The Ultimate Guide to Turning Any Backyard Into a Food-Producing, Money-Saving Powerhouse
40 Years Living Off-Grid. 100+ Ingenious DIY Projects
My name is Ron, and together with my wife Johanna, I am the author of The Self-Sufficient Backyard. We are not influencers, marketers, or professional writers. We are ordinary people who chose a different path and stayed on it long enough to understand what works truly — and what doesn’t.
I wasn’t born into this lifestyle. I was raised in the city, in Philadelphia. I didn’t grow up farming. I didn’t inherit land.
I didn’t have special skills or a large bank account. Like many people reading this, I started with curiosity, a desire for independence, and a lot to learn.
In the late 1970s, Johanna and I became part of the “back to the land” movement.
We made a decision that would shape the rest of our lives — to live independently, produce what we could ourselves, and rely as little as possible on outside systems.
For over four decades, an electric wire has never been connected to any home we have lived in. We’ve produced our own power.


We would like to share with you all the projects we made here in our small paradise in minute detail so that you can start implementing them on your land or in your house and profit for the rest of your life.
We’ll also cover subjects in depth such as water, food preservation, off grid power, medicinal garden, you name it. We want to put in your hands helpful how-to illustrations … easy to follow, step-by-step advice … brilliant tips and ingenious time-savers.
From all the projects you’ll find in The Self-Sufficient Backyard I’m pretty sure you’ll find some that are suitable for your property.
We’ve created what may well be the most comprehensive, step-by-step system to transform a regular homeowner or apartment dweller into an independent, self-sufficient homesteader.



First thing you’ll find out is that all you need to be self sufficient in terms of food are just 1,020 square feet of land per person, if you follow the methods we developed. That’s less than 10% of our entire ¼ acre parcel you can see in our sketch.
We developed this plan on quarter of an acre for a family of 4 to be totally self-sufficient, and have goods to sell and sustain a healthy profit year round. But we created it in such a way that it is easy to downsize if you have less land or fewer family members.
Then we go into minute details for each section



I’ll also show you how to make the simplest water collection system and how you can easily implement it on your own homestead.
We don’t pay for irrigation water, as we collect and store every gallon we need in these inexpensive tanks.
We can also filter and drink it.



You will also discover the 7 plants you really need to have in a medicinal garden and not only how to care for them, but how to turn them into tinctures and other remedies.
For the last 40 years we’ve been using these herbs, so how would you feel instead of paying for natural remedies or supplements to just pick them up from your backyard?
I’m not talking about folk remedies here, I’m talking about real plants that we found out over the last 4 decades that are very effective, and not something that you read on the internet.

When the plane took off from our homestead in Northern Saskatchewan and became a speck in the sky, the closest pharmacy was 100 miles away with no roads to get there.
We would place our lives in the hands of these 7 plants and I think they should be in the backyards of every American concerned about their health.



We will also show how you can live without refrigeration and everything you need to do to preserve your food, from eggs to vegetables, roots, fruits, and meats.
Everything you can produce, you can also preserve, just like our forefathers did when there were no refrigerators. We learned how to do this because we had no other option.
In the wilderness of Saskatchewan, we had nowhere to go to buy groceries and supplies. If we didn’t preserve the things we produced, we wouldn’t have survived there.



You will also discover in minute detail how to set up one of the most reliable, cost-effective hybrid electricity system for your house. We’ll show you what batteries to get for storage, what type of controller, cables, inverter… everything you need and how to set them up for maximum efficiency.
For the last 40 years, a wire from the power grid has never been connected to a home in which we’ve lived.

Using this inexpensive hybrid system we developed and perfected over the years, you’ll have an ultra-reliable source of power with no worries of any future price increases, outages from downed wires or deliberate attacks to the grid.
Or, you can opt to sell the excess power back to the utility company if you choose to remain connected to the grid, making money off them instead of the other way around.



Unlike a regular refrigerator, this fridge requires no electricity, and it can help you store most of what you harvest for a very long time free of charge.



If you don’t have an automatic irrigation system, then you might either lose some plants if you forget to water them or spend time needlessly watering them.
For this system, you do the work only once, and then it does the job for you every single day for many years to come.
I’ll show you the exact system we’ve perfected after years of trial and error to keep our plants optimally well hydrated without using much water at all.



You will also see what survival foods you can grow not only outside but also INSIDE your home, hanging in shopping bags or hidden in plain sight on your kitchen counter.
There is no need to panic, but history has taught us time and again that we are just a few meals away from anarchy.



You will also find out how to make an automated 24-hour bio insect control system. Instead of using pesticides, you can grow all your produce organically by making a small swallow or bluebird house and a bat shelter.
They’ll take turns getting rid of the pests for you.
A bat can eat an astonishing 4,000 insects a night and a bluebird around 1000 bugs a day including cabbage worms, whiteflies, aphids, earwigs, grasshoppers, cucumber, various beetles and grubs!
Also, their appetite for mosquitoes certainly makes a backyard more comfortable.



In the Self-Sufficient Backyard, we cover homestead water supply in depth because the lifeblood of any homestead is a reliable water source.
We’ve tried a lot of things over the years: we dug wells, had a well drilled, pumped water from a lake and set up shallow and deep well hand pumps for water.

We even installed a simple hand pump next to our kitchen sink for convenience if the electric pump failed us.
Whatever water source you choose for your property, you will find it here with pictures and guidance to set it up.
If your only source of water is the tap water from the public utility company, you are not independent. And you are paying for it.



