What do you think?
Rate this book
The Self-Fed Farm and Garden: A Return to the Roots of the Organic Method
"Essential rules from a champion of organic growing."—New York Times
“A radical yet timeless understanding of what organic farming is truly about. . . . Only Eliot could bring such clarity and wisdom to the conversation. . . . A must-read for anyone who believes that food can be a force for change. . . . A new classic for the ages.”
—Jean-Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener; founder, Market Gardener Institute
In The Self-Fed Farm and Garden, renowned organic grower and best-selling author Eliot Coleman presents the organic method as the self-sustaining system it was meant to be, rooted in soil health care. With clarity and confidence born from years of experience, he shows readers how they can shift to a model that continually recharges the soil with organic matter, thus allowing the soil food web to provide all the nutrients that crops need for healthy growth and excellent yields.
Filled with the same groundbreaking spirit of his now-classic The Winter Harvest Handbook—which introduced market gardeners to the simple, low-cost techniques by which they could harvest commercial vegetables all winter long—Coleman now shares his equally simple and dependable low-cost system for creating and maintaining guaranteed pure organic soil fertility that will carry your crop yields to perfection.
The self-fed approach combines classic techniques practiced by the pioneers of organic farming,
• Growing green manure crops year-round and shallowly tilling them into the soil
• Growing leguminous plants to add nitrogen
• Devising effective crop rotation systems for disease and weed control
Implementing a self-fed system, Coleman explains, saves money and energy, avoids the hassles of acquiring outside organic matter (which can also introduce undesirable incidental pollutants into the soil), and covers everything that needs to be done to maintain soil fertility. Using classic techniques like green manures as a living soil improvement system ultimately allows you alone—not the farm and garden products industry—to be the master of your destiny.
“This book steps back from the frantic energy of the marketplace to take a second look at what we mean when we say ‘organic,’ why we need it, and how to do it right.”
—Dave Chapman, codirector, Real Organic Project
“A radical yet timeless understanding of what organic farming is truly about. . . . Only Eliot could bring such clarity and wisdom to the conversation. . . . A must-read for anyone who believes that food can be a force for change. . . . A new classic for the ages.”
—Jean-Martin Fortier, author of The Market Gardener; founder, Market Gardener Institute
In The Self-Fed Farm and Garden, renowned organic grower and best-selling author Eliot Coleman presents the organic method as the self-sustaining system it was meant to be, rooted in soil health care. With clarity and confidence born from years of experience, he shows readers how they can shift to a model that continually recharges the soil with organic matter, thus allowing the soil food web to provide all the nutrients that crops need for healthy growth and excellent yields.
Filled with the same groundbreaking spirit of his now-classic The Winter Harvest Handbook—which introduced market gardeners to the simple, low-cost techniques by which they could harvest commercial vegetables all winter long—Coleman now shares his equally simple and dependable low-cost system for creating and maintaining guaranteed pure organic soil fertility that will carry your crop yields to perfection.
The self-fed approach combines classic techniques practiced by the pioneers of organic farming,
• Growing green manure crops year-round and shallowly tilling them into the soil
• Growing leguminous plants to add nitrogen
• Devising effective crop rotation systems for disease and weed control
Implementing a self-fed system, Coleman explains, saves money and energy, avoids the hassles of acquiring outside organic matter (which can also introduce undesirable incidental pollutants into the soil), and covers everything that needs to be done to maintain soil fertility. Using classic techniques like green manures as a living soil improvement system ultimately allows you alone—not the farm and garden products industry—to be the master of your destiny.
“This book steps back from the frantic energy of the marketplace to take a second look at what we mean when we say ‘organic,’ why we need it, and how to do it right.”
—Dave Chapman, codirector, Real Organic Project
- GenresNonfiction
225 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 4, 2025
9 people are currently reading
66 people want to read
About the author
Eliot Coleman
14 books76 followersEliot Coleman is an American farmer, author, agricultural researcher and educator, and proponent of organic farming. He wrote The New Organic Grower. He served for two years as Executive Director of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM), and was an advisor to the U.S. Department of Agriculture during its 1979–80 study, Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming, a document that formed the basis for today's legislated National Organic Program (2002) in the U.S.
On his Four Season Farm in Harborside, Brooksville, Maine, he produces year-round vegetable crops, even under harsh winter conditions (for which he uses unheated and minimally heated greenhouses and polytunnels). He even manages to grow artichokes, claiming that "I grow them just to make the Californians nervous."
Coleman is married to gardening author Barbara Damrosch. For several years, from 1993, they co-hosted the TV series, Gardening Naturally, on The Learning Channel. Coleman and his wife continue to grow and locally market fresh produce.
On his Four Season Farm in Harborside, Brooksville, Maine, he produces year-round vegetable crops, even under harsh winter conditions (for which he uses unheated and minimally heated greenhouses and polytunnels). He even manages to grow artichokes, claiming that "I grow them just to make the Californians nervous."
