For any budding smallholders out there (even those, like me, who will probably never quite get as far as converting their dreams of self-sustaining rural bliss into positive muddy action), I would recommend getting hold of copies of Chas Griffin's highly entertaining 'Scenes from a Smallholding' and the sequel 'More Scenes from a Smallholding'.

In 1982 Chas left the security of suburbia and a safe job to grow garlic in Wales. It's the story of how they learned about lambing and marketing, ploughing and hay-making, the joys of milking, the terrors bee-keeping and how to track down escapee pigs.

Full of useful information (or at least would-be useful information if I were in a position to make use of it), it had me chuckling merrily to myself by the poolside on holiday . At least it ensured that the loungers beside me remained empty .

Sounds great. I'm very much like you, an armchair self sustainer

My dream would be to have a small farm which was self sustainable, with a little bit extra to sell onto the local markets. I probably will never achieve it, but you have to dream!

Have you read John Seymour's books, Fat of the Land and The Complete Guide to Self Sufficiency? They are brilliant - just how I would like to live my life! I already try and grow as much as I can, recycle as much as I can and by that I meannot just putting stuff out for the recycling men but actually making use of it myself. My chicken hutch is made out of old crowd control fences, compost heaps and raised beds out of pallets, Bug boxes out of old metal containers. I collect all my neighbours garden waste to make into compost (and also add all carboard and paper because if you mix it with soil it will break down eventually). I even got my dad to bring over a load of old branches that he had cut down for the log pile. We live in such a throw away society where people too lightly just throw stuff out and don't think where it is going. And the supermarkets don't help as they over package everything.

I grow lots of stuff as well and about a month ago sampled my first ever home made wine which was surprisingly ok!

I will definitely read that book - thanks for the suggestions!

Both books sound great, I will be giving them a try sometime in the future.

I think it's brilliant how you recycle as much as you can rowena, you have given me some great ideas.

This post was last modified: 21-08-2007 08:53 AM by Xeract.

Thanks, am glad to be of inspiration to someone. I once saw a flatbed at work full of crates and asked them if they were dumping them (even though there is a wood recycling project just down the road). They said yes so I got them to deliver them all to my garde - the volume of which was actually bigger than my car. I put them on freecycle (which is fantastic for recycling stuff and helping other people) and a few people came and picked them up, other than that they are still all in my garden waiting to be turned into stuff. - Quite the right size for nest boxesm but i have too many of them already!