Resilience Progress To December '23

Spring is over and summer is here, with what seems like constant sunshine and frequent rain. With the change of seasons, it seemed like a good time to consider progress in developing my resilient home.

This period has  been a mixture of 'prepping' and 'homesteading'.  Currently I'm dividing my efforts across growing more vegetables and revisiting my civil defence preparations for natural disasters.  

The garden is paying dividends with current crops of: lettuce, spinach, spring onions, celery, cabbage (red and green), carrots, silver beet, beetroot & potatoes. However, summer has not been kind, killing some plants and others are bolting.

Progress

The areas I've worked on are 

  • Some reflections on what being resilient involves: 
    • A framework of the risks I perceive and responses.
    • Solar Backup Review.
    • Benefits and reasons to be cash-flow positive.
  • An experiment with turning an IBC Tote into a wicking bed garden
  • Coleslaw and cauliflower
Which, now that I think about it, is a heck of a lot ... so "awesome!"

One pleasant surprise was some accidental vegetable self-sufficiency. Typically I buy my vegetables and supplement with home-grown. Surprisingly, for the last two weeks, it's been the reverse due to

  • Changing my behaviour to use my homegrown and preserved crops first, and then the supermarket .
  • Having enough crops coming through at the right time, more by luck than planning.
  • Including the edible leaves.

I don't know how long this can last, but it'll be interesting to see.

Which vegetables I buy is noticeable, and what sticks out are the repeating staples e.g. onions. I've experienced two competing trends

  • I liked using what I had grown - it's like a virtuous circle or motivational reinforcement. 
  • Food fatigue - it's a real thing. 

Staying Interested

At a certain point, I realised I was solely focused on growing food, and getting bored. To me resilience is a broader concept, and I wanted some balance, direction and a sense of progress. So I developed my Resilient Home Framework as a practical target. 
Natural Disasters Risks Home Security Prepping Preparedness

I'm working my way through that, updating existing resources and plugging gaps as required. 

This thinking-on-paper definitely helps with staying interested, making sense, managing progress and appreciating what I have. Also, it's motivating to look back and see a history of what I've worked on.

prep ibc tote wicking bed garden


Wicking-Bed Experiment

Over the last 2 months, I've been
 experimenting with a wicking bed 
made from an  IBC Tote. 

In effect, this is a 1 metre-square vegetable planter with a six-week water 
supply onboard.  

The experiment has been successful 
in that I've been getting good crops 
(carrots, spinach, lettuce, spring onion). 

It's been sitting there quietly doing it's thing - must be time to consider whether to build more.





Home-grown Cauliflower and Coleslaw. 

I gave myself this as a goal earlier in the year - so how are things going?   

Prepper homestead vegetables food
The cauliflower has been a mixed success, with me leaving the first lot too late for harvesting. While I got some meals, others were too old and are now seed generators. Cauliflower seems to have a relatively limited 'freshness' window, compared to e.g. the cabbage. 

The Coleslaw ingredients (spring onions, celery, cabbage, carrots) are doing better. Like the cauliflower, I'm trying to ensure continuous supply by planting successive small lots. Unlike the cauliflower, these are year-round crops, so I'm not aiming to stockpile them out of season, just keep some coming through constantly.




Prepper homestead vegetables food
A second lot is underway, applying the lessons from the first. To meet my goal, I need to plant the next lot, though am probably running late to ensure a truly continuous supply in a couple of months. 

Areas to work on for this challenge are

  • Knowing how much to plant, how often.
  • Staying on top of what is ready to harvest.
  • Dealing with food fatigue.




Looking Ahead

The goals for the next month or so (in no particular order) are 

1. A general tidy-up to pare back the spring chaos (weeding, bolted crops etc). Relocate the lettuce (and probably the baby spinach) to a shaded spot. 

2. Continue the cauliflower & coleslaw experiment.

4. Progress tomatoes and capsicums/bell peppers. Both of these are seasonal, so I'm intrigued by the idea of growing enough for the off-season.

5. Harvest current lot of potatoes, plant next lot.

6. Revisit more of my natural disaster prep. 

Location: 5M5Q+8P Auckland, New Zealand

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