Coleman is married to gardening author Barbara Damrosch. For several years, from 1993, they co-hosted the TV series, Gardening Naturally, on The Learning Channel. Coleman and his wife continue to grow and locally market fresh produce.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 29, 2025
Eliot Coleman has been one of my vegetable-growing gurus since he wrote The New Organic Grower in 1989, and his latest book, The Self-Fed Farm and Garden, confirms our alignment once again. Biologically based agriculture can create and maintain lasting soil fertility by relying on ancient peasant knowledge about the importance of returning organic wastes to the soil. It is time to focus on maintaining soil fertility by farm-grown systems in a clean, safe, self-contained method of production.
Eliot’s book is a valuable contribution to the Real Organic movement, a return to the less industrial roots of growing healthy food. Aim to keep every bed filled with either a seasonal vegetable, fruit or a productive green manure crop. Organic farming is an embrace of the soil’s biological systems, not a focus on rejecting chemicals. It is not necessary or wise to import organic waste materials from elsewhere (probably to the deprivation of the land they came from).
Here are clear, concise descriptions of systems for developing and maintaining rich soil that will sustain itself over the long-term, using incorporation of green manures by shallow tilling, adding nitrogen to the soil by growing legumes, and using a crop rotation system to manage pests, weeds and the distribution of nutrients. As there are almost no purchased imports, this method is accessible to farmers everywhere, who have little money but a commitment to pay attention to their soil.
A self-sustaining system with no imported additions to the soil avoids risks of introducing incidental pollutants to your farm, such as PFAS from sewage sludge. Purchased composts and manures can contain pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, anti-biotics, hormones, and other veterinary medications. The only sure way to have clean and fertile soil is to grow your own organic matter right on the farm. A direct outcome of organic soil care is the production of crops with active immune systems, resisting pests and diseases.
Eliot distinguishes between green manures sown for the purpose of incorporating into the soil, and cover crops grown to scavenge soluble nutrients from the soil and protect the soil from erosion. The latter are cut and left on the surface, and do not provide as many nutrients as those incorporated. These groups overlap, and both are components of self-fed farm systems. I tend to call them all “cover crops”.
The Self-Fed Farm and Garden includes many quotes from earlier organic farming writers. In 1908, Liberty Hyde Bailey said, “Every well-managed soil should grow richer rather than poorer; and, speaking broadly, the farm should have within itself the power of perpetuating itself.”
Leonard Wickenden, in Gardening with Nature in 1954, addressed the claim that if you are selling products off the farm, you will exhaust the soil if you don’t deliberately replace the nutrients you remove. Wickenden pointed out that annual additions to replace a particular nutrient removed by a crop will likely only make a tiny change to the vast amount in the soil. Wickenden said: “Let your aim be to feed your soil – not your plants.” The soil is not an inert medium for moving nutrients to the crop. Feeding the soil with organic matter leads to “a process of day-by-day nourishment which will produce sturdy vigor in the crop.” As the OM decays, it adds many nutrients, including minerals pulled from the soil into solution by acids that develop.
Adrian Pieters in his book Green Manuring (1927) suggested that green manures alone might not be enough to maintain organic matter long term. However, it has become apparent that once a vigorous soil biology is established, it is possible to maintain soil fertility with very small inputs. One purchased mineral you might need is boron. (Granubor is made in the USA and every batch is traceable to its source.) Another is local rock dusts, which need more research.
Alexis Carrel, in his book Man, the Unknown (1935), made this important point: “Chemical fertilizers, by increasing the abundance of the crops without replacing all the exhausted elements of the soil, have indirectly contributed to change the nutritive value of cereal grains and vegetables.” By “change”, he means “decrease”!
Eliot points out that his system of including a rye and vetch mixture on one-third of their land answers this concern. Sown in October, it is mown and shredded in mid-August, allowing the self-sown mature seed to grow for the second cover crop year. The following April it provides a large mass of high-lignin residues to increase the total soil OM. The root system of this crop is huge, and the fresh green growth is tilled under and allowed to decompose for three weeks before planting vegetables. Every grower can design a green manure combination and sequence suiting their land and climate. Experimentation and careful monitoring will help determine the best choices.
One handful of fertile soil is thought to hold many more living creatures than there are humans on Earth. The whole farm can be considered a living organism. Biologically self-sufficient organic farming or gardening will maximize the health of the whole farm. When he began farming, in New Hampshire, Eliot received gifts of piles of rotted horse and chicken manure and granite dust waste. These additions helped him grow magnificent crops from the beginning. Eliot acknowledges that his farm was not self-sufficient from day one, and he lists seven related questions, including how long his initial inputs would be enough to feed the soil, and whether a food producer could create and then maintain fertile soil entirely from internal systems. To test out this latter idea, he has set aside two acres to see how long it takes to bring the fertility of that patch of soil up to the standards of the rest of the farm, using a dedicated green manure program.
