Alan Bridgewater - The Self-Sufficiency Handbook: A Complete Guide to Greener Living

• How much land do you need?
• Is your dream plot in the city or the country? Or even another country where the land and property are less expensive?
• Do you want to try to go off-grid meaning no public electricity, water or gas?
• Can you make it happen by staying put and renting land fields, allotments and such?
• Do you want to join a self-sufficient community?
• Are you going to continue a career?
• Do you have enough assets?

A dream plot

The amount you will need will relate to its location, the climate, the quality of the land and your needs. Maybe a single person could just about manage with half an acre of rich land if they were going to grow all their own food, or grow cash crops and trade and swap for other essentials but to my way of thinking two people in this day and age would need more like two acres. Then again, if they opted for coppiced woodland and sold say poles, posts or turned items as a cash product, perhaps it would work out. If your particular dream plot involves fishing, horses, sheep, chickens, allotments or whatever it might be, you will already have a pretty good idea of how much land you need.

For example, our first plot was just over an acre of remote land with poor, boggy ground and difficult access. We were in our late twenties with two babies. It succeeded in a sort of messy fashion, simply because I earned money as a lecturer. The regular income made everything possible. Gill was able to stay at home and do her weaving, I made pottery in the long summer holidays, and along the way we both looked after our two boys, and kept a few chickens, geese, sheep and goats. Of course it was not easy, but it worked for us because we lived off-grid and were not weighed down with utility bills.