GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and other techniques, and are available online from Bountiful Gardens.

Click a title to order.

Booklet 0

Biointensive Mini-Farming: A Rational Use of Natural Resources
EA Staff, 1985, 13 pp.

Explains what Ecology Action is doing and why. Well footnoted.

Booklet 2

One Crop Test Booklet: Soybeans
By: Griffin & Jeavons, 1980, 24 pp.

Contains step-by-step instructions for conducting comparative tests for spacing and yield (with optional water monitoring) for soybeans, an important protein crop.

Booklet 9: A Perspective

A Perspective
By: John Jeavons
1981, 17 pp , Language: English

A paper given at The Second International Conference on Small Scale Intensive Food Production, reporting on the worldwide efforts of Ecology Action and others.

Booklet 11: Examining the Tropics

Examining the Tropics: A Small Scale Approach to Sustainable Agriculture
Jeavons & Griffin, 1982, 40 pp.

A “working paper” designed to present basic information on the tropics. Contains a large bibliography.

Booklet 12

Growing and Gathering Your Own Fertilizer
EA staff, 1984, 140 pp.

We’ve had increasing requests for a book on how to grow your own fertilizer from common materials. Over 90 of tables on the fertilizer potential of common home, garden and farm materials. Many places in the world (US also) simply cannot easily get commercial or prepared fertilizers. Get independence in your garden.

Booklet 13

Growing to Seed
Peter Donelan, revised 1999, 45 pp.

How to grow all your own seed in the smallest possible area in your own backyard. Maintain optimum health and genetic diversity in your seed stock! Includes information on vegetables, grains, cover crops, seed exchanges, and seed co-operatives, plus a bibliography. Essential tables on crops and their seed-saving characteristics.

Booklet 14

The Complete 21-Bed Biointensive Mini-Farm
John Jeavons, 1986, 39 pp.

Currently it takes a minimum of 10,000 square feet to feed one person in the U.S., and often 16,000 square feet to feed one person in the Third World. This booklet gives a step-by-step approach on how to start sustainably growing all your food, a small income, and compost crops in as little as 2,100 square feet. Assumes you've read How to Grow More Vegetables, One Circle, Backyard Homestead.

Booklet 15

One Basic Mexican Diet
J Mogador Griffin, 1987, 32 pp.

This booklet grew out of Gary Stoner’s work with the Menos y Mejores project in Tula, Tamaulipas, Mexico. It includes an exploration and complete nutritional analysis of a typical family diet. We can learn much about providing for ourselves from our friends in Tula. Available in both English and Spanish - please specify when ordering.

Booklet 16

Foliar Feeding
Peter Donelan, 1988, 9 pp.

A consideration of how to get the most from your crops through foliar feeding, with several easy-to-make-at-home recipes for sprays.

Booklet 17

Backyard Garden Research
John Jeavons & Bill Bruneau, 1988, 32 pp.

Techniques for improving your garden and gardening. What to look at when setting up your garden, ways to improve your garden’s performance, and how to listen to what your garden is telling you.

Booklet 18

Dried, Cut, and Edible Flowers for Pleasure, Food and Income
Louisa Lenz, 1990, 60 pp.

Flowers enrich our lives, are often quite useful for vegetable growing by serving as food sources for pollinating insects, can be part of a good business, and many are even good to eat! Cultivation of dried and cut flowers, information on edible flowers, and economic data on mini-farming flowers commercially. Illustrated.

Booklet 19

Biointensive Micro-Farming; A Seventeen Year Perspective
John Jeavons, 1989, 20 pp.

This booklet answers many of the most commonly asked questions about our work and the purpose and direction of our research.

Booklet 20

An Ecology Action Reading Guide
John Jeavons, 1988, 12 pp.

Our Ecology Action publications contain a wealth of information - here is John’s plan for the best way to use them to make your learning easier. What to read when, plus suggested supplemental readings. Create your own curriculum.

Booklet 21

Micro-farmers as a Key to The Revitalization of the World’s Agriculture and Environment
John Jeavons, 1989, 13 pp.

Micro-farming in a global and a national context--shows the contribution it can make to solving many of our current environmental and agricultural problems.

Booklet 22

Grow Your Manure For Free
John Jeavons & Bill Bruneau, 1990, 12 pp.

An excellent and concise summary on growing compost crops to improve your soil’s fertility. Highlights ten exceptional crops and their respective advantages, with tips on how to plant and compost them.