Organic farming books of the 1960s used to focus on listing which organically acceptable soil amendments could be used as substitutes for bagged NPK, and organic gardening magazines in Eliot’s early years of farming were kept afloat by advertisements for organic products. Those products make profits for the manufacturing companies, not for the grower. Eliot says the focus on purchased inputs gave the impression that this is the main foundation of organic farming, ignoring the vital practices and methods of maintaining a healthy soil. Take care of the soil and the plants by using sustainable methods, not by substituting USDA Organic-labelled products for industrial chemical fertilizers and pesticides! It is time to refocus on organic techniques, as Real Organic is doing. Organic Matter is the vital amendment to continue to focus on every year, to prevent soil exhaustion, not minerals.
Shallow incorporation of crop residues and green manures helps provide a secure food supply, without need of purchased compost or manure. The Self-Fed farm is not a No-Till farm. Edward Faulkner, author of Plowman’s Folly, often hailed as the parent of no-till, was not opposed to tillage, but to the moldboard plow in particular. His later book, A Second Look, advocates for shallow incorporation of residues and green manures, to maintain soil fertility.
I encourage No-Till farmers and gardeners to read The Self-Fed Farm, and consider the pros and cons of each system, or more precisely, the situations where no-till is appropriate and those where shallow incorporation of green manures provides the best for the soil.
European farmers settling in North America practiced a kind of soil-mining, extracting crops without consideration of the future. Once yields became too low, they moved west and repeated the process. Fertilizer inputs from Peruvian bat guano from the 1830s led the shift towards bought-in inputs, a one-way transfer of materials from a source to the farm. When the guano deposits were completely exhausted, the chemical fertilizer industry began to grow.
In England in 1843, superphosphate started to be manufactured, by treating bones with sulfuric acid, rendering the phosphorus very accessible. Previously bones had been steamed and ground to make their nutrients more accessible.
Another popular purchased chemical fertilizer was Chilean nitrate, from the Atacama. This was a further shift towards substitution of a purchased product for a process performed on site by the farmers themselves, growing leguminous green manures to use the nitrogen in the air to feed the soil and crops.
In the early 20th century, the Clifton Park System of Farming was written up by Robert Elliot, to help other farmers successfully maintain perpetual soil fertility without purchased inputs. The sequence involves rotating crops and pastured livestock: 4 years grazing on deep-rooted grasses and legumes, 4 years using the tilled pasture to grow annual grains on half, beans and vegetables on the other half. This system is called ley farming.
USDA Organic Certification has moved from an understanding of the relation between soil quality and food quality, to a box-checking business that wiggles around Organic restrictions. Now hydroponics, and compost made with effluent from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations can be included under the USDA Organic umbrella. Fertile soil is a cornerstone of organic farming, but hydroponics uses NO soil! Traditional organic farmers knew that crops grown in water or an inert medium provided with liquid fertilizers would lack some nutrients. “Organic hydroponics” are a fraud, requiring many inputs and large amounts of energy for lighting, pumps and filters.
While I admire the extensive research Eliot has done into traditional European farming practices, I find myself wondering about all the invisible female European vegetable growers, all the vegetable growers in other continents and other cultures, while not dismissing the research provided here. A person can only spend so much time on research, I get that. And Eliot has been a leader in not only research and production, but also education via his books, and workshops.
When Eliot and family began at their Maine farm, they cleared spruce and fir trees, opening up a sandy soil with a very acidic pH of 4.3. For several years they added limestone at 1 ton per acre to raise the pH to 6.0-7.0, more suitable for vegetables and bacterial life. Since then, they have only needed to add small amounts of limestone from time to time. I found similar results on our farm in central Virginia – after a few years of adjusting the pH, the soil has rarely needed more lime.
My heart was warmed to see the title of chapter 4: In Defense of Intelligent Tillage, as I am one of those growers who has questioned the Never Till philosophy and welcomed the “till when you really need to” approach. I saw the damage that “Till often to control the weeds” did to the soil, beating up the soil particles, destroying some soil life and speeding up the combustion of the organic matter by adding so much air. To achieve the benefits of incorporating green materials into the soil, it is necessary to mix them into the top 4” (10cm), where the roots of the young plants will be. Cutting and dropping cover crops on the surface is useful, but incorporating them feeds microbes and larger organisms, which then produce more stable soil aggregates and a better-functioning soil. For the benefits of green manures to outweigh the downsides of tillage, a large biomass of green material is needed.
A 2007 study at ARS Beltsville, Maryland, showed that organic farming’s use of manure and green manures can build soil OM quicker than chemical no-till farming. The result took several years to become clear. Pasa’s Soil Benchmark Study, measuring physical and biological soil health, showed that tilling for weed control and bed preparation on an organic farm was not detrimental compared with no-till. Both methods can work on organic farms.
The third example given is the Rodale Institute, which had very strict no-till rules for farms to be accepted under their Regenerative Organic Certification program started in 2017. Few organic vegetable farms could meet those standards, causing the Rodale Institute to take stock and change the rules. Now soil disturbance is allowed to incorporate crop residues and green manures, control weeds, prepare beds for planting, break up compacted soil or improve drainage.
