Self-sufficient garden: the best tips

Grow your own vegetables: The path to a self-sufficient garden

Even though more and more people are dreaming of their own self-sufficient garden, there are different forms and levels of self-sufficiency. For some, the term "self-sufficient" means someone who lives completely self-sufficiently and supplies themselves with food, water and electricity. For others, it means "only" growing food such as animal products, grains, fruit, vegetables and herbs. However, you should not underestimate how much time, space and knowledge such an undertaking requires.

Here are some instructions on how to provide yourself with vegetables all year round. This requires much less space, time and natural resources than growing animal feed. Nevertheless, you shouldn't underestimate vegetable growing. If you already feel completely exhausted, you should think about whether you have enough time and energy for this project. Then you can still garden and try things out, e.g. vary varieties from year to year or venture into new crops - there is plenty of variety and challenge when interacting with nature anyway.

Planning garden work and creating beds

Self-sufficiency is not a project that can be decided on and implemented in a day or even a year. It makes much more sense to limit yourself to a few varieties or a smaller area at first, depending on your experience in vegetable growing. This will give you a better idea of how much you can manage in terms of time. Over time, you can always grow more and expand your garden. However, it's a shame if you overdo it, don't achieve the desired results and can't harvest and process the entire crop.

Your own self-sufficient garden: motivation and goal

The first step is to realize what the motivation and goal of your own self-sufficient garden is. In the best case scenario, you will have fresh, aromatic and healthy vegetables all year round and save yourself a trip to the supermarket. So what is your goal? Perhaps you want to try unusual varieties that are otherwise expensive or difficult to obtain. Or you might want to cover a large part of your calorie requirements from your own garden and focus on a few varieties. Another option is to be able to eat vegetables from your own garden all year round. Good planning is particularly important for year-round self-sufficiency: in addition to the bed area, you should also consider the capacity for stored and canned vegetables. The final selection of varieties should be based on what you like to eat and should also be suitable for your location (soil, light exposure, climate).

Self-sufficiency all year round: space and time requirements for beds

The area required and the time needed can vary greatly depending on the crop. Roughly speaking, you can expect 250 to 300 square meters/ 299 to 358,8 square yards for a four-person household. With this amount of space, it is possible to grow crops all year round. However, Saturday is not the only day for gardening. The time required depends on how your garden is laid out, which crops you grow and, above all, the area. However, it is not possible to give a blanket answer. It's best to record how many kilograms of vegetables you buy and use over the course of a year. This way, you can be clearer in advance about how much space, vegetables and time you need. You should also bear in mind that in our latitudes, for example, fresh peppers and tomatoes are no longer available in winter and you have to rely on more canned vegetables instead. This requires sufficient supplies and storage facilities. As with all vegetable cultivation, planning for the following year makes the most sense in fall or winter.

These are simple cultures to start with:

• Potatoes
• Onions
• Zucchinis
• Bush and runner beans
• radishes
• Strawberries
• Lettuce
• Garlic
• Tomatoes
• Pumpkin
• Carrots
• Swiss chard

If you want to expand your beds for self-sufficiency, you should make short paths a priority: between the house, tool shed, compost and other beds. Fixed paths are also an advantage. The basis is of course the location, soil, weather and light conditions. You can find out exactly how to create a vegetable patch in this article.

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Self-sufficiency in the garden throughout the year

Even if it's not just April that goes crazy in some years, you can still use the seasons as a guide for most gardening work. Experience and a look at frost, temperature and precipitation are also good indicators.

• In summer, the water supply in the garden becomes the main issue, especially in view of the climate crisis. Collecting rainwater is the best alternative to groundwater or tap water. You can find tips on water-saving watering in this article. In the summer months, the light intensity, duration and temperatures are at their highest, allowing the fruit to ripen. Within a species, there are different varieties with different sowing and harvesting times. Here you can vary between early and late varieties in order to harvest for as long as possible. Some vegetable varieties, such as bush beans, are not harvested in one go, but a few pods at a time over a period of weeks.

Pickling and storing vegetables

Different types of vegetables ripen in different months and differ in terms of water content and consistency. On the one hand, there are harvest peaks when you harvest more from the garden than can be eaten and processed at the moment. On the other hand, there are also months when there is hardly anything going on in the garden. For these reasons, storing and preserving vegetables and other plants plays a particularly important role for all self-sufficient gardeners.

Preserving vegetables

• Suitable foods for freezing include zucchinis (finely chopped and salted), herbs (in portions in ice cubes) and various types of fruit and berries.
• Fruit such as apples, berries and elderflowers are particularly suitable for jellies, jams and syrups .
• Chutneys , on the other hand, are a great way to combine fruit and vegetables. Spices are the be-all and end-all.
• You canair-dry herbs from your garden in bundles, e.g. for teas, as well as vegetables such as tomatoes in a dehydrator or oven.
• Pickling and preserving are the best-known traditional ways to enjoy vegetables even in cold months. Hygiene is particularly important here. Vinegar or salt is usually used here and the liquid is poured hot into jars with the vegetables. Chillies and herbs can add a special touch to the oil.
• You can find more tips on preserving fruit and vegetables with instructions in our article.

Storing vegetables

Cultivation plan for a self-sufficient garden

This cultivation plan is an example of how you can plant about 58 square meters/ 69,3 square yards of bed area for self-sufficiency. Of course, this also depends on which crops you particularly like to eat and what your local conditions are like. The plants are not all in the bed all year round. To make the best use of the area and avoid erosion, you can either plant new crops in the area after the harvest or sow green manure . After the potato harvest, you can also use the space in the beds in your garden for lamb's lettuce, Chinese cabbage, fennel or spinach, for example.

More ideas for your growing plan as a self-sufficient farmer

Here you can find more inspiration for your self-sufficient garden with further planting plans.

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