Home/Book review/The Self-Sufficient Backyard Review: Is It Worth It?
The Self-Sufficient Backyard Review: Is It Worth It?
A 266-page reference from two people who have actually lived off-grid for four decades — but it is a map, not a construction manual.
Short answer: The Self-Sufficient Backyard is worth it if you want one broad, experience-based reference that connects land planning, food storage, water, and off-grid power. It is not worth it if you want step-by-step build plans, exact blueprints, or a course. It is a 266-page book by Ron and Johanna Melchiore, priced at $37 digital or $37 plus $9.99 shipping for print.
The book at a glance
- Authors
- Ron and Johanna Melchiore — homesteading for roughly 40 years, now in their 60s
- Length
- 266 pages
- Digital price
- $37 (PDF, available worldwide)
- Print price
- $37 + $9.99 shipping (US orders)
- Bonuses
- 3 free digital bonus books with either version
- Guarantee
- 60-day money-back guarantee
- Print shipping
- US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand only
What it actually is
This is a wide, general homesteading reference written by a couple who built their own off-grid property and have maintained it for decades. The tone is conversational and practical rather than technical. Chapters move between land layout, soil and crops, food preservation, animals, water, and power — the assumption being that most readers are trying to make a normal-sized property work harder, not buy 40 acres.
What it is not: a set of engineered plans. There are no dimensioned drawings for a greenhouse, no wiring diagrams for a solar array, no legal guidance for zoning or water rights. If you need those, this book points you in the right direction and you go find the specifics elsewhere. That distinction matters a lot when you are deciding whether $37 is well spent.
Who it is for — and who it is not for
It fits you if
- You have a house and a normal lot, and want to use it more seriously
- You want one book that covers the whole system, not 12 specialist books
- You are planning in seasons and years, not weekends
- You learn well from experience and rules of thumb
- You want the preservation and storage side, not just gardening
It does not fit you if
- You want engineering drawings and exact material lists
- You already run a productive homestead — much will be familiar
- You need climate-specific advice for deep cold or desert heat
- You want a structured course with exercises and checkpoints
- You expect a book to replace local regulations and professional advice
What is inside
The material gathers around nine themes, which is what makes it useful as a planning reference rather than a single-topic manual:
- Plotting land for yield. How to read a property — sun, slope, wind, water movement — and place elements so they do work for each other.
- Crop rotation and soil. Keeping beds productive without mining them, and why rotation is a pest strategy as much as a fertility one.
- Root cellar storage. Cool, dark, humid storage as the cheapest preservation method you can build.
- Smokehouse and meat handling. Traditional preservation, framed around doing it safely and at the right scale.
- Seed saving. Keeping your own genetics going instead of buying seed every spring.
- Rainwater catchment. Roof area, storage, and gravity as the basis of a water plan.
- Greenhouse growing. Extending the season and using thermal mass instead of fuel.
- Bees and small animals. Chickens and bees as the entry point to livestock, with realistic space expectations.
- Off-grid power. How solar, batteries and generators actually fit together, in plain language.
Each theme is treated as an introduction with strong opinions attached, not an exhaustive manual. The value is in the connections: the same land-reading exercise that decides where the garden goes also decides where the water tank and the greenhouse go.
Digital vs physical
Both versions cost $37, so this is really a question of how you will use the book.
| Digital (PDF) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Price | $37 | $37 + $9.99 shipping |
| Delivery | Instant download | Shipped |
| Availability | Worldwide | US, Canada, Australia, NZ only |
| Searchable | Yes | No |
| Best for | Reading on a tablet, searching for a topic, overseas buyers | Flipping through on a workbench, no screen, lending out |
If you are outside the four print countries, digital is the only option — that is a shipping limitation, not a marketing choice. If you are in the US and plan to use it as a reference you will open repeatedly, print is the more natural format for most people, and $9.99 shipping on a 266-page book is unremarkable.
Price and guarantee
At $37 the book sits in the normal range for a self-published specialty title. Whether that is good value depends on how many of the nine topics you actually need. If you use three chapters — say water, storage, and power — you have paid about $12 per topic for a working overview, which is reasonable. If you only want a chicken-keeping guide, buy a chicken book instead.
The 60-day money-back guarantee is the practical safety net. It means you can read the whole thing and still ask for a refund inside two months. Refunds are handled by the publisher through the same checkout system used for the purchase, so keep your order receipt.
Check the current price at the publisher — digital edition available worldwide; print ships to the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Pros and cons
What is good
- Broad scope in one place — planning through preservation through power
- Written from four decades of actual off-grid living, not research
- Honest about physical limits: weather, money, time, and ageing bodies
- Readable, non-technical style that suits beginners
- Bonuses and a 60-day guarantee reduce the risk of trying it
What is weak
- No dimensioned plans or engineering detail
- Not climate-specific — you must adapt advice locally
- Experienced homesteaders will find parts basic
- Digital edition is a PDF, not an app or video course
- Print is unavailable in most of the world
Frequently asked questions
Which countries can the print edition ship to?
Print ships to the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Everywhere else, including the UK, the digital edition is the available option. The publisher's checkout enforces this, so an order to an unsupported country will not complete.
How does the refund work?
The book carries a 60-day money-back guarantee. You contact the publisher through the support details on your order receipt within 60 days and request a refund. Keep the receipt — it is the only proof of purchase the support team can work from.
What are the three bonus books?
Three digital bonus titles are included with either version of the main book. They are delivered as downloads alongside the order, so digital buyers get them immediately and print buyers get them by email while the book ships.
Who are Ron and Johanna Melchiore?
They are a married couple in their 60s who have run an off-grid homestead for roughly 40 years. The book is written from that experience rather than from a research brief.
Is there a PDF version?
Yes. The $37 digital edition is a downloadable PDF you can read on a computer, tablet, or phone, and it is the version sold worldwide.
Does it cover small suburban lots?
Much of it does — land plotting, storage, water, and chickens all scale down — but the framing assumes you want a productive property rather than a decorative garden. Readers on a strict suburban lot will need to adapt the animal and power sections.
How it compares with a course
A structured homesteading course costs several times as much and usually gives you sequencing: what to do in month one, month four, month nine. That is genuinely useful if you need to be told what to do next. What a course rarely gives you is breadth — most are built around one instructor's climate, one property, and one set of assumptions.
This book sits at the other end. It gives you the whole map and expects you to choose the route. If you are self-directed and want to understand why a decision matters before you make it, that is the better format. If you need deadlines and accountability, a course will move you faster, and the book works well as a reference alongside one.
Verdict
Buy it if you are at the planning stage of making a property more self-sufficient and you want one book that shows how the pieces connect. The chapters on land plotting, storage, and water are the strongest argument for it, and the 60-day guarantee makes trying it low-risk.
Skip it if you already know what you are building. You will get more from a specialist manual on the exact system you are installing. This book is a map of the territory, and maps are most valuable before you start walking.
Review method: this review is based on the publisher's published description, chapter list, pricing, and guarantee terms, plus comparison with what a beginner actually needs to execute each topic. We do not claim to have built every project in the book, and we do not present the authors' claims as our own test results.