The fourth example is in The Soil and the Microbe, (1931) by Waksman and Starkey, where the age at which the crop is incorporated in the soil is considered. Younger crops with low C:N ratios decompose more quickly and provide more nitrogen, compared with mature green manures with higher C:N ratios that decompose more slowly. These add more long-lasting OM due to the fiber and lignin they contain.
Eliot is thoughtful in his considerations, just as he was in comparing the ecological costs of plastic greenhouse coverings in his earlier books. Here we look at the fuel needed to do the tilling. Not mentioned are the ecological costs of large plastic tarps used by many no-till farmers to kill weeds and crop residues in organic no-till farming.
There is an appendix of green manures, when to sow them, when to incorporate and which crops could follow. This is a model of how to design a system for a self-fed farm or garden in Maine, or elsewhere when modified. In zone 7a, I would avoid ryegrass, for instance, as it quickly becomes an invasive weed.
This book contains many useful tips on growing cover crops/green manures, even if you are farming far from Maine. Winter-killed green manures in Miane include bell beans, annual alfalfa, buckwheat, forage radish, peas and oats. These can sometimes be raked aside to plant early crops without tilling. Those surviving the winters there include forage chicory, rye, hairy vetch, and red clover. Once you know your lowest winter temperature, you can determine which cover crops to grow over the winter. Climate chaos has made winter-kill of oats uncertain in cold-hardiness zone 7a.
Pay attention to fall sowing dates of cover crops. A Washington State University study of mustard found that an August 13 sowing provided bountiful biomass, a September 3 sowing provided very little, and a September 10 provided nothing worthwhile. As days get shorter and colder, the number of days to maturity of a crop increases rapidly. Don’t delay! But don’t plant too early, as this can lead to cover crops setting viable seed before winter. In central Virginia we know not to sow winter rye in August for this reason.
Some green manure crops can be sown (broadcast or drilled with a small push seeder) while a vegetable crop is in place, to succeed them once the food crop is finished. This increases productivity and reduces tilling. Eliot sows sweet clover under established winter squash plants. Undersowing is time-sensitive and worth experimenting with several times to get best results. Generally undersowing green manures 3-4 weeks after the food crop is planted is about right. Cultivate to remove weeds, then sow the cover crop right away.
Chapter Six provides more information on specific green manures. Cereal rye and hairy vetch (4:1 ratio); field peas and oats sown August 15-September 7 to winter-kill in January; bell beans (small fava beans) drilled in late summer along with broadcast oats, to be winter-killed; buckwheat during the frost-free period, ending 4 weeks before the expected first frost (to be winter-killed); forage radish sown in fall to be winter-killed and suppress nematodes before a tomato crop the next year; Mighty Mustard (Brassica juncea) sown as a soil biofumigant for a pasture being tilled under to grow vegetables; red clover with ryegrass (1:1) for a quick green manure anywhere; forage chicory (or Belgian endive); spinach crop residues before peppers; sweet corn (undersown with soybeans) before potatoes.
Insects and diseases on the crops are indicators of unideal growing conditions. Using pesticides is shooting the messenger and ignoring the message. Many bad things can be avoided by growers paying attention and supplying what the soil needs. But I still believe that bad things can happen to good people.
At Four Season Farm, 40-50 different vegetable crops were grown, belonging to ten botanical families. Crop rotations are designed to avoid growing the same or a closely related crop in the same place in successive years. Green manures need consideration too, in rotation planning. At Four Season Farm, the 3 acres are divided into 75 plots 30’ x 50’ (9.1m x 15.2m). Fall harvest crops are growing in 25 of those, followed by the rye and vetch biomass green manure. Seven of the remaining 50 plots are covered by 7 moveable high tunnels, with their “partner” plots growing a green manure as soil regeneration in preparation for being covered by the high tunnel next. The remaining plots are subdivided into eight 30” (76cm) beds with 12” (30cm) paths. Ideally the groups of eight beds are planted up at the same time for efficient management. After harvest those beds get the residues incorporated and a green manure is sown two weeks later. The goal is always to minimize the amount of time with nothing growing. Green manures between food crops in the rotation are chosen to fit the length of the gap and the time of year, as well as the preceding and following food crops.
Adding 4-legged livestock can provide safe manure (and milk and/or meat), but can complicate your life a lot, if good organic animal feed is important to you.
Converting crop residues and weeds into compost makes another excellent soil-improver, and by making it yourself, you learn what works and what doesn’t. Compost-making can require a lot of work, and not all growers find it worthwhile. Eliot makes compost in small amounts with residues that can’t be directly tilled in. Are the compost microorganisms different enough to make the process worthwhile? This is not the place for that debate. The answer may depend on how long you have been farming that land, how long your growing season is, whether you have byproducts from any value-added foods you sell, and how many green manure crops you manage to include each year. I am a believer in compost, but my situation is not identical to Eliot’s.
