5 Ways to Start in Self Reliance
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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
