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Start Your Self Sufficiency with Small and Simple Steps
Whilst gardening plans may have started with gusto in 2012, the weather of late has made getting out amongst the plants a rather cold and damp affair. I’ll admit, I couldn’t wait for the seasons to change and already have windows filled with early germinating seeds. Broad beans are growing towards the ceiling, the salads for the 52 Week Salad Challenge are almost harvestable and under the safety of their heated propagator, echium seeds and other ornamentals are gently unfurling their first true leaves. However, with recent rain washing the snow away and temperatures beginning to become a little milder, your thoughts, as well as mine, may well be turning to allotments, veggies and self sufficiency.
Get an early start to the year with broad beans
Winter is in fact a great time to start preparing for self sufficiency as you have time to dig veggie beds, enrich the soil and sit down to actually plan what you want to grow. Start too late in the year and there’s a sudden frenzy to try and get everything done in time, and the British seasons move very swiftly and are unfaltering in their march ahead. If you’re new to self sufficiency it’s also a good time to reflect on just how much time you can put into the Grow Your Own bug. When I first got an allotment I was instantly convinced that I was headed for the Good Life. Like Tom and Barbara, I’d rope in the Gerry’s and Margos’ of this world and put them to work with a crop of potatoes, before repaying their kindness with a shower of beetroot. I’d never had to buy another vegetable ever again. How wrong I was.
Self sufficiency is an ongoing process, and it’s probably a good idea to come into self sufficiency gradually. Not many people have the time to set aside hours of work every week to plant, weed, water and harvest. Starting off small allows you to grasp one thing at a time, building your confidence and enthusiasm as you go. Self sufficiency also goes further than the actual crops you grow, but the ways in which you are reliant on gardening necessities such as water and manure. So, you can actually increase your self sufficiency without doing much at all.
Keeping hens will instantly increase your self sufficiency
Simple starts to self sufficiency can be as small as growing herbs in your garden instead of buying over-packed supermarket pots each week which are, more often than not, left on the windowsill to dry out or rot away. You could begin a small veggie patch which includes some of the vegetables most used in your kitchen, or even better, you could get a couple of hens. Garden Eco has a great range of coops, and you get the benefit of free food and free manure. That’s two simple self sufficiency steps in one feathery friend. Including a water butt in your garden so you’re self reliant on water is also an important step. You could even do away with your huge lawn – a resource needing mowers, fertilisers and a lot of labour to keep looking good – and change to smaller flowers beds and borders, vegetable patches or naturally draining patios. By the latter I mean not using concrete or other manmade materials if possible. Then there’s the consideration of the compost heap, making those trips to the garden centre a thing of the past as you nourish your garden from your own, controlled soil source.
2012 will in no time at all be racing ahead, leaving little time for gardeners to catch up. But, if you’re already champing at the bit to get your self sufficiency plans on track, you don’t have to jump in the deep end. Sometimes, starting off small can be the start of great things to come.
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