Many gardeners dream of being able to plan, grow, store and preserving their own garden produce, living of your own land is something that a wide range of people find desirable, and why not?

Eating produce you’ve grown and cultivated yourself ensures there are no added chemicals; you’re getting 100% pure organic food.

But it’s not as simple as planting seeds and watering them, having your own self-sufficient garden takes a lot of work. Our helpful guide will make it a much easier and simpler process, from ensuring you have the right water tank to making sure you’re planting food correctly, our guide will help anyone get their own self-sufficient garden up and running. 

Step One – Planning

The first stage to self-sufficient gardening is getting all your planning work done, so don’t go buying produce until you have the planning done. One thing you’ll quickly learn about self-sufficient gardening is that you can do a lot with a little.

You don’t need a sprawling estate to set-up your own self-sufficient garden, but you need to plan around the space you do have for optimal efficiently. Start small but plan ahead so eventually you can reach your goals, the more people who live you with you the more you’re going to have to grow.

Step Two – Choosing What to Grow 

This is the fun part! Now everyone’s garden will be different after all there’s no point growing something if no one in your home eats it. Potatoes and herbs are a great starting part because potatoes are very versatile and herbs go with pretty much anything. You also need to take the changing seasons into account, you’ll only be able to grow vegetables like tomatoes, peppers and cucumber is the summer months. 

Step Three – Storage

Your garden might be producing food at an amazing rate. You could find whole mini-crops of produce waiting for harvest! That’s great, but without proper storage they won’t last long and then all your hard work will have gone to waste.

It’s an unfortunate mistake many rookie self-sufficient gardeners make, you can get so caught up in growing your produce that you can forget about actually having a way to store it. Freezing is a good option for preserving your produce but you can also ferment, dehydrate and pickle certain foods as well.

Step Four – Get Your Equipment Together

Setting up your own self-sufficient garden will require some initial investment, gardening tools like spades, forks and shears, garden hoses will all be needed. You’ll also need plenty of compost and if you’re really serious about having a self-sufficient garden then a rain water harvesting tank will also be incredibly useful.

A rain water harvesting tank, also known as a water storage tank, is designed to collect rainwater so you can use it for your produce. They come in a range of different sizes and can save you a lot of money on your water bills. When it comes to designing your self-sufficient garden, you should make sure to accommodate the space a water storage tank will take up.

Another good tip is to have a compost bin or space set aside for a compost pile, while you might need some compost at first, if you can make your own it will help you in the long run. Composting is much easier than you probably think; it really is as simple as mashing things together and then waiting.

Start your pile off with a layer of leaves and greenery with a little earth mixed in, and then add more plant matter and grass. Add a layer or soil to the pile, then add some more mud and earth and repeat till your pile is around three feet high or until your compost bin is full.

From there all you have to do is turn the pile every week or so with a spade or garden fork and wait for decomposing to begin. If you notice steam coming off the pile, don’t worry that means the process as started.

Step Five – Enjoy Your Produce!

And that’s our guide for setting up your own self-sufficient garden! Simple touches like setting up your own compost pile and having a rain water harvesting tank can save you even more money and make your garden more efficient.

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