Compare Urban Homesteading With Rural Homesteading
Both rural and urban homesteading offers a great sense of satisfaction of doing things by ourselves. Growing fruits and vegetables in a backyard garden, cooking them, building furniture and tools for our homes, and also learning new techniques of self-sufficiency and re-learning old and forgotten skills is homesteading these days.
Homesteading provides a lot of independence and choices. It protects us from debt crisis, offers more choices for pursuing hobbies and interests, offers greater security in the times of economic slowdown and recession, and protects us from environmental hazards.
While homesteading throws up a picture of living in the countryside with vast (read acres) areas of land waiting to be tilled and plowed, it is nothing more than just a daytime fantasy. In fact, rural homesteading is possible only for people who have the luxury of land and time.
If you are living in the city, homesteading might seem like a distant impossible dream. Giving up on amenities like cell phone, internet, home delivery, garbage pickup, electricity, gas, near-by neighbors and easy transportation might seem like a heavy toll to pay.
Living in the countryside might be peaceful, calm and more laid-back; however, this is not for everyone. Most manuals on homesteading will tell you that you have to give up the luxuries of the city, pack your bags and settle down on a farm to take up homesteading.
In fact, many homesteading experts also talk about gardening and raising farm animals on acres of land. The abundance and availability of land will soon become a burden when you don’t know what to do with it. Just because you don’t have an acre of land to call your own, don’t give up on homesteading. You can continue to stay self-sufficient with urban homesteading.
Even with a single square foot of land in the city or a balcony to call your own, you can grow your favorite fruits and vegetables and live a healthy life. If you have the luxury of land somewhere in the countryside, and are willing to give up the pleasures of the city, you are welcome to try rural homesteading. However, if space is a constraint and you don’t want to lose your city life, you can try urban homesteading and enjoy the same benefits of rural living.
Homesteading and Permaculture
Homesteading and permaculture are related to one another; they propagate the concepts of self-sufficiency, care for the planet, people and returning natural resources to the planet. It is the concept of sustainable method of agriculture.
Permaculture philosophy is working with nature and not working against its principles. It is the idea of looking at the landscape of a place, understand the functions of species and bring various pieces together to create one better product.
Permaculture helps reduce waste, minimize labor and input of energy into making products. It is about bringing all the pieces of a concept together so that maximum benefits are availed from it. Permaculture is an extended branch of ecological and environmental design.
Read more on our homesteading blog
Originally posted 2020-08-03 22:31:25.
