You’re better off producing most of the food you eat.
‘Simple steps to a sustainable homesteading’ is an expository of my original work and achievement done inside my compound. The purpose of sharing this information is to encourage and inspire someone somewhere, especially in this trying times in the history of the world; by way of educating people on the importance of food security in a world of economic uncertainty.
Thanks to all my friends and readers; especially to those that do comment on my articles always. Your questions, ideas and encouragement remains my motivation.
Recently, I started receiving some messages from my readers; both from West Africa and overseas demanding more of my original work. Some have desired that I put up some articles on how to start a home garden without spending much money.
My vegetable garden
At the end of this article, you’ll be able to get same result as what you’re seeing in the picture above. This garden is just 2 weeks old and it now supplies enough vegetables to my family, my neighbors, and excess that are being sold at the market.
Today, I’ll break it down for you and let you discover both the potential and how easy it is to have your own home garden as this.
Things you may need
Little space
Manure
Water
Seeds
Tools
With these few things, one can produce a rich vegetable garden to sustain his family and his neighbors.
Little Space
Let’s start with space for your house garden. You don’t need big investment all the times in order to achieve great results; sometimes little things may add unexpected value to our lives.
Someone may decide to discourage his or herself using space as an excuse, but I’m telling you that you don’t need much space to make a great vegetable garden. For my garden, (the one in the picture) the space I utilized is just a little space between my fence wall and my proposed Crypto Hub wall measuring 600mm” in width and 3000mm” in length.
Now that you’ve discovered that little space in your compound, it’s now up to you to decide if you would go for ‘a dig or no dig’ method. But in this article, I’ll explain how to do ‘a dig’ method; meaning that you’ll need to till the ground to achieve a good result.
Manure
Bag of animal excretion serving as rich manure
Depends on your soil type, you may need manure for a soil type that aren’t humus enough. I don’t subscribe to chemical fertilizers; it cost so much and wouldn’t allow you to have a feel of natural process. In my case, I produce my own rich organic manure inside my compound.
This is 100 percent natural; very rich animal manure meant for rich vegetable gardening.
Animal manure at a glance
Let me take little time to explain how I produce this type of organic manure. I could decide to make compost manure instead, but I always try to achieve multiple results from one attempt. In one of my previous articles, I told you how I adopted some sheep that were brought to the market to be slaughtered. These animal friends now makes sure that I do not lack manure. So their excretion has become my manure factory.
I feed those livestock with waste and damaged vegetables from my garden and farm, and in return, they produces rich manure from their waste matters.
Turning waste food into animal feed
So I gather crumbs and spoilt plantain, cassava, vegetables and fruits; chop them in smaller particles, and dry them to enable them last long for the animals.
Now that you’ve known how to produce rich manure without buying from the market, why not give it a try if your environment permits such.
Water
Water is strictly essential for gardening as some varieties of vegetables plants depends solemnly on good supply of water to do well. Not everyone will have issue of water. Well, I solved my own water problem through an underground water reservoir which receives rain water from my house roof during rainy season.
My water reservoir that supplies water to my community
The reserved water is what supplies to my garden during drought period. In like manner, you may gather rain water during winter or rainy periods for your garden. For those that have government water supplies in their homes, water may not be a problem for you. Not everyone can afford this type of irrigation system (though it’s not too difficult)
Determination is the key to every possibility. I built my own irrigation system through many years of perseverance; I built it with crypto currency through writing of articles as this one that you’re reading. Some lovely souls from around the world saw my genuine optimism and hardworking; and some supported my effort through loan, and others through voting up my articles.
Seeds
Nature is awesome, have you noticed that seeds are one of the free gifts from creation? A single vegetable plant can give you seeds that could sustain your planting need for several months.
I do not buy seeds except for new varieties. I dry and preserve seeds from my gardens and farm lands. I also distributes to other family who tends garden too.
Grain seeds dried and preserved
Depending on your choice of vegetable plants, you can also have different seeds for mix cropping. Well preserved seeds could stay years as long as they’re well kept.
Variety of seeds can be extract from the garden and preserved
Now that you’ve known about the role of seeds and the importance of gathering them from your garden, let’s talk about the last things in the list which is tools.
Tools
Gardening doesn’t require much tools to be accomplished. Doing digging method of gardening may require few tools like cutlass for clearing, Rake for gathering scraps, and digger for digging and softening the soil. In some cases, you may need watering 🚿 jars when hosepipe isn’t available.
Planting tools
You are now ready to plant your vegetables garden 🪴
Now that everything is set for your vegetables garden. I know that you’re eager to start planting. I also understand that some people would like to see or to know more on the steps to plant their seeds.
You’re just a step to accomplishing all that. Seeing that it may not be too good to accommodate the whole process into this singular article, I’ll suggest that we take little break and come back in my next article which will cover the steps and precepts of planting your vegetables.
In conclusion
If your neighbor is hungry, give him to eat. If you’re not sure of how the next meal will come, then it’s time to make at least a garden for food security in your home. Thanks so much for being patient with me as we discuss all these. See you in my next article coming in few days from now.
