Self Sufficiency at Home - Making the Most of What You've Got! - Stacy Hill

Self-Sufficiency at Home – Making the Most of What You’ve Got! – Stacy Hill Whenever someone talks about becoming ‘self-sufficient’ I can’t help picturing gorgeous rural cottages with huge gardens of lush green grass, just waiting to become home to chickens and cabbages. I wouldn’t for one second think that the scrubby little square of front garden that most terraced houses have could be used to provide delicious home-grown veg, but apparently so. Britain has around 15 million back gardens, yet most of them, even in rural areas, seem to consist of a scruffy lawn and a few measly herbaceous borders. If these little areas, or even just part of them were used to grow vegetables then they could produce more, in proportion size, to our arable farmers. This might seem like a fairly new ‘green’ idea, and indeed in the current financial climate, a very good one, but self-sufficiency has been around in non-rural areas for a long time. Lets not forget ‘The Good Life’ back in the late 70s, and the book Cost Effective Self Sufficiency was originally written in 1979 by Eve and Terence McLaughlin and published by David & Charles. Updated for 2010 by green gardening expert and author Diane Millis and published in October Cost Effective Self Sufficiency is the ideal guide for those starting out. Eve and Terrance say that using what you already have means you can start straight away, so even if you only have a tiny square of earth, it can be utilised for great results. For example in a garden you can plant quick growing crops in the gap between slow growers, this is called catch-cropping, and fill in any small spaces with a handful of lettuces, or similar fast growers. Even if you have hardly any garden at all, it is possible to grow quite a lot in containers and odd corners, and there is an increasing number of other growing options out there, including community gardens, allotments and local garden sharing schemes. If you are worried about buying tons of equipment, don’t. In Cost Effective Self Sufficiency Eve and Terrance say that spending bucket loads of money on ‘toys’ such as machines to dig and furrow for you, isn’t just unnecessary and cannot be justified in real economic terms, but could also defeat part of the object of self-sufficiency when you take your carbon footprint into consideration. “Self sufficiency means providing for yourself as much as possible, and plugging in a leaf blower when a leaf rake will do the job just as well doesn’t square with this” reducing your energy needs, and not adding to them, should be the home grower’s manta. They recommend keeping your tool-shopping list to a bare minimum and getting the best quality you can afford, as buying cheap tools will not always pay off in the long term. If you are starting from scratch, your outlay on tools can be cut dramatically buying second-hand. Visit car boot sales, jumble sales and local auctions, particularly where the contents of big houses are being cleared. Ask your neighbours and family for bits that they are willing to lend or share. The beauty of domestic gardening is that the producer is the consumer and therefore you can forecast very precisely what your family’s needs are. Not only that, but you can cut your financial outgoings, reduce your carbon footprint and increase the quality of the food you eat and your general well-being. After all, they say gardening is good for the soul. So what’s stopping you?