You may find, as Eliot did, that increasing your crop area by 20% enables you to include more green manures in your rotation and reduce the stress of fast turnarounds, which are becoming harder as the climate becomes less predictable. The book includes tips on growing successful green manures, and also a section for adapting the info in the book to home gardens.
Eliot and Barbara, now retired, are resuscitating their home garden, divided in half. One half will grow vegetables each year, the other a grass-legume pasture.
Eliot’s book is a valuable contribution to the Real Organic movement, a return to the less industrial roots of growing healthy food. Aim to keep every bed filled with either a seasonal vegetable, fruit or a productive green manure crop. Organic farming is an embrace of the soil’s biological systems, not a focus on rejecting chemicals. It is not necessary or wise to import organic waste materials from elsewhere (probably to the deprivation of the land they came from).
Here are clear, concise descriptions of systems for developing and maintaining rich soil that will sustain itself over the long-term, using incorporation of green manures by shallow tilling, adding nitrogen to the soil by growing legumes, and using a crop rotation system to manage pests, weeds and the distribution of nutrients. As there are almost no purchased imports, this method is accessible to farmers everywhere, who have little money but a commitment to pay attention to their soil.
A self-sustaining system with no imported additions to the soil avoids risks of introducing incidental pollutants to your farm, such as PFAS from sewage sludge. Purchased composts and manures can contain pesticides, herbicides, heavy metals, anti-biotics, hormones, and other veterinary medications. The only sure way to have clean and fertile soil is to grow your own organic matter right on the farm. A direct outcome of organic soil care is the production of crops with active immune systems, resisting pests and diseases.
Eliot distinguishes between green manures sown for the purpose of incorporating into the soil, and cover crops grown to scavenge soluble nutrients from the soil and protect the soil from erosion. The latter are cut and left on the surface, and do not provide as many nutrients as those incorporated. These groups overlap, and both are components of self-fed farm systems. I tend to call them all “cover crops”.
The Self-Fed Farm and Garden includes many quotes from earlier organic farming writers. In 1908, Liberty Hyde Bailey said, “Every well-managed soil should grow richer rather than poorer; and, speaking broadly, the farm should have within itself the power of perpetuating itself.”
Leonard Wickenden, in Gardening with Nature in 1954, addressed the claim that if you are selling products off the farm, you will exhaust the soil if you don’t deliberately replace the nutrients you remove. Wickenden pointed out that annual additions to replace a particular nutrient removed by a crop will likely only make a tiny change to the vast amount in the soil. Wickenden said: “Let your aim be to feed your soil – not your plants.” The soil is not an inert medium for moving nutrients to the crop. Feeding the soil with organic matter leads to “a process of day-by-day nourishment which will produce sturdy vigor in the crop.” As the OM decays, it adds many nutrients, including minerals pulled from the soil into solution by acids that develop.
Adrian Pieters in his book Green Manuring (1927) suggested that green manures alone might not be enough to maintain organic matter long term. However, it has become apparent that once a vigorous soil biology is established, it is possible to maintain soil fertility with very small inputs. One purchased mineral you might need is boron. (Granubor is made in the USA and every batch is traceable to its source.) Another is local rock dusts, which need more research.
Alexis Carrel, in his book Man, the Unknown (1935), made this important point: “Chemical fertilizers, by increasing the abundance of the crops without replacing all the exhausted elements of the soil, have indirectly contributed to change the nutritive value of cereal grains and vegetables.” By “change”, he means “decrease”!
Eliot points out that his system of including a rye and vetch mixture on one-third of their land answers this concern. Sown in October, it is mown and shredded in mid-August, allowing the self-sown mature seed to grow for the second cover crop year. The following April it provides a large mass of high-lignin residues to increase the total soil OM. The root system of this crop is huge, and the fresh green growth is tilled under and allowed to decompose for three weeks before planting vegetables. Every grower can design a green manure combination and sequence suiting their land and climate. Experimentation and careful monitoring will help determine the best choices.
One handful of fertile soil is thought to hold many more living creatures than there are humans on Earth. The whole farm can be considered a living organism. Biologically self-sufficient organic farming or gardening will maximize the health of the whole farm. When he began farming, in New Hampshire, Eliot received gifts of piles of rotted horse and chicken manure and granite dust waste. These additions helped him grow magnificent crops from the beginning. Eliot acknowledges that his farm was not self-sufficient from day one, and he lists seven related questions, including how long his initial inputs would be enough to feed the soil, and whether a food producer could create and then maintain fertile soil entirely from internal systems. To test out this latter idea, he has set aside two acres to see how long it takes to bring the fertility of that patch of soil up to the standards of the rest of the farm, using a dedicated green manure program.
