5 Ways to Start in Self Reliance

Being Homespun
Aug 24, 2017 · 2 min read

It’s pretty easy to make a start on being self reliant if you have a cute homestead in Vermont, or even a Cotswold smallholding here in the UK, but you CAN get started where ever you are.

Here are five fab starter tips for simple self sufficiency.

  1. Look for land. You may have a back yard or fancy lawn to turn over to producing food — if you do, decide how much you are prepared to give over to your first efforts at self reliance, and get out there and make a difference. If you don’t have any land, consider an allotment, a garden share or community garden. If all else fails try guerrilla gardening.
  2. Guerilla gardening is the art of appropriating a bit of land — a grass verge, a roadside strip, wasteland behind your house, anything no one seems to be noticing — and cannily planting useful food plants on it, while no one is looking. Canal dwellers in England often plant fruit trees and bushes along the towpath. Boat-dwellers harvest fruit as it ripens, thankful to whoever planted it.
  3. Grow something. Whether you’ve carved up your lawn, grabbed an allotment, found a community garden, or appropriated a local roadside, now get growing. Choose simple, fast growing food you love to eat — something robust and easy to use — radishes, herbs, spring onions, french beans. If you’ve absolutely drawn a blank on land, search ‘container gardening’ or look up vertical gardening — you could grow salads up a wall, or herbs on your balcony.
  4. Make do and mend. Take a look at your wardrobe — anything looking unloved? Now’s the time to learn to mend and alter clothing. Start small. Buy a few sewing things — a pack of needles, small scissors, a measuring tape, a few small reels of thread in various colours — and look at where you could neaten a hem or fix a button. It’s compulsive and you’ll soon be YouTubing makeovers.
  5. Learn Learn Learn! Google urban homesteading, small space gardening, and permaculture. Visit a gazillion websites, put together a wanted list for the library, join forums and facebook groups. Keep a journal or scrapbook, or if you prefer, hit Pinterest, to collect and collate all your ideas.

The world of self sufficiency, off grid living, make do and mend — call it what you will — is a welcoming community of nutty enthusiasts, eager to share what they know.

If it’s your hearts desire to join that community, make a start today.

You’ll look back fondly on your Starting Out journal.
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