Peak oil. Rising sea levels. Climate change. Soaring energy prices. Ever wondered how self-sufficient you could be? Really if it came down to it could we survive unaided? How do you reckon we would go at generating our own food, electricity, water on a typical surburban block?.
We had a little test run here at Shambles Manor when my husband insisted on building a little vegie patch (in the front, unfinished yard). Yes he was right it did foster community relations with neighbours stopping buy to admire the handiwork. I think they are starting to get used to the weird people in the still-to-be completed shoulda-been-a-McMansion who are bringing property prices down in the area.
First step was building a little plot 2 metres by 2 metres then Mr Shambles asked nicely (OK ordered) the girls to help – it’s not slave labour it’s a valuable learning/back-to-nature experience.
An assortment of produce was planted. Eggplants, snow peas, tomatoes, chilli, basil, coriander, grapes, lettuce, strawberries along with some marigolds which I think were supposed to keep pests away.
Lots of tender loving care was administered.
The end result? We enjoyed four or five great salads. Had a nice meal of tomato bruschetta. The herbs added flavour to a number of meals. The grapes and are almost ready for eating and the strawberry was a nice addition to my pink champagne last night.
Frankly, it took a bit of work. I’m thinking if push comes to shove and our only food source is the front yard we could be in trouble.
As my husband said to one of our kids once when he was ‘encouraging’ him to help tidy up the garden – “Ah no, not at all – it’s not child labour – I’d have to pay you for that.” Nice looking veggies!
Very good point. A wise man your husband.
We turning the side of a small hill in our back yard into a veggie/herb garden this year. I can’t wait to have enough veggies to can my own sauces. Yum…
That will be delicious.
As a snow and rain covered Ohio girl, it’s so nice to see veggies growing and hear about freshly made bruschetta. 🙂 Even if you can’t sustain your family with your little plot, I imagine that the 5 salads were pretty tasty!
They were indeed.
we had a garden, but the deer ate it. i’ll try again next summer. we did eat some delicious cucumbers, and there is nothing like harvesting food and eating it for dinner for freshness! good for your honey, and your girls. and you, too!
Yep I was heavily involved – I blogged about it.
All the fruit and vegies from the garden tasted great. Good luck with yours next year. There are wild deer around here too (long story they were released from a deer farm) and they ate Mr Shambles first attempts at a garden before we even moved in.
My father once planted something like… a dozen+ zucchini plants.. we ate zucchini at LEAST 4 times a week that summer. I had no idea how many ways you could eat zucchini – you could stuff it with sausage, you could put it on pasta, you could make zucchini parmesean, you can fry up the flowers and eat them for breakfast, you can make quiche… etc, etc, etc.
Your garden looks like fun, maybe next year your crop will go up since you figured it all out this year!
Also, strawberries and pink champagne sound delicious.
Let’s hope we’ve got more to harvest next year! I love the image of your family sitting around eating endless zucchini’s – go your mother for her versatility with recipes.
My husband grows tomatoes every year and we manage to get a few before the heat (we live in Az)gets to be too much for them. Despite the limited production he goes all out and buys plants, fertizer, mulch and whatever else he thinks is needed. I’ve accused him of growing $47 tomatoes (a piece) He makes up for it with the crop of oranges, grapefruit and lemons we get Jan–April.
There were many trips to Bunnings for all the assorted trimmings I reckon you might be right cost-wise – pleased to say they tasted good though.
Lovely! We’re going to be trying a veggie patch this summer too. I hope we’ll get a few salads as well. Oh, and I would definitely be in trouble if we had to be self-sufficient…
Yep I don’t think any of us are putting the supermarkets/greengrocers out of business just yet.
Having grown anything at all you’re a good deal ahead of many folks; well done for getting started and it’ll be easy to do more as you go on! Just be careful you don’t overtax yourself with the blogging aspect! Just kidding. Those homegrown salads are truly the best – savour them.
No I don’t want to get calluses from all that typing!