Organic farming books of the 1960s used to focus on listing which organically acceptable soil amendments could be used as substitutes for bagged NPK, and organic gardening magazines in Eliot’s early years of farming were kept afloat by advertisements for organic products. Those products make profits for the manufacturing companies, not for the grower. Eliot says the focus on purchased inputs gave the impression that this is the main foundation of organic farming, ignoring the vital practices and methods of maintaining a healthy soil. Take care of the soil and the plants by using sustainable methods, not by substituting USDA Organic-labelled products for industrial chemical fertilizers and pesticides! It is time to refocus on organic techniques, as Real Organic is doing. Organic Matter is the vital amendment to continue to focus on every year, to prevent soil exhaustion, not minerals.
Shallow incorporation of crop residues and green manures helps provide a secure food supply, without need of purchased compost or manure. The Self-Fed farm is not a No-Till farm. Edward Faulkner, author of Plowman’s Folly, often hailed as the parent of no-till, was not opposed to tillage, but to the moldboard plow in particular. His later book, A Second Look, advocates for shallow incorporation of residues and green manures, to maintain soil fertility.
I encourage No-Till farmers and gardeners to read The Self-Fed Farm, and consider the pros and cons of each system, or more precisely, the situations where no-till is appropriate and those where shallow incorporation of green manures provides the best for the soil.
European farmers settling in North America practiced a kind of soil-mining, extracting crops without consideration of the future. Once yields became too low, they moved west and repeated the process. Fertilizer inputs from Peruvian bat guano from the 1830s led the shift towards bought-in inputs, a one-way transfer of materials from a source to the farm. When the guano deposits were completely exhausted, the chemical fertilizer industry began to grow.
In England in 1843, superphosphate started to be manufactured, by treating bones with sulfuric acid, rendering the phosphorus very accessible. Previously bones had been steamed and ground to make their nutrients more accessible.
Another popular purchased chemical fertilizer was Chilean nitrate, from the Atacama. This was a further shift towards substitution of a purchased product for a process performed on site by the farmers themselves, growing leguminous green manures to use the nitrogen in the air to feed the soil and crops.
In the early 20th century, the Clifton Park System of Farming was written up by Robert Elliot, to help other farmers successfully maintain perpetual soil fertility without purchased inputs. The sequence involves rotating crops and pastured livestock: 4 years grazing on deep-rooted grasses and legumes, 4 years using the tilled pasture to grow annual grains on half, beans and vegetables on the other half. This system is called ley farming.
USDA Organic Certification has moved from an understanding of the relation between soil quality and food quality, to a box-checking business that wiggles around Organic restrictions. Now hydroponics, and compost made with effluent from Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations can be included under the USDA Organic umbrella. Fertile soil is a cornerstone of organic farming, but hydroponics uses NO soil! Traditional organic farmers knew that crops grown in water or an inert medium provided with liquid fertilizers would lack some nutrients. “Organic hydroponics” are a fraud, requiring many inputs and large amounts of energy for lighting, pumps and filters.
While I admire the extensive research Eliot has done into traditional European farming practices, I find myself wondering about all the invisible female European vegetable growers, all the vegetable growers in other continents and other cultures, while not dismissing the research provided here. A person can only spend so much time on research, I get that. And Eliot has been a leader in not only research and production, but also education via his books, and workshops.
When Eliot and family began at their Maine farm, they cleared spruce and fir trees, opening up a sandy soil with a very acidic pH of 4.3. For several years they added limestone at 1 ton per acre to raise the pH to 6.0-7.0, more suitable for vegetables and bacterial life. Since then, they have only needed to add small amounts of limestone from time to time. I found similar results on our farm in central Virginia – after a few years of adjusting the pH, the soil has rarely needed more lime.
My heart was warmed to see the title of chapter 4: In Defense of Intelligent Tillage, as I am one of those growers who has questioned the Never Till philosophy and welcomed the “till when you really need to” approach. I saw the damage that “Till often to control the weeds” did to the soil, beating up the soil particles, destroying some soil life and speeding up the combustion of the organic matter by adding so much air. To achieve the benefits of incorporating green materials into the soil, it is necessary to mix them into the top 4” (10cm), where the roots of the young plants will be. Cutting and dropping cover crops on the surface is useful, but incorporating them feeds microbes and larger organisms, which then produce more stable soil aggregates and a better-functioning soil. For the benefits of green manures to outweigh the downsides of tillage, a large biomass of green material is needed.
A 2007 study at ARS Beltsville, Maryland, showed that organic farming’s use of manure and green manures can build soil OM quicker than chemical no-till farming. The result took several years to become clear. Pasa’s Soil Benchmark Study, measuring physical and biological soil health, showed that tilling for weed control and bed preparation on an organic farm was not detrimental compared with no-till. Both methods can work on organic farms.
The third example given is the Rodale Institute, which had very strict no-till rules for farms to be accepted under their Regenerative Organic Certification program started in 2017. Few organic vegetable farms could meet those standards, causing the Rodale Institute to take stock and change the rules. Now soil disturbance is allowed to incorporate crop residues and green manures, control weeds, prepare beds for planting, break up compacted soil or improve drainage.
