The Good Life - or - How to do Smallholding

Many people assume that, in order to live the “good life”, one has to have the mythical two acres of land in the countryside. But this is not the case. Don't, in fact, wait until you have those mythical two acres in the countryside. On the contrary. Begin where you are. In many ways you can already set up smallholding, the “good life” where you are. Many of us, who are old enough, for sure, remember the television series entitled “The Good Life” where the people attempted to make a smallholding in the subdivisions. Nothing against this, I should think, though, maybe, the keeping of pigs, goats and such might be a little bit over the top. Today there is, once again, a lot more emphasis on allotments and that is certainly a place to start. But even patio planting, and even balcony planting can give you some self-sufficiency as far as food and food production is concerned.

Like home, your smallholding, can nearly be anywhere.

OK, doing it on an allotment or in your garden at you property in suburbia may not be the smallholding dream but it (1) is a start and (2) good preparation for the time when you can actually make the move, if indeed you still want to after having started it where you are.

How big does a smallholding have to be? Well, you can start with your garden at home, with an allotment, even with patio or balcony planting. Go vertical instead of horizontal if need be. Horizontal planting, whether lack of space or not, is a good idea anyway in order to increase the area for food production. Many plants grow well in pots suspended from shelves and hanging frames on walls or trellises, and then there are vines and others that grow well on trellises. Runner beans, for instance, instead of a “beanery” in the form of a pyramid or such like, plant them along a trellis and let them climb than. Immediately you have gained some space for other crops where you would, generally, had your runner beans.

Fruit trees grow well in that way too, along a frame, similar to a trellis. Many a small orchard on the European mainland seems to be worked in that manner and they all tend to look a little like vineyards then.

No one wishing to try their hands on the smallholding dream needs to wait for the mythical two or more acres of land in the countryside. The good life can begin exactly where you are presently.

In addition to your garden and other areas at home that may be utilized for growing your own food, and then, if you have the time and all that, an allotment or two, you could do “clandestine gardening & farming” (look out for an article on this to come in due course). My family did when I was a child. Clandestine farming and gardening is, basically, growing food in the hedgerows and other “derelict land, including, as it was in my family's case, in woodland meadows and such.

When setting out beds for the growing of crops in your home and allotment smallholding my suggestion is to make that you them as raised beds, as and where possible, as this will make working them easier. The ideal width is about 3 feet, that is to say, about 1 meter. This way you can work the bed from either side without ever having to step on it, thus compacting the soil.

In addition to this, when utilizing the patio or other similar space for growing food crops work in tiers. There are some ready made solutions that you can purchase and we shall have a look at those, I hope, by way of a product review,m in the not too distant future. However, there are also solutions that you could make yourself.

One would be to use a solution that would look like the picnic table with benches attached that you can often see outside Public Houses and such. A structure like that give you more that one layer as to where to grow the food crops and you thereby can increase you growing area.

Well, now don't let me stop you starting the smallholding life by keeping you here at the computer reading my little essay. Go out there and do it.

© Michael Smith (Veshengro), March 2008