home grown

a few months ago, my man and i got really excited about becoming self sufficient. when he was young, my man came across a show from the 1970's called "the good life", which is about a couple who give up their 'normal' life to become self sufficient... in their suburban home. they set their (quite decently sized) backyard to support different crops, and even some pigs and chickens, and live off their little plot of land.
the show is all about their trials and tribulations in settling in to their new lifestyle, but it is a comedy, so there's lots of laughs along the way.
it's actually completely adorable, and i got hooked within a few episodes.
however, after watching the (entire series of the) show, both my man and i were both so ambitious to become at least partially self sufficient that we had to satiate the desire before we went and did something silly, like buy a cow. so we let off a bit of self sufficient steam by raiding the backyard for implements and using these to set up a garden in an old water tank stand we have in the backyard. we tore apart some old fence palings to partition the tank stand, so we could use about a third of it for our garden. we then went out and bought some organic compost mix, sugar cane mulch and cow poo, and put them in the newly partitioned tank stand layer by layer, until we'd built it up to the top of the brickwork. we then let it rest for a week or so, to let all the new soil materials settle, then planted a whole bunch of goodies, including lettuce, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, dill and basil.

so far we've had a few teething problems (i am far from a green thumb), but look at the cucumber that we harvested!

  

it was as long as my forearm!
we've gotten other goodies as well, that i didn't take a photo of before they magically disappeared from the kitchen bench (i'm suspecting into someones hungry stomach), but now as autumn has finally found it's way here, the garden is going dormant over winter. which is probably not a bad thing because i desperately need to do some green thumb studying!

growing your own fruit, veggies and herbs, and even having your own hens (for eggs, obviously) can prove to be massively beneficial not just for you but for the environment. for example, you know exactly what has gone into growing what you are eating (no chemical pesticides or such on your plants or in the soil), and growing it in your back yard reduces transportation from semitrailers, planes and cargo ships down to you walking two feet out your back door and back.
and it doesn't need to be a massive undertaking. just start with simple things like herbs that you use often when you cook (basil, dill, parsely, corriander), and then if you have the time and space, expand out to things like tomatoes and carrots (or even cucumbers!). little things can make a big difference, not only to your body and health, but also for the environment. don't under estimate what one small step can mean on a cumulative scale.

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