[spud]

Hi everyone,

I've been gardening for quite a few years and grow a fair amount of what we eat, but certainly not it all.

I'd like to be in position to grow more, I do have a greenhouse which helps with extending the season a little ... but I'm now thinking about moving to somewhere with a longer growing season, not sure where yet?

I have kept hens, chickens, pigs, and bee's all of which contributed to our diet.

How much of your diet do you grow?

TIA
Cheers

[Trillium]

Not as much yet as I'd like to grow (we've been here almost 6 yrs) but I'm slowly growing more and more as I can make beds and whatever.
The biggest point is that I find my veg requirements changing. At one time I thought I needed a lot of spuds, but now I find I eat very few and beans are taking their place. But, I can't grow enough beans to sustain myself but I'm still coming up with solutions. I simply don't have room to grow much if any corn, so I buy that from a local organic society and freeze as much as I can. Winters here hit a steady -20C so winter growing is pretty much impossible for even lettuces.

[spud]

Thanks Trillium, similar sort of reason why I'm considering moving ... from my research food is going to become way more expensive, and as i enjoy growing it, why not save and do it myself.

I'm at an age where I should have been thinking about taking things easier, but the way things have turned out work prospects will be poor for many a year ... there are many younger folks looking for work also, so I'm trying to cover my azz for the future.

Here is a very inspiring video ...

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Cheers


 

[SG6]

To be "self-sufficient" you need a fair bit of ground. Think you are looking at a couple of acres as a minimum, and it would have to be run as a small holding. You cannot dig that area so there comes the use of equipment and fuel for that.

If you are thinking of food costs in the future then have you considered energy costs? I recall a programme with a woman who had a house built with energy efficency in mind. She had fuel bills of £185 a year.

For producing your food these days I am guessing that several raised beds are the best simply as you can treat each bed separately and when cropping in one is finished it can be prepared for something else immediatly and without disturbance to others.

You mention veg but what about fruit: black currents, red currents, goosberries, raspberries, blackberries, apples, plums, pears, cherries.

Where are you considering a move to? I am guessing not within Ireland as the weather/climate conditions will not be significantly different. Overall I think we will have to look carefully at what we grow as climate change is upon us and we had better start considering it's effects.

[Plot22]

This is my first growing season with a double allotment and I have bought no supermarket veg for about 6 weeks and don't think i'll need to for the rest of the summer & autumn. How I will fare through the winter remains to be seen.

[King Carrot]

Hi Spud,

I'm down in West Kerry, with the mildness we get here,lots of cover and a bit of effort I reckon you can pretty much harvest fresh veg for much of the year- its just a matter of how much land you've got to grow on as to how much you harvest esp. in winter.

[spud]

Thanks folks ...

[Trillium]

I'm familiar with that video, Spud. Those folk live in Los Angeles, California where the weather is quite good for most of the year and winters are mild. What he neglects to mention is that they also have volunteers come in and help them do some of the work. They plant intensively and much goes for sales which helps pay taxes and such. Without the pricey restaurant markets who can get away with charging $13 US for a salad plate with edible flowers, this home would have to find money in other ways. But overall, they've got a good basic idea.

I have a small orchard with various dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees, berries in a stoney area and veg in the few reasonably decent soil areas. 

[Mitsy]

Well I haven't bought a cabbage or lettuce for a few month. Hard to keep up with feeding 4-5 people most of the time but nowadays I'm feeding the street too from my tiny garden. I take great pleasure in answering the kids questions then watching their faces as they trot of home with something for tea. My kids just take them for granted now 

[spud]

They do a good job by all accounts, it took work and dedication to get all up and running. I know I wouldn't pay those LA prices, but maybe thats where we're heading unless we can grow more for ourselves.

We started baking our own bread a few months back, we haven't bought a shop loaf since ... and we buy organic flour so the bread is better than we could buy before! less money too!

