Gardening your way towards self reliance

An overview of the garden looking south-east towards the creek and chick coop. The kale in the foreground will soon be gone to make way for tomatoes. Click on photos to enlarge them.

Before I write today's post I want to answer a few questions that were in yesterday's comments. Claudia, well done on that work you're doing; it's fabulous that it's a joint effort with the family. Just a word on the pallets, Claudia, make sure the timber used in them is untreated. If it's treated it won't be suitable for a food garden - over time, the chemicals will leach out.

Donna, the cake topping is icing sugar (confectioner's sugar) mixed with a little milk.

Carrie, I've written two posts on convincing your partner: here and here.

Barb, good luck with your changes. You are so right, we must all shoulder that responsibility.

And a special hello to all those ladies who commented yesterday for the first time.
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Today I'm taking you on a walk through our vegetable garden. Hanno has done a lot of work out there this past week and it's starting to look like a really beautiful productive garden. There is only one bare patch now, but I'm quite okay with that because kitchen gardens, those used everyday to produce food for the kitchen table, are always being harvested - either for dinner or salad greens, or to put a few bags of an over abundant vegetable into the freezer.

Silverbeet, leeks, zucchini and kale.

This is the area right next to the chook house. In the foreground is zucchini, under the straw and beyond will be our next potato patch.

Lettuce, garlic, chives, bok choy, beetroot, climbing beans and radishes.


Our beautiful Faverolles hen, Heather.

I took these photos late in the afternoon when I was watering the garden and picking salad for last night's dinner. And while I was walking around, deciding what photo to take, I felt every possibility present in that garden. For the past fifty years, we've been encouraged away from self reliance. Now, we're all working harder and longer but we are softer and dependent on the system to support us and provide food. When I walk through our garden it gives me the feeling of choice, potential and the responsibility we all take when we walk a simple green path. Sure, we have to work for this, but it's good honest work and it pays off in more than a garden full of food. It gives us the feeling that we are able to look after ourselves, we can feed ourselves in good times and in bad, and we have regained the skills our grandparents all had and took for granted. If the system broke down tomorrow, or even a part of it, I have no doubt we would pull through and we'd help our family and friends stand along side us.

Looking back towards the house and bush house, here we have iceberg lettuce, capsicums (peppers) and tomatoes.

Buttercrunch lettuce, bok choy, cabbages, cucumbers and parsley.

Of course, gardening leads on to learning several other significant skills that support this life too. We must know how to store our food safely, we should know how to cook nutritious food from scratch, and we need to know how to perpetuate the food system we've given our time and effort too through seed saving and propagation.

The best silverbeet we've ever grown, next to leeks, zucchini and kale.

We've been gardening for many years, but we both had to relearn forgotten skills along the way - and we're still learning now. When you're a gardener you never stop learning. So if you're at the beginning of your journey towards self reliance, I am here to encourage you all the way. It may not always be an easy journey but it will be an interesting and enriching one.