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Secret Garden of Survival: How to grow a camouflaged food- forest. Paperback – 25 Dec. 2012
Purchase options and add-ons
- Print length122 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- Publication date25 Dec. 2012
- Dimensions15.24 x 0.74 x 22.86 cm
- ISBN-101481839772
- ISBN-13978-1481839778
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Product details
- Publisher : CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (25 Dec. 2012)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 122 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1481839772
- ISBN-13 : 978-1481839778
- Dimensions : 15.24 x 0.74 x 22.86 cm
- Best Sellers Rank: 958,007 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,612 in Garden Design & Planning
- Customer reviews:
About the author

I used to be a traditional apple farmer. And just like every other traditional apple farmer, I had acres of apple trees planted in rows and rows, with nothing but grass growing in between.
And just like every other traditional apple farmer, I spent a fortune on fertilizer and pesticide - every 10 days and also after every rain. Yet I still had wormy, scabby apples, just like every other farmer around me.
Little did I know then, that the grass in between the trees sucked up the same nutrients that the apple trees needed. And little did I know then that the pesticide I was using was actually making my apples a bigger target for the pests I was trying to get rid of. That is because the predator bugs that would have taken care of the pests, were dying from the pesticide faster than the pests!
I knew there had to be a better way.
The Secret Garden of Survival is based on years of research, experimentation and first had experince on using permaculture concepts in a homestead orchard, vineyard and berryfarm.
These techniques work- amazingly well- because you simply let nature do what it wants to do, instead of trying to force nature to do what man wants it to do. All without using fertilizer, and without using pesticide.
I have been asked to speak at numerous conferences to talk about my success, and I have been teaching people how to do this on their own homesteads. Many people have asked me to write a book on the subject, so here it is.
I tried to make the book easy to follow, and easy to read. I tried to make it short and sweet, so people can get down to the meat of the subject. I used a lot of color pictures and illustrations, even though my publishers said this was going to be expensive- I knew it would be better for my readers to actually see how this is done, and with a picture being worth a thousand words, I guess I have saved you from reading over 100,000 additional words, by supplying you with these pictures.
Aside from having been a farmer, I have also been a “survivalist” and a “prepper” -- long before they coined the terms.
So this is the perfect garden for someone who wants to grow food for their homestead, but doesn't want the world to be able to see it.
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- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 4 March 2014Good book on why and how. Shows you tools on the subject, not a step by step how to, everyone's needs are different, so a good book.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 January 2015Love this book has motivated me to start my own Survival garden.
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 July 2013its ok,,a good read and imformative. you would need your own land and have money to do the prodjects,,but the imformatoin gets you thinking and i think the prodjects could be scaled down accordingly
- Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 January 2024I didn't read the description properly, I thought this was a book on self sufficient forest gardens. I did not expect a prepper book with a photo of refugees getting off a boat labelled as 'zombie hordes'.
Top reviews from other countries
John and Debbie PokornyReviewed in Canada on 26 April 20225.0 out of 5 stars Recognition
This book is very informative and shows a more natural way to garden whereas one cannot recognize it is a garden. It is done without fertilizers and pesticides. Very interesting.
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DokMartuReviewed in France on 24 October 20193.0 out of 5 stars Pas un mauvais livre, mais titre trompeur
Intéressé par la permaculture, ce livre m'avait été recommandé. J'ai été un peu déçu par le contenu. La plus grande partie du livre évoque l'irrigation du jardin et délaisse un peu les autres techniques. Ce n'est pas un mauvais livre, mais je trouve le titre trompeur.
Civil Defense BookReviewed in the United States on 18 January 20145.0 out of 5 stars This book changed the way I look at food preparedness
“Secret Garden of Survival” by Rick Austin is a book that fits squarely in the ”must have” category for your preparedness library. Like many preppers, I have a ton of books in my library. Personally, I prefer having hardcopies of any I think are particularly useful. In a long term grid-down, having a hardcopy library will be essential. Many preparedness books, while they may be good, can be duplicative. Many essentially rehash the same territory.
“Secret Garden of Survival” is one of the books I want to have around both before and after a long term disaster. It stands out for me as one of the books that has critical information that you just cant get elsewhere. I like books that either make me rethink my prepping strategies or teach me better ways of doing things. “Secret Garden of Survival” did both.
I’m a novice gardener (to put it generously – if gardening was a martial art, I might say I’m barely a “yellow belt”). I have the typical back yard raised gardens and I mostly buy annuals at Home Depot or a local garden store with everybody else. Some years I’m more successful than others, but I have recognized that my food production capability and skills are areas that need much work.
Rick Austin takes you on a detailed tour of how he set up his secret garden of survival. He touches on every aspect, from site selection, construction, grey water systems, permaculture guilds – all the way up to storing and preserving the harvest. This book ties together the entire cycle from concept to canning. This book is both for preppers and those who would like to explore more natural methods of gardening.
This book accomplishes what Mr. Austin set out to do: It provides an overview – from start to finish – on concepts that many people are not familiar with. It provides a solution to one of the most important preparedness subjects: food. (In “beans, bullets and bandages” terms, this book covers one third of it.) For many, this book will provide practical and innovative ideas to improve their odds in a survival situation. For many, this book will provide great ideas for having a more natural and productive garden. For many, it will provide both.
This book is not intended to be a detailed treatise on every subject and sub-concept involved and it never pretends to be. Its strength is that it gives you a view of the entire food cycle and how to cooperate with nature – rather than trying to outdo her – in order to get better results. The fact that you can do this in a manner not likely to be noticed by others is an important factor for those of us who worry about the security of our food sources from a preparedness perspective. Although the garden Mr. Austin describes and builds is ambitious, he emphasizes that you can start small – with one guild at a time – and improve over time. It does not need to be done all at once. That being said, the book will also enable you to plan your garden so that you start it out right the first time and have the flexibility to expand it in the future.
So how has this book changed me? As I look at land for my future homestead, this book has given me a lot of ideas of what to look for. I assure you that when I look at land now, I’ll be thinking about the concepts I learned from Mr. Ausitn’s book and exactly where my secret garden of survival would fit in. I can also start small at my current location to experiment with and benefit from the concepts. I have learned a lot from this book.
I highly recommend ”Secret Garden of Survival” by Rick Austin. If you are new to prepping or gardening, this book will put you on the right path. If you are experienced in one or both, it might just change the way you look at your food preps. It is well worth the price. If I lost the copy I have now, I would buy another.
danielaReviewed in Italy on 26 January 20155.0 out of 5 stars Very clear and useful
A good start for people who want make a perennial garden with lot of food...permaculture at it best ...i loved it
RossReviewed in Australia on 8 November 20155.0 out of 5 stars Great intro to permaculture too.
Worth buying. Good intro to permaculture on difficult ground, starting from clay. If you found this book, it was actively seeking you. Enjoy the ride!






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