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My early attempts at following the ‘Good Life‘ and becoming self-sufficient were not very effective. While the installation of solar panels to generate our own electricity went quite well, learning to grow our own food – in a typical suburban garden – was not so successful. I knew it was important, though – as I feel that only if you have access to your own food can you become self-reliant and start to distance yourself from our broken consumerist and corporate culture. Among those who feel this way it is often said that ‘growing your own food is an act of rebellion‘.
In my first year (2015) my ambition was low, I just wanted to learn to grow something that could be eaten. In August that year I bought 3 packs of salad seeds at the local DIY shop and my food growing adventure began.
At that point I owned very little in the way of tools or related gardening equipment so I created a makeshift raised bed from spare bricks. I dug over the soil and planted the salad seeds in simple rows of mixed lettuce and rocket.
Creating a makeshift raised bed (Image: T. Larkum)
Within 2 weeks I had seedlings popping up. I covered the bed with some plastic trellis to keep off birds and watched the plants develop.
My first seedlings appear (Image: T. Larkum)
Two weeks after that the first salad leaves were ready to harvest. My family ate its first meal with food we had grown ourselves – a modest victory.
Home grown food! (Image: T. Larkum)
It turned out, of course, that a few dozen salad plants do not go far in feeding a family. However, I had gotten the growing bug and vowed that my next season’s attempts would be much more ambitious, and so it turned out to be.
If you are thinking about growing your own food but have no experience – just do it! It’s the only way to learn, and you won’t look back.
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