There are plenty of compelling reasons to consider trying to feed your family with your own plants. For starters, it’s a much more sustainable way to live, as your plants are local and you can control what pesticides you use, if any.
But while it’s a nice idea, it might be more difficult than you realize to fully support your family with the plants you grow. This isn’t to say that it’s impossible, many people manage to live off their land. But it is a lot of work and requires a significant amount of land to play around with.
Here are some challenges that you might encounter, as well as a few ideas to consider.
Supplementing Your Diet
Rather than immediately trying to become completely self-sufficient, a good idea would be to supplement your normal diet with home-grown vegetables. This is still better for your family and allows you to use your garden more sustainably but without the pressure of completely relying on yourself.
This also means that you don’t have to completely switch to a vegetarian lifestyle, and you can enjoy different spices and produce that you can’t grow at home. Over time, you can expand your garden.
One of the biggest issues of being self-sufficient is a lack of variety. By allowing some room to supplement your diet with other sources of food, you can be more flexible with what you grow rather than only focusing on the most nutritious and calorie-efficient vegetables.
Space
You’d be surprised at the amount of food a human needs to eat in a year. Once you break it down, if you want to be totally self-sufficient, you’ll need at least 200 square feet of space per person to work with. This amounts to about 18.5 square metres.
This isn’t an unreasonable amount of space, but depending on where you live, it might be larger than your average garden. This also doesn’t factor in walkways, garden structures, and recreational parts of your garden.
For many people, the best option is to get an allotment separate from your garden. This gives them more space and they can focus on growing vegetables in their allotment garden, while still having some nice outdoor space to relax in.
Time and Tools
Growing vegetables is a lot of work, especially if you’re trying to feed your family and juggle other responsibilities. You need the right equipment and high-quality seeds to get things started and to keep your momentum up.
With a large-scale project, you’d be better off using an agricultural supplier. You can save money and get bulk high-quality products as you need them.
Pickling and Preserving
One big issue with self-sufficiency is that your food won’t last forever. A big harvest will rot unless you do something about it.
This is where preservation comes into the picture. Ideally, use a variety of preservation methods, including pickling, fermenting, dehydrating, and freezing. This will allow you to use your vegetables all year round, without losing quality.
