The Plan

To turn a mostly tiled backyard into a veg garden that can feed me. I hope to never *need* a grocer again. 

 

That's it. That's the plan. When I took the photo's for this entry I had read no articles and made no preparation. I found myself in a flat with the yard you see below which was mostly tiled over which had no edible plants (Except the newly grafted orange tree) and I decided I wanted to feed myself.

Ok right below is the yard, that's pretty much the size of it. Also it is surrounded by 7/8 story apartment blocks on most sides but it gets light so that's a plus.

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 It looks pretty green right? well aside from those tomato plants which are only there because these two photos are a bit of a timewarp these plants would all happily let you starve. So there is work to be done. 

this is a later version of my seeding area (2 months)

To do

• Buy loads of pots and fill them  
• Grow lots of seedlings for the pots
• Learn about what grows easily and delivers the most edible material
• Grow more of that
• Harvest seeds and do it again next time around
• Learn about and experiment with new plants and methods 

The seed harvesting is really important to me, part of self reliance is not having to buy seeds every time I want a new crop, but it goes deeper than that. The best seeds you can get are ones that have survived germination and growth in your specific environment so the next batch already have a head start, also I obviously harvest seeds from the plant(s) that provide the best taste/yield/healthy growth etc... And the icing on the cake is that it connects you to your plants in yet another way. You got to pick favourites, aren't you cool? :)

So that's basically it. Over the course of this blog I'll be exploring soil management, container management, garden construction (I can't use a hammer presently), germination methods, permaculture techniques, The opposite of permaculture techniques, pruning, transplanting, individual food crops and their ins and outs and hopefully getting a ground water well built (I wish).

All that and whatever else I find I need to know in the future to get to my goal of food self sufficiency with limited space.

Here's to the incredibly slow ride!

What is this thing?!? yes, it was moving! A-L-I-V-E :o

Oh also I live in the Mediterranean on an island called Malta. We are definitely spoiled for sun here but in summer we feel not a drop of rain. My water bills better not end me.

That being said some of the things in this blog may not translate directly. I'll update with some posts about adapting what information you find on the internet to your own climate. I know a little but I need to know more, when I do I'll share!