What can YOU do to be more self sustainable?

[uptowngirl]

I like many others am very interested in attempting to live as self sustaining a lifestyle as possible, while living in an urban environment. 

Adj.   1.   self-sustaining - able to provide for your own needs without help from others; "a self-sufficing economic unit"

You do not need to live in a rural setting to contribute to sustainability, urban communities can and should be as self sustaining as possible. Now to be fair, rural properties have a huge jump start on most urban communities, with more viable space to grow food, raise livestock, access to unpolluted water supplies such as wells, creeks, ponds, and of course no restrictions pertaining to how your house or yard may appear from the road.  But, this does not mean urban communities have no chance of being self sustaining or partially self sustaining! In fact there is a strong movement right here in my neighborhood Springfield called Sustainable Springfield. Sustainable Springfield is implementing many core ideas in the our small one mile square historic neighborhood, with community gardens, orchards, and classes. There is a not so underground group who is also “gorilla gardening and beautifying throughout the neighborhood with their own funds and labor, an intentional step in urban renewal through place making.

Community gardens normally do not allow for enough space to grow all the food you need to support a family, but definitely can supplement the family's needs, and if used to supplement garden space on your own property can come close to supplying most needs, with the exception of grains (it takes a LOT of product to make a small bag of flour!). Springfield luckily has some key assets supporting additional sustainability. Most residential lots in Springfield contain existing wells, and while many are currently capped, caps can be removed. Most Springfield lots also tend to be deep, if not wide. This allows for more personal (decks, pools, play) areas and production (fruit trees, vegetable plots) areas. The dirt is horrible (in most cases) but raised beds can quickly address this, or if the work of building a raised bed is just too much cut open a bad of topsoil and plant your seeds right into the bags!  Heck, just taking the time to plant one tomato plant in a pot can save you a hundred dollars! Think of all that goes into bringing that tomato to your grocery store. They are normally picked early, and gassed to ripen, they are carted from the farm to the warehouse, to the store, they are packaged and then place in a plastic bag, which is then placed in another plastic bag at checkout. One $2 plant can remove all that waste…..now multiply that by all your friends and neighbors, the population of the city, the whole state and well, that is HUGE!

Another sustainability movement that is wildly popular right now is backyard city chickens. Now chickens may not be for everyone, but they are small easily cared for animals that contribute to sustainability in a huge way. Chickens are the ultimate green machine. They eat bugs, recycle your organic waste, provide mulch, clean and till your garden for you, and provide protein rich eggs and meat (if you can bring yourself to slaughter them!). The municipality of Deist in Flanders actually has a line item in their budget to supply 2,000 families with three chickens a piece. Why you might ask? Because it saves over $650,000 a year is waste collection and storage costs, and like many American cities landfill space is at a premium. Chicken’s are easy care animals: feed and water twice a day, clean up their roosts and deposit that fine mulch in your garden! For those of you that have never kept chickens, they are very social animals. We can spend hours watching their crazy antics around the yard, true comediennes! (just leave the roosters for the rural properties, respect your urban neighbors!)  Which is why commercial egg and chicken farming is one of the cruelest businesses any of us can support. And if you have never had a fresh, and I mean FRESH egg (and I am betting most have not) then you truly are missing out!

So while it may be impossible to be completely self sustaining in an urban environment, partial sustainability is definitely achievable!

For inspiration watch Food Inc. or read City Chicks, The Backyard Homestead, Place Making, or any of the Storey books. You can also check out the group Sustainable Springfield for great ideas events locally. But whatever you do, make sure you think about your place in the community, where your food comes from, the impact on our world, and what you can do to be a little more self sustainable 

[dougskiles]

Great post - love the ideas.  I look forward to learning more about Sustainable Springfield.  I know a few people who have planted vegetable gardens in their front yard and I really like the look - much better than a vast expanse of thirsty St