It seems oxy-moroninc doesn't it? How can anyone be self sufficient in the city? The plots are tiny, most homes don't have a sustainable heat source, or water source, livestock is usually regulated with a heavy municipal hand.
I know. Boy do I know. And it's why I want my 50 acres, with a cabin in the woods. I mean, that's the idea right? Dairy cows, a couple of sows for piglets, lots of land for a giant garden......its the dream most of us have, I get it. But you know what? As I've shown you in other posts, you don't have to have 50 acres and a cabin in the woods to be a homesteader. Sometimes, life gets in the way of our biggest dreams and you'll need to bloom where you're planted. Me? Im in the city right now, and that's not going to change within at least the next two years.
And believe it or not, there are some serious benefits to living in the city. When we decided to get chickens, I simply walked the 1.5 miles to our library and checked out a few books on backyard chicken keeping. When I do need to get something at the store I can't grow (like flour) then I simply walk in the other direction 1 mile and hit up our local store. Don't be shy, bike the distance if it's too far! This really saves some fuel costs, which we know are ever rising!
You actually can be quite self sustainable in the city if you plan it it right! Like, really self sustainable believe it or not. And here's how.
1. Learn everything you can about your bioregion.
What's a bioregion you ask? Great question, I had to look it up too. It's basically your region that's separated by the environment and it's characteristics, not by manmade structures. So ours include the Rocky Mountains, the Sandhills and a couple of rivers. This puts us in a river basin right in the middle of the North Platte and South Platte Rivers, so our soil is much different from just 25 miles either north or south of us.Not only do you want to learn about your environment, but you want to learn about local laws. Some great questions to ask are:
Can you have backyard livestock? (Chicken/Rabbits/Goats/Ducks/etc)
Can you harvest rainwater?
What do you need to do to put up outbuildings like a coop?
What restrictions on where you can plant food?
Some cities like mine are pretty lax. We have no limit on backyard fowl, but of course, I don't want a chicken farm, Im just aiming for feeding our family. We have no limits on food production, other than blocking traffic views because we live on a corner lot. We are allowed to harvest our rainwater in barrels too, and our building permits allow us to put up sheds/etc without a permit as long as it's smaller than a certain size.
Observation is going to be the key in this first step. And write it all down too! Don't be like me, and think "Hey, I can remember that!" only to forget a week later. You never know where your journey will take you, so even things you think you might not need to know now, you might want to know for later.
2. Grow your own food.
Growing your own food, is probably one of the most important things you can do as an urban homesteader. As urbanites, we have to get creative when we grow food. Think UP. Not just OUT. Vertical containers, hanging planters, ladder boxes, anything you can come up with to grow up and not out. This year we're growing pole beans. Even though they're a bit slower than bush beans, because it allows me to trellis the beans UP and plant something under that trellis instead of taking up precious space in the garden.
I've seen strawberries in planters, tomatoes in containers, herbs and spices in boxes and baskets on a porch. You are not limited to places you can till up. Don't use your driveway because you bike/walk everywhere? Turn it into a garden with containers and raised beds. You're going to surprise yourself with how much food you can grow in a small space. I know I did. As long as you provide adequate dirt depth, almost anything can grow well in a container.
3. What you can't grow, buy local.
You know have heard me say this before. "Source what you can't grow". And honestly, I can't say it enough. There's no argument that organically grown food is healthier than food grown in a hothouse with pesticides, (think winter strawberries) or that farm fresh chicken eggs are better than what you get in the store. If you have any doubts about this, Netflix, Amazon and youtube are all chock full of documentaries that will open your eyes about the nature of our food industry.
Not only is buying local and organic better for you, but it's better for your bioregion too. There are farmers markets, local farms that open their doors to the public, CSA's, the list goes on. Local Harvest is a great place to start if you need to find food close to you.
They say that the dollars that are spent locally have three times the impact than the dollars you spend at big chains. This means that when you buy local, you create and help sustain jobs, you help your city and it's outreach with the city tax dollars collected from those sales, and you are voting on how you want to live and eat with that dollar.