The fourth example is in The Soil and the Microbe, (1931) by Waksman and Starkey, where the age at which the crop is incorporated in the soil is considered. Younger crops with low C:N ratios decompose more quickly and provide more nitrogen, compared with mature green manures with higher C:N ratios that decompose more slowly. These add more long-lasting OM due to the fiber and lignin they contain.
Eliot is thoughtful in his considerations, just as he was in comparing the ecological costs of plastic greenhouse coverings in his earlier books. Here we look at the fuel needed to do the tilling. Not mentioned are the ecological costs of large plastic tarps used by many no-till farmers to kill weeds and crop residues in organic no-till farming.
There is an appendix of green manures, when to sow them, when to incorporate and which crops could follow. This is a model of how to design a system for a self-fed farm or garden in Maine, or elsewhere when modified. In zone 7a, I would avoid ryegrass, for instance, as it quickly becomes an invasive weed.
This book contains many useful tips on growing cover crops/green manures, even if you are farming far from Maine. Winter-killed green manures in Miane include bell beans, annual alfalfa, buckwheat, forage radish, peas and oats. These can sometimes be raked aside to plant early crops without tilling. Those surviving the winters there include forage chicory, rye, hairy vetch, and red clover. Once you know your lowest winter temperature, you can determine which cover crops to grow over the winter. Climate chaos has made winter-kill of oats uncertain in cold-hardiness zone 7a.
Pay attention to fall sowing dates of cover crops. A Washington State University study of mustard found that an August 13 sowing provided bountiful biomass, a September 3 sowing provided very little, and a September 10 provided nothing worthwhile. As days get shorter and colder, the number of days to maturity of a crop increases rapidly. Don’t delay! But don’t plant too early, as this can lead to cover crops setting viable seed before winter. In central Virginia we know not to sow winter rye in August for this reason.
Some green manure crops can be sown (broadcast or drilled with a small push seeder) while a vegetable crop is in place, to succeed them once the food crop is finished. This increases productivity and reduces tilling. Eliot sows sweet clover under established winter squash plants. Undersowing is time-sensitive and worth experimenting with several times to get best results. Generally undersowing green manures 3-4 weeks after the food crop is planted is about right. Cultivate to remove weeds, then sow the cover crop right away.
Chapter Six provides more information on specific green manures. Cereal rye and hairy vetch (4:1 ratio); field peas and oats sown August 15-September 7 to winter-kill in January; bell beans (small fava beans) drilled in late summer along with broadcast oats, to be winter-killed; buckwheat during the frost-free period, ending 4 weeks before the expected first frost (to be winter-killed); forage radish sown in fall to be winter-killed and suppress nematodes before a tomato crop the next year; Mighty Mustard (Brassica juncea) sown as a soil biofumigant for a pasture being tilled under to grow vegetables; red clover with ryegrass (1:1) for a quick green manure anywhere; forage chicory (or Belgian endive); spinach crop residues before peppers; sweet corn (undersown with soybeans) before potatoes.
Insects and diseases on the crops are indicators of unideal growing conditions. Using pesticides is shooting the messenger and ignoring the message. Many bad things can be avoided by growers paying attention and supplying what the soil needs. But I still believe that bad things can happen to good people.
At Four Season Farm, 40-50 different vegetable crops were grown, belonging to ten botanical families. Crop rotations are designed to avoid growing the same or a closely related crop in the same place in successive years. Green manures need consideration too, in rotation planning. At Four Season Farm, the 3 acres are divided into 75 plots 30’ x 50’ (9.1m x 15.2m). Fall harvest crops are growing in 25 of those, followed by the rye and vetch biomass green manure. Seven of the remaining 50 plots are covered by 7 moveable high tunnels, with their “partner” plots growing a green manure as soil regeneration in preparation for being covered by the high tunnel next. The remaining plots are subdivided into eight 30” (76cm) beds with 12” (30cm) paths. Ideally the groups of eight beds are planted up at the same time for efficient management. After harvest those beds get the residues incorporated and a green manure is sown two weeks later. The goal is always to minimize the amount of time with nothing growing. Green manures between food crops in the rotation are chosen to fit the length of the gap and the time of year, as well as the preceding and following food crops.
Adding 4-legged livestock can provide safe manure (and milk and/or meat), but can complicate your life a lot, if good organic animal feed is important to you.
Converting crop residues and weeds into compost makes another excellent soil-improver, and by making it yourself, you learn what works and what doesn’t. Compost-making can require a lot of work, and not all growers find it worthwhile. Eliot makes compost in small amounts with residues that can’t be directly tilled in. Are the compost microorganisms different enough to make the process worthwhile? This is not the place for that debate. The answer may depend on how long you have been farming that land, how long your growing season is, whether you have byproducts from any value-added foods you sell, and how many green manure crops you manage to include each year. I am a believer in compost, but my situation is not identical to Eliot’s.