Cheers

 
~

I'm familiar with that video, Spud. Those folk live in Los Angeles, California where the weather is quite good for most of the year and winters are mild. What he neglects to mention is that they also have volunteers come in and help them do some of the work. They plant intensively and much goes for sales which helps pay taxes and such. Without the pricey restaurant markets who can get away with charging $13 US for a salad plate with edible flowers, this home would have to find money in other ways. But overall, they've got a good basic idea.

I have a small orchard with various dwarf and semi-dwarf fruit trees, berries in a stoney area and veg in the few reasonably decent soil areas. 

[spud]

We've been eating our own salad stuff for a while now too, but the tomato's are just coming ready now and the summer is or feels like its near an end     thats why I fancy somewhere with a longer growing season LA season sounded great 10 months of growing your own food. I remember a child visiting our place and I let her see into the hen house, there was one egg just for her  her mum said she would eat it, but kept it for weeks talking often about her visit.

Cheers

 

~

Well I haven't bought a cabbage or lettuce for a few month. Hard to keep up with feeding 4-5 people most of the time but nowadays I'm feeding the street too from my tiny garden. I take great pleasure in answering the kids questions then watching their faces as they trot of home with something for tea. My kids just take them for granted now 

[thegarybrough]

So far my plot has contributed a sprig of thyme and one radish to my diet! However we've only been at it for a couple of months and inherited an overgrown plot. I read about the family in Pasadena in the Telegraph a few weeks back, quite inspiring! Their website is http://urbanhomestead.org

Not quite ready to give up on Tesco yet unfortunately! G

[gillie]

"How much of your diet do you grow?"

Not a huge amount really.  Although we are now both retired from our main careers and should have more time, we do not have the energy we once had.

I concentrate on those veg which are really improved by being out of the plot and onto the plate in minutes rather than days and others that we just enjoy growing.  I have reduced the area cultivated, have given up potatoes and onions have given up on us.

I also try to sow successionally and in very mean quantities so that we avoid gluts... I have retired from blanching and freezing!

However we have 'cultivated' several local growers and do not have to buy very much from supermarkets.

Fruit is a different matter.  The trees and bushes we planted twenty years ago usually keep us in pies and jams all the year round and we can eat our own apples from anytime soon until March.

Cheers,

Gillie

[spud]

A few good points there Gillie, I too cut down on the plot size, mainly due to the constant wet and weeds! though the years are creeping on. I went to deep beds and now wonder why I wasted so many years digging and cultivating my plot? I now get more produce from a few beds than I did from a huge plot! there's so much space inbetween stuff when planting in a standard plot and that space just loves to be covered, mainly in weeds!

Cheers

 

[Janeymiddlewife]

I have revised my initial plans as I can't keep the entire plot weed- free, so am going to divide it into a fruit section, part-turfed with a few flowers, daffs etc; the rest will be divided up to provide me with

probably one third of the potatoes I use for a family of 6;
onions & garlic & leeks for half the year;
cherry toms frozen for sauces, usually run out in January (grown in back garden as it's easier for watering & feeding regularly);
Beets & salads from April to December;
Mangetoute June - August/September;
Sweetcorn - will plant more next year as I'll only get about 12 cobs this year.
Not bothering with carrots as soil is too stony and kids don't like stumpy varieties.
Courgettes - 3 this year will probably try 2 more next year
Butternut squash - no flowers yet, but soil unknown so may have better luck next year when I've fed the soil

Peppers & Chillis doing really well, will freeze excess - had 12 plants peppers & 4 chillis

Have 12 strawberries, willl plant some early ones this winter to extend the season, same with rasps - have autumn fruiting ones which I will intersperse with summer fruiters in the winter;
A few clumps of rhubarb in first year, so not picked much
6 asparagus splants which I plan to add to this winter
Will plant broad beans & Jap onions
Purple sprouting brocolli x 10 plants and about the same in dwarf kale, which I thought would take me through the winter but looks like it's ready now!
24 parsnips (poor germination) will only last us about3 months

Redcurrant bushes ready to transplant and 2 goosegogs

WOWE - that sounds like a lot, but I'm nowhere near sufficient in veg - I think because so much in the UK is seasonal unless you have access to polytunnels or heated greenhouses
HTH
JMW