4. Raise some backyard animals!
You wouldn't believe the amount of help you can get from just a few chickens or rabbits. We have six chickens. They free range on about 450 sq ft of our backyard (this includes the coop footprint) and the compost pile is back there too for them to dig through. This means I don't give them feed. They eat how nature intended, which by the way is free for me. The exception to this is when the ground is completely frozen and then I do give them a homemade feed.
Now because I love my chickens, I give them some scratch and treats. They love a good cucumber and seriously, they are pecking the seeds out before I've laid it on the ground for them. I also give them a bit of our homemade feed in the summer time, about a handful that's thrown on the ground as scratch for them, just to kind of round out the diet and make sure they get what they need. And if you haven't seen home grown eggs, let me tell you, they're superior. f
Then there is the bedding and droppings. That goes straight into a second compost pile (not the one they eat from!) to compost into some seriously rich fertilizer for the garden. Chicken and rabbit droppings are coveted to the backyard homesteader because it's abundant and perfect for the garden.
This brings me to number 5......
5. Compost, compost and compost some more.
I cannot express enough how much your homemade compost is going to benefit your gardening. Its a way to amend your soil (clays, etc) and it's a way to put back into the earth vital nutrients so that you can grow more in a smaller space (think intensive/square foot gardening) and do so every year without letting any land sit fallow.
Check out our guide on how to compost and get started today!
6. Re-discover why the kitchen is considered the hearth of the family home.
The kitchen is the place to be in my home. There's always some magic or another going on in there. Learning to cook what you grow, eat and cook seasonally and preserve your bounty are key ingredients in self-sustainablity. If you can't cook well, or don't know how to preserve food, start by taking a class! If you can't find classes, let me tell you, the internet is your friend, or visit your local library for books on how-to. Find a friend and learn together!
Cooking what you eat not only saves you money on food, but will save you money down the road because you'll be healthier and happier. You'll be surprised at what you can do at home. Cheese, wine, artisan breads, they're all something you CAN do at home. With the right resources you can actually achieve almost total grocery store independence, even in the city.
Freezing, dehydrating and canning are all great methods of persevering your foods. Whether you've grown them yourself or you found a local market or CSA for them. If you have extra, don't waste it! Americans waste almost 40% of the food we buy, and most of it is fresh foods like produce. Preserve it! What you cannot preserve, feed to your backyards animals and what you cannot feed them compost. Don't let anything go to waste!
And lastly:
7. Take charge of your energy and water resources.
Its a common misconception that living in the city is energy heavy because well, in the country, you have room for a clothes line, and a wood stove, and a well....
Well it's simply a myth. If you plan it right, you can really reduce your energy expenditures. And when you need less energy, you're more self-sustainable. Start by sealing up your home. Re-caulk your windows, make sure your ductwork is insulated etc. Then make sure you're insulated. By this I mean, learn to live with the heat down in the winter and the AC up in the summer (or if you can tolerate it, turn off the AC). We turn our heat on about 62° or 63° in the winter. Yes, it's chilly. But that can be fixed with a sweater. We keep our AC off in the summer and only turn on it if reaches 100°+ and then we only turn it on at night so we can sleep.
Next, try to find some sources of energy. You can put in a passive solar hot water heater, an outdoor bread oven solar dehydrator, and use the sun to dry your clothing.
Spending just a couple hundred on three or four 55 gallon rainwater barrels (or see if you can find free giveaways!) will go a long way to helping you achieve water independence. We're lucky enough to live with a well on our property, but just putting barrels under the chicken coop, garage and house would yield us quite a bit of rainwater for watering animals and the garden.
All of these things will go so far in helping you become more self-sustainable and leading a more energy efficient lifestyle. And best of all they are things can be done where you are in life. Even in an apartment, you can grow food on your own balcony or windowsill, reuse gray water for watering your plants, preserve food from your container garden or farmers market, bike and walk as your main mode of transportation, and even have a small compost pile in a rotating bin if you wanted.
It only take some time and planning to get started and then once you do, you're well on your way!
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