The Urban Homestead (Expanded & Revised Edition‪)‬

The modern classic of DIY urban self-reliance—grow food, raise chickens, and build a working homestead in the city.

The Urban Homestead by Kelly Coyne and Erik Knutzen is a widely read handbook for city-based self-sufficiency, offering practical guidance on growing food, preserving harvests, reducing household waste, and building small-scale systems for urban living. Written for readers without access to rural land, the book shows how apartments, patios, and small backyards can be transformed into productive spaces for gardening, food preparation, and energy awareness.
This expanded and updated edition includes new projects and revised instructions across a wide range of topics: container gardening, food preservation and fermentation, composting, chicken keeping, greywater use, and non-toxic household cleaning. Step-by-step projects and illustrations make the techniques accessible to beginners while still useful to experienced DIY practitioners. The book also situates these skills within the broader urban homesteading movement, providing context and resources for readers interested in sustainable living and local food culture.
Blending instruction with cultural context, The Urban Homestead has become a reference point for readers interested in home food production, sustainability, and practical self-reliance within urban environments. It appeals to gardeners, homesteaders, and anyone seeking to reduce dependence on industrial food and household systems.
A foundational title for readers of urban gardening, DIY sustainability, and modern homesteading.

“A delightfully readable and very useful guide…” — BoingBoing
“…the contemporary bible on the subject.” — The New York Times

Learn how to:
Grow food on a patio or balcony
Preserve or ferment food and make yogurt and cheese
Compost with worms
Keep city chickens
Divert your grey water to your garden
Clean your house without toxins
Guerilla garden in public spaces
Create the modern homestead of your dreams