Booklet 24

Ecology Action’s Comprehensive Definition of Sustainability
John Jeavons & Steve Rioch, 2005, 4 pp.

What specifically sustainability is, with notes.

Booklet 25

One Basic Kenyan Diet: Diet, Income and Compost Crop Designs in a Three Bed Learning Model
Patrick Wasike, 1991, 23 pp.

A thorough analysis of a vegetarian Kenyan diet. A fully sustainable three bed model, based on our Booklet 14. Profusely illustrated with charts and references.

Booklet 26

Learning To Grow All Your Own Food: One Bed Model For Compost, Diet and Income Crops
Carol Cox & Staff, 1991, 25 pp.

Based on Booklet 14, this complete course was developed through our workshops on the one-bed learning & teaching model. Gives detailed cultural instructions for many crops that we have found successful in our research garden. Good materials for planning and record keeping..

Booklet 27

Growing Medicinal Herbs in as Little as Fifty Square Feet - Uses and Recipes
Louisa Lenz-Porter, 1995, 40 pp.

How to grow most of one person’s medicinal herbs in as little as 50 square feet. An herbal “medicine cabinet.” of 24 common, easily grown herbs is described in depth. Instructions, recipes, and bibliography take an easy approach to an enjoyable activity. Sample 50-sq-foot bed with ideas for personal modifications.

Booklet 28

The Smallest Possible Area to Grow Food and Feed
Emmanuel Chiwo Omondi, 1997, 45 pp.

Sustainable diet and dairy production, for a family with one cow.

Booklet 29

Test Your Soil With Plants
John Beeby, 1997, 86 pp.

Discover how you can tell what fertilizers to use to optimize your garden’s health and productivity, simply by observing the plants growing in your garden.

Booklet 30

GROW BIOINTENSIVE® Sustainable Mini-Farming Teacher Certification Program
EA Staff, 2002, 38 pp.

Details for those who are interested in the requirements and process for becoming Certified Teachers of Biointensive techniques.

Booklet 31

Designing a GROW BIOINTENSIVE(R) Sustainable Mini-Farm – A Working Paper
Ecology Action Staff, 2003, 45 pp.

Introduces in detail the concepts behind the design of a sustainable mini-farm that provides compost material for soil fertility, food for a balanced diet, and crops to market for a small income, all in the smallest possible area. Includes 10 forms to be filled out with data from your own garden site and nutritional needs and takes you through the process that will end in a sustainable design for your own specific situation. The process is one used in our workshops that has evolved over many years.... a practical tool for your home garden!

Booklet 32

GROW BIOINTENSIVE(R) Composting and Growing Compost Materials
Ecology Action Staff, 2004, 35 pp.

Revised version of discontinued booklets 10 and 23. This book details our research into producing the highest quality compost from crops grown in your own garden. All that we have learned in the past 14 years has been included.

Solar Water Heater
Jeff Smith and John Warner, 2000, 12 pp.

Sweaty gardeners at our research garden have been grateful for the solar-heated shower in the garden, and we have had requests for the plans…so here they are. Written by the two master builders who installed ours, these are detailed plans with drawings, a materials list, and complete instructions on building and sitting.

Another Way to Wealth
Sondra Blomberg, 1991, 16 pp.

A journey of one person from a good job in industry towards an organic Biointensive community-supported economic mini-farm and an integrated, simple, spiritual way-of-life. Included are questionnaires to assist others in their journeys.

Booklets in Other Languages

Many of these booklets are also available in other languages. For more information, see pages 3 and 4 of the Bountiful Gardens listing of Ecology Action Research Papers.

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The following information sheets, articles and papers are written by John Jeavons, Ecology Action staff, and apprentices.

They contain basic information for learning GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and other techniques, and are available online from Bountiful Gardens.

Click a title to order.

About Amaranth and Quinoa

2 pp. Information sheet.
Brief history, culture, and uses of Amaranth and Quinoa.

Garden Techniques

12 topics, 31 pp.
Some greening-edge techniques and observations on the art of gardening..

Biointensive Projects

5 topics, 14 pp.
Profiles of some of the major Biointensive projects around the world.

Insect and Animal Life

6 topics, 10 pp.
Useful hints and tips for dealing with our wilder neighbors.

Sustainable Soil Fertility

18 topics, 43 pp.
The heart of our work, learning how to have a really sustainable garden/mini-farm.