We’ll also show you a simple and ingenious solution that you can apply in your house to have pressurized hot water.
This system heats the water whenever we cook or heat the house, so we don't pay extra to get hot water and neither should you.



You’ll also find out how to make a year-round self-sustaining greenhouse no matter where you live in America.
You can place it on the south side of your house.
We’ll also show you how to both collect and retain heat through the night, what materials to use, how to insulate it, the best angles for your area, how to get maximum glazing, how to ventilate it… and anything else you can think of.
We’ll also show you some upgrades you can add such as installing a window or vents that open into the greenhouse, so that whenever you ventilate the house in the winter, warm air goes into the greenhouse.
In the spring and autumn, it’s the other way around, letting the warm air from the greenhouse flow and heat the house.

Using a cold frame in our Saskatchewan self-sustaining greenhouse, we were able to grow lettuce while two feet of snow were still on the ground. But even this is nothing compared to the ultimate upgrade you can bring to the greenhouse.
We’re talking geothermal, using the earth’s stored heat to our advantage. That’s because 10 feet below ground, the temperature is always stable at around 55 degrees, summer or winter, Texas or Maine.
The way you can harness this stable underground temperature is to circulate the air from the greenhouse through underground loop pipes until it warms to almost 55 degrees. The only energy spent is with a very small fan that circulates the air through the tubes.



You’ll find a lot of backyard projects that may find their way into your future homestead such as: chicken coop, hoop tunnels, walipini, trellises, raised beds, hay and strawbale gardens, container gardening, windowsill gardening, and a lot more.



You will find out everything you need to know about raising chickens, from egg to your dinner table. Chickens “done right” really are the most cost-effective protein source for any homesteader.
We’ll show you simple tricks we discovered to make your each hen lay more than 300 eggs per year.
For example, one of the tricks we’ve learned before butchering is the night before to withhold all food from our chickens.
There’s no need to waste the feed and we want to clean out their digestive systems. Allow them plenty of water though. This will make the whole process a lot easier.



We will also show you everything we do to preserve our food: from eggs to vegetables, roots, fruits, meats… everything we produce, we preserve.
We had no other option. In the long winters of Saskatchewan, we had nowhere to go to buy groceries and supplies. If we didn’t preserve the things we produced, we wouldn’t have thrived there.



With this knowledge, you can transform from an honest homeowner into an independent, self-sufficient person that has an extra income and doesn’t owe anybody a thing.
You will not be troubled with what happens to the world around you, because everything you need is where is should be: on your property!
Over the years, more than 10,000 readers have trusted The Self-Sufficient Backyard, and the response has been overwhelmingly positive.
People from all walks of life — homeowners, families, and retirees — are using the ideas inside to plan better, avoid costly mistakes, and build real independence at their own pace.
Watch what our beloved customers have to say about this book



In it, you’ll discover how to set up an aquaponic system that you can fit in your backyard, in your basement or in your Greenhouse.
The awesome thing about an aquaponic garden is that every part of the system produces food for another.

These projects were the lifeblood of their homesteads and kept their inhabitants free.
We've utilized many of the old-time skills and techniques from yesteryear.
Over time, we’ve incorporated some of the newer methods for doing things. But make no mistake, even though we’ve picked and chosen some of the modern ways of doing tasks, we still retain the practical knowledge of the old ways.

In this unique book, I will show you exactly where you can find your own free land in 21st century America.
These plots are between 1 to 5 acres but with the Self-Sufficient Backyard that’s more than enough.

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“The Self-Sufficient Backyard” is our life and everything we’ve personally gone through, so we're happy to stand behind it 100%.
You have 30 full days to go through our program and If for any reason the book isn’t exactly as promised, simply reach out to us within 30 days of your purchase.
Let us know what didn’t meet your expectations, and we’ll refund your money in full. No stress. No complicated steps. Just a simple, honest 30-day money-back guarantee.
This could be the ticket to your retirement paradise, a new adventure, a more frugal lifestyle, to ditch the 9 to 5 rat race, the healthy and peaceful life you always dreamed of, or your very independence.
For us it’s all of the above. But for you, even if it’s just one of them, we hope it’s still worth a lot more than we’ve priced it.
No back-breaking work involved.
As you can see, we're in our 60s, and just 3 years ago we started our third homestead. So, we really mean it when we say that what we’re going to show you won't require hard work.
So, it doesn’t matter if you’re a senior or have back problems. We will compensate for the work with the wisdom we’ve gathered during these 40 years
You don’t need any special skills or knowledge
You don’t need too much land either. Our program makes a small backyard go a loooong way. People living in suburbia should know that we made this program thinking about them too.
The quarter acre illustration is down sizable to whatever size your backyard is. Of course, you will not be able to be self-sufficient on 200 square feet, but you can surely use them to their full potential with our program.
You don’t need money either
For the last 40 years we’ve been living the old ways of our grandparents, but without sacrificing any of the modern comforts of today.
We’re out in the boonies, but we have internet access, satellite TV, modern composting toilet, a sewer system, and … we are NOT rich… so we did this with very little money.
You don’t need any special skills or knowledge
I, Ron, was a city folk, born and raised in Philadelphia. I hope I don’t burst your bubble but I am nothing special, I have no great powers, super strength, superior intellect or amazing qualities.
As long as you have the desire, you do not need any special skills or knowledge. We will provide that. You will learn as you go.
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