Greetings from jobi1canobi in Leicestershire

[Jobi1canobi]

Hi all,

My name is Joanna and although I'm currently living in Leicestershire, I am seriously considering a move back to my homeland of West Yorkshire.

I am literally brand new to Self Sufficiency and am a little sceptical about whether this is fully achievable in this day and age - as a result I prefer to aim for Self-Reliance so that I can dip in and out of today's society at will rather than through necessity.

In a nutshell, I decided to explore Self-reliance in an effort to rid myself of the dissatisfaction I feel towards the current 'rat race' that I appear to be 'stuck' in. I have a massive feeling that there must be more to life than this and knowing that I save more than 50% of my wages each month it dawned on me that I don't necessarily need to work full time to achieve the simple lifestyle that we (my partner Jybson & I) currently maintain. Progressing from this I wondered whether I could get my self to a point where I didn't have to 'work' in the traditional sense at all.

I love the outdoors, I love working hard for a purpose and I have a thirst for knowledge and gaining experience.

Current reading includes All New Square Foot Gardening, Mel Bartholomew; Gardening and Planting by the Moon, Nick Kollerstrom; Food for Free, Richard Mabey; Self Reliance, John Yeoman; along with any books to do with Paganism and it's many paths.

We currently live in a flat so we are hoping to acquire an allotment in October but I'll let you know whether I get one or not! I have big plans for it so fingers crossed that we get one.

Future challenges include crossing Square Foot Gardening with Gardening and Planting by the Moon - well, if you've got two good theories - surely it can only get better if you cross them to form a hybrid theory?

I would also like to start preserving my harvest through various different methods including canning and making chutneys etc. Something I've got absolutely no experience of whatsoever.

I'm currently very positive about all of this although I'm sure that there will be things sent to try me in the very near future. I don't give in easily and would hope that I am resourceful enough to overcome most things (with your help!).

[Millymollymandy]

Hi Jobi and welcome to the forum (can I call you that cos it's a lot easier? ).

[Thomzo]

Hi and welcome

I think most of us are like you. We realise that it is very nearly impossible to be totally self sufficient (in the UK especially) so we just do what we can - hence the "ish".

Good luck with the allotment and do tell us how you get on with your square moon gardening experiment.

Cheers
Zoe

[ina]

square moon gardening

Has the moon changed shape since I last looked?

Anyway - hiya, Jobi, and welcome to the ishers!

[Meredith]

Hi Joanna and welcome.

Good luck with getting your allotment, one step at a time. I do far too much shopping to call myself selfsufficient but we can only do the best we can.

Meredith.

[red]

hi and welcome

[Shirley]

Hi Jobi.... (what a cool name!!)

Welcome aboard... you've got a great reading list there. Good luck for the lottie.... will keep fingers crossed that you get one.

[Andy Hamilton]

Square foot biodynamic gardening eh? Well it can't hurt to try them out together, I might have a go at both next year too. Well I was thinking square meter gardening. Welcome to the fourm

[Jarmara]

Hello

[Ranter]

Hi Jobi1,
I live in the centre of Leicester & share an allotment with friends. It's great fun so good luck with your lottie plans. If you'd like a look round our site - our plot's not the most attractive or productive but others are both - let me now & we'll arrange it.
Cheers
Lisa

[Jobi1canobi]

Hello everyone and thank you for being so welcoming.

I have no problem at all with being referred to as jobi or jobi1.

I was quite entertained by the reference to 'square moon gardening' and then my partner (Jybson) delightfully started calling it 'Square Foot Mooning' ! So when you see a topic with just such a title - please don't be alarmed!

Andy - if you do dabble in a spot of 'square foot mooning', do let me know - I'd love to compare notes.

Ranter - I might just take you up on the opportunity to view your plot - thanks for the offer. May I pm you a little bit further down the line?

Kindest regards to you all.

[Ranter]

pm me when you want to arrange to view our plot, or visit the West Leicester Allotment Show at New Parks allotment site (not the one we're on), Stokes Drive, Leicester, this Sat 15th Sept 10am - 4.30pm.

Cheers

[Jobi1canobi]

Hello again!

Okay - so I've been away for a while so I thought I'd reacquaint myself and provide an update on my ever changing circumstances.

As you can see - We (Jybson & I) originally lived in a flat and planned to get an allotment so we could start 'Square Foot Mooning' - crossing Square Foot Gardening with biodynamics (gardening by the moon).

However...Jybson & I got sick of renting a flat and made a big push to find a house with a bit of land so that we could have our 'allotment' on our doorstep. Ironically, we are only paying an extra £15 a month and we have almost everything that we wanted but didn't have in the flat.

Since moving in February - we've managed to make up some square foot gardens in raised boxes (2 x 4 by 4 foot and 2 x 2 by 5 foot). Unfortunately, because I got slightly over-excited at the idea of growing our own food I'm afraid the planting by the moon went out the window because I couldn't wait or it didn't fit with my work patterns! I'm pleased to say that I have managed successional planting though (because Jybson put his foot down and stopped me sowing everything at once) - so I wasn't that bad!

So - in our 52 square foot of space we have: beetroot, leeks, cauliflower, lettuce, salad leafs, spring onions, red onions, turnips, carrots, parsnips, spinach, tomatoes, sweet peppers, cucumbers, garlic, aubergines, celery, florence fennel and pumpkin. I also have rosemary, thyme, basil, mint and parsley going great guns on the conservatory window sill (I can't believe we have a conservatory!) along with additional tomatoes, peppers and aubergines so we can assess the difference in success between outdoor and indoor planting.

I'm just about to put herbs in a strawberry planter outside as well.

Everything is going great guns - bar a slightly bent cucumber plant that a fat pigeon managed to sit on (I've now swung old CD's from the arcs holding the netting up to frighten them off) - and the aphids and slugs don't seem to have cottoned on to the fact that there is a new food source yet - I'm hoping the confusion of smells from the companion growing is putting everything off!

We are both heartily into the swing of recycling (our Borough Council is ace and take almost everything) as well as composting (we made our own out of pallets) and reusing plastic food containers for seed trays.

I made a 'self-watering plant pot' yesterday out of an old 2 litre plastic bottle and I'm waiting on some corrugated cardboard for a home made insect hotel.

Future plans include bee-keeping and maybe, saving some battery hens. I'll wait until we've bought our own place first though - unless I get too excited again!

Anyway, that's me - loving the world we live in and over excited by everything that saves money!

Happy to chat!

Kindest regards,

Jobi1

[oldfella]

Hello Jobi

[hedgewitch]

WOW you have been busy!
Hello again jobi.