bandrui

So how serious are you about this Brissybee? It is a matter of great interest to me. You do not need much land to grow your own food. I have just under an acre, about half an acre fenced against the darn deer (who can jump a 6' fence and flatten themselves to 6" to get under a fence if they are small enough) and I would say about 1/8 of that is dedicated to food. I have a plum tree, cherry tree, 2 hazelnuts, raspberry canes, strawberry bed, blueberry bushes and then there's the veggie garden. Kale grows year-round here plus leeks, carrots and brassicas overwinter.. My fall planted garlic is about a foot high now; the broad beans are up and since this long weekend was warm and bathed in sunshine, I put in my spinach, peas and new leeks. I'll save the rest for another post; don't want to bore everyone to death.
This whole island is moving toward sef-sufficiency. Remember, if you work as a community, you don't have to do it all yourself. You can barter some of your goods for others.
I currently get free range organic eggs down the road at a better price than I can in the shops. I traded some of my apple cider vinegar with a fellow who bottles cider. I sell my rhubarb to a local restaurant.
The big things IMHO are energy and water. UK is made for wind power but could be supplemented with a few solar panels. As you say wood heat is good and I have scrounged my firewood here for the last few years but am tempted to buy a cord or two now as it's hard work to buck and chop! I love wood heat though. So much healthier than electricity or gas.
I could go on but perhaps better stop for now.
Just one more thing... I think water will be a problem in the future; here for sure as Canada sells its water to the US to water the desert! Perhaps not in the UK. After all there's enough of it, isn't there, but I like the idea of having a running stream nearby for clean water and possibly turbine for power.
No wonder so many self-sufficient types choose Wales; they have more relaxed laws on eco-building too, especially in Pembrokeshire.

brissybee

My degree of seriousness right now is to learn as much as I can about what might be possible... with a firm plan to at least supplement needs with home produce.

You sound like you are well on your way to having a lovely and productive living environment and, tbh, I don't know that I will achieve that much... trees take a long time to grow. I appreciate more can be achieved in a community of like-minded people but I'm not really up for communal living.

What I would really like would be to live in a relatively mainstream manner but have the means to self-supply heat and water if needs be (wood fire and spring or clean stream, as you say) and keep chickens, ducks, a couple of goats, and to have fruit and veg growing. I'd love trees... but unless they're already established this may take too long to appreciate.

scot47

Allotments are becoming popular again. In the area wher I live (Rothesay on the Isle of Bute) a group of people recently took over a large area of derelict land and converted it into allotments. Most produce vegeatbles though one grows only flowers !