Inspiration

6 topics, 13 pp.
The bigger picture. Articles that are the key “position papers” of Ecology Action, and put our work in perspective.

Limited Water Growing

4 topics, 6 pp.
Articles on water-saving techniques.

Cooking with Sunshine

2 pp.

Small Cabin/Land Trust Information

2 pp.

Children's Gardening Resources

3 pp.

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Ant Control Suggestions

2 pp.
Included in Insect and Animal Life.

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Grain/Seed Crop Chart

4 pp.
Lists 20 different grain crops with details for their planting and extensive comments. included in
Crops set above.

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Data Report Sheet

1 pp.
The form to use to send Ecology Action data from your garden. Free.

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Intensive Food Production on a Human Scale

Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Small Scale and Intensive Food Production
Hugh Roberts ed., 1982, 224 pp.

The result of a gathering of 100 people from projects in 16 countries who came to discuss and share their work in growing food in an increasingly hungry world. A basic book for anyone interested in sustainable global food production. Includes list of participants..

Biointensive Sustainable Mini-Farming Preliminary Research

Preliminary Research Overview
EA Staff, 1996, 25 pp.

A brief summary of a quarter-century (1972-1996) of Biointensive research experiences in California, India, Russia, and other regions.

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Siberian Biointensive Research Report

Larissa Avrorina, 1995, 16 pp.

A detailed research report and conclusions from a year of Siberian Biointensive Sustainable Mini-Farming research compared with usual practices in the region.

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Biodynamic Gardening In India

Engineering of Photosynthesis Systems, Vol. 42
1980, 37 pp.

Summarizes 3 years’ work at their research center in Madras, India, and with Harijan low-income families. Shows how this method can be transferred to very disadvantaged families owning small, poor strips of land. Promising yields serve as a valuable source of nutritional and economic augmentation. This center received one of India’s highest awards in 1981.

Living Quarters for Plant Roots

Henry C DeRoo, 1956, 6 pp.

This important reprint from the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens gives a good description, with photographs, of the improved growth of roots in deeply prepared soil. Recommended by our garden staff--will help inspire you to double dig your beds! Also available in Spanish.

Appropriate Agriculture

Michael Shepard & John Jeavons, 1977, 14 pp.

This footnoted paper was presented at the 1977 “Small is Beautiful’’ Conference at UCD. Presents many historical examples and speaks of the need to look at our present methods of fossil fuel-based agriculture. Still very current.

Circle of Plenty

Ecology Action Staff, 1996, 26 pp.

Inspiring stories and personal Biointensive experiences from around the world. A sampler of the good that Biointensive can bring about worldwide.

GB Directory Application Form

6 pp.

Application Form to be included in the International Directory of GROW BIOINTENSIVE Mini-Farms and Mini-Farmers.

Biointensive Reporting Requirements for Major Programs

2 pp.

Biointensive Reporting Requirements for Major Programs

GROW BIOINTENSIVE^SM Apprentice Opportunities

John Jeavons & staff, 2005, 27 pp.

Describes the professional program at Ecology Action’s research and education site in Willits, California, for those who want to become teachers in Biointensive sustainable ways of life by living such a life and actively catalyzing this process in others. Also included are application forms and a list of some other organizations’ apprenticeship opportunities

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The following information videos and DVDs, contain basic information for learning GROW BIOINTENSIVE method and other techniques, and are available online from Bountiful Gardens.

Click a title to order.

Dig It!

John Jeavons Double-Digging Video
1997 VHS, 30 min pp.

This video shows how to prepare your soil better and much more easily by following the techniques John Jeavons has developed while double digging all over the world for the last quarter of a century. Learn directly from the master. These techniques will improve your garden, and its soil, wherever you live. Have fun digging! VHS format. Also available in Spanish

Circle of Plenty

1987, 28 min pp. VHS

A PBS-TV special on Ecology Action’s work and key Biointensive mini-farming work in Mexico. Everyone I have talked to has been moved by this labor of love. Buy one of these as a gift for a good friend or loved one.

Circle of Plenty

1987, 28 min pp. DVD

A PBS-TV special on Ecology Action’s work and key Biointensive mini-farming work in Mexico. Everyone I have talked to has been moved by this labor of love. Buy one of these as a gift for a good friend or loved one.

Gardensong

1983, 28 min pp. VHS

A PBS – TV special on Alan Chadwick and the biodynamic/French intensive method. Coverage is given to those organizations that carry on Alan’s work, with a large share focusing on John and Ecology Action.

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