Fighting renter mentality: Phase 1 of the war

As I've mentioned before, we're living in a rental while we scour the property market for a home.

Only last week I talked about the problem of having a landlady who seems to want us to farm grass. And we were dutifully following her rules, but I wasn't at all happy with the situation!

Well! I've made my mind up about what to do, helped by some great suggestions that you all commented with, and here is the result so far:

The potted garden, newly "assembled", with one of my "helpers"

Thank you so much for all your suggestions in my "Renter Mentality" post! At the time, although I don't think I said much, I was pretty depressed about our lack of food plants.

In short, an agreement for a house we were hoping to buy (with two WHOLE acres!) had just fallen through. Our decision, not theirs (problems with land stability), but it was getting me down.

However, I read your comments and ideas, and it helped so much! I also visited the wonderful website Path To Freedom (go have a look!), where the Dervaes family prove just how much food can be grown on a suburban section.

And I felt ashamed instead of depressed.

Then I took a good, long, honest, look in the mirror, told myself "Snap out of it!", and set to work!


Strawberries and cranberries, ready to get potted

The deck used to be empty, apart from a few lettuces, turnips and silverbeet, and a couple of herbs.

Now I'm growing:

• Raspberries
  
• Blueberries
  
• Strawberries
  
• Cranberries
  
• Black currants
  
• 6 types of lettuce
  
• Silverbeet
  
• Turnips
  
• Tomatoes and cherry tomatoes
  
• Peas and sugarsnap peas
  
• Onions
  
• Broccoli,
  
• Yams and
  
• Cucumbers.
  

21 species, all in pots and planters. Some to be transplanted to the garden with trellises as they grow.


Blueberries, planted by my 4 year old son, who wants to be a farmer (this week, anyway)

I'm also growing a few trees in pots - I'm giving a meyer lemon a try, simply because our deck is so sunny. Dunedin is really, really borderline for lemons (and citrus generally!) - we're nearly 46 degrees south. But if lemons will grow anywhere this far south, our deck is the spot for them.

Other trees I have in pots include a feijoa and an olive tree. I've always wanted an olive grove, actually, and you can trust that when we finally buy a home, my singular olive tree will soon get company!

I haven't attacked our garden yet. The grass is still there. But not for lack of me wanting to! It's just that the trees that are hardier and ready to go straight in (apples, plums) are also bigger, and I can't fit them in the car boot without damaging them.

I'll be making a special expedition to the garden centre in a couple of weekends' time to order a delivery of these larger trees. I'll be looking for apples, plums, and pears.

My landlady may well get nasty at me when she sees them - I guess I'll just have to weather that storm when I come to it!

I'm also gardening herbs. This, at least, I'm not new to - I've dealt successfully (and unsuccessfully!) with herbs before. I'm growing:

• Lavender
  
• Parsley
  
• Spearmint
  
• Peppermint
  
• Curry plant
  
• Chives.
  

All in all, 30 species! Not bad for starters! I can't say I'll be successful, and that I won't have heavy losses. I'm new at this food farming business in this climate.

I'm also new to growing berries and most of the foods I'm trying to grow, as I grew up in a Mediterranean climate (Adelaide, South Australia), and everything was different. But I'm learning by doing, and mistakes are one of the best ways to learn.

Did it cost much?

The short answer is, yes.

I spent over $300 on plants and containers and potting mix. The containers were the most expensive part. Setting up a container garden is not cheap.

However, I was fortunate enough to have some savings put by - money that I have saved by not drinking anything but tap water!

I wouldn't have believed I was spending so much at the pub each week until I worked out how much I've been saving and putting aside. And I'm less than a month into The Water Challenge!

I've also made some money selling secondhand kids' clothes and baby items, now my daughter has grown out of them.

Cheaper when you share

In the old times, when communites were stronger, people used to pass strawberry runners and raspberry canes around the community. They used to share cuttings and seedlings too, to save money.

Now we have to buy them. I'd like to see stronger community ties established, but that's something I'm still working on in our community, as I'm a new member here.

It also cost me more because I had to buy all my pots from scratch. I had plenty in Australia, but had to leave them behind - quarantine regulations do not let such garden items into New Zealand.

Thinking the problem through

I think one of the biggest problems we humans face is that we treat this whole world with a renter mentality. It's like we can just do as much damage as we want, then pack our bags, and bugger off somewhere else.

But this is our home planet - our only home - now and forever. Science fiction talks of terra-forming other planets and sending generation ships off in search of new solar systems to colonise. But that's story-telling - there's a reason they call it science fiction!

No more excuses!

I was using the excuse that I lived in a rental to stop me from growing food and being more sustainable. I was also using the excuse that my landlady doesn't like it.

But so what? What is she going to do? Kick us out because we planted fruit trees? I'd like to see that happen! I think if that happened we'd have a real good case at the tenants' tribunal!

Sure, my little deck garden and my few fruit trees aren't much, but they're something. They're a start. When we leave this house, we'll take a whole stack of established, potted fruit trees and vegetable plants. And we'll leave the legacy of fruit trees growing in a back yard where there was nothing but grass.

I think that's somthing to be proud of. It makes me glad in a real, whole, solid way. And it gives me hope.

The war has only just begun

This is only Phase 1 of my war against renter mentality. I've only just begun. And all wars are a journey. I like to think of this as a war, because the troubles our world faces are just such an emergency. If we don't take them seriously, our world stands no chance.

Phase 2 will see me digging the garden, and putting fruit trees in, leaving a legacy for people who follow us into this rental home. It may even see me coming to loggerheads with our landlady, although I hope not! Life may be about to get even more interesting!
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Cluttercut - Green simplicity