You may find, as Eliot did, that increasing your crop area by 20% enables you to include more green manures in your rotation and reduce the stress of fast turnarounds, which are becoming harder as the climate becomes less predictable. The book includes tips on growing successful green manures, and also a section for adapting the info in the book to home gardens.
Eliot and Barbara, now retired, are resuscitating their home garden, divided in half. One half will grow vegetables each year, the other a grass-legume pasture.
January 26, 2026
I read my first Eliot Coleman gardening book back in the early 90s and found him to be inspirational - how to grow organically with the vegetables looking fantastic. He himself also looks like he did back in the 90s if the picture on the front cover is a recent one.
The book is an ode to organic gardening as Coleman understands it which includes a closed loop method of growing where inputs are not brought onto the farm, but everything for an increasing fertility is produced on site. He argues against the rise of 'organic' products that are essentially inputs labeled organic but have to be bought, e.g. compost, rock dust, manure - purchased inputs.
Coleman defines organic farming through seven statements that he lives by:
Organic farming is based on the creation and maintenance of a biologically active soil.
Optimum soil conditions are strived for to produce pest free plants.
There is a definite link between soil health and human health.
Fertile soil produces some of the most nutrient dense food.
Soil fertility does not have to be purchased from outside inputs but created and maintained through the use of compost, crop rotations, green manures, cover crops (I'm not sure of the difference between the last two), shallow cultivation, nutrient-dense powdered rock, enhanced biodiversity and other proctices that nurture and respect the earth.
Deep-rooting forbes make available minerals from deep down in the soil and grazing livestock benefit the soil.
Growing in this way is easily understood and accessible to all at a low cost.
This is the definition of a self-fed farm or closed loop and means that the grower is not dependent on anyone else and the agriculture industry does not retain the majrity of the financial benefits. I do wonder about seeds, though. Does Coleman save seeds from the farm or does he purchase them? Yes, he has started to save his own.
So, how do you do this? How do you decide what to sow as a cover crop or green manure and when. The chapter 'Putting Green Manures at the Heart of the System' goes some way to explaining this.
Bell beans (not sure what these are - fava?) and alfalfa are legumes so pull nitrogen from the air into the soil but are also deep rooted and so bring up nutrients from the subsoil.
Buckwheat smothers weeds because of its fast growth and large leaves.
Forage radish has deep roots that scavenge minerals from the subsoil.
The appendices detail when to sow particular cover crops and when to till/dig/rake them in and what can follow but even in his home garden, Coleman leaves one half to grow a deep rooted forb (or grass) for a year and then swaps over because he believes that to be the most prepared and best soil to grow on.
Those who have read Coleman's previous books will find much that is familiar in this one. At 87, although looking spritely, there can't be too many more books. This book is a reminder of the use and purpose of green manures.
The book is an ode to organic gardening as Coleman understands it which includes a closed loop method of growing where inputs are not brought onto the farm, but everything for an increasing fertility is produced on site. He argues against the rise of 'organic' products that are essentially inputs labeled organic but have to be bought, e.g. compost, rock dust, manure - purchased inputs.
Coleman defines organic farming through seven statements that he lives by:
Organic farming is based on the creation and maintenance of a biologically active soil.
Optimum soil conditions are strived for to produce pest free plants.
There is a definite link between soil health and human health.
Fertile soil produces some of the most nutrient dense food.
Soil fertility does not have to be purchased from outside inputs but created and maintained through the use of compost, crop rotations, green manures, cover crops (I'm not sure of the difference between the last two), shallow cultivation, nutrient-dense powdered rock, enhanced biodiversity and other proctices that nurture and respect the earth.
Deep-rooting forbes make available minerals from deep down in the soil and grazing livestock benefit the soil.
Growing in this way is easily understood and accessible to all at a low cost.
This is the definition of a self-fed farm or closed loop and means that the grower is not dependent on anyone else and the agriculture industry does not retain the majrity of the financial benefits. I do wonder about seeds, though. Does Coleman save seeds from the farm or does he purchase them? Yes, he has started to save his own.
So, how do you do this? How do you decide what to sow as a cover crop or green manure and when. The chapter 'Putting Green Manures at the Heart of the System' goes some way to explaining this.
Bell beans (not sure what these are - fava?) and alfalfa are legumes so pull nitrogen from the air into the soil but are also deep rooted and so bring up nutrients from the subsoil.
Buckwheat smothers weeds because of its fast growth and large leaves.
Forage radish has deep roots that scavenge minerals from the subsoil.
The appendices detail when to sow particular cover crops and when to till/dig/rake them in and what can follow but even in his home garden, Coleman leaves one half to grow a deep rooted forb (or grass) for a year and then swaps over because he believes that to be the most prepared and best soil to grow on.
Those who have read Coleman's previous books will find much that is familiar in this one. At 87, although looking spritely, there can't be too many more books. This book is a reminder of the use and purpose of green manures.
November 24, 2025
If you don't want any imports into your garden, this is the book for you. And if you doubt the value of this type of farming, just look at the cover of the book, Eliot is 86 in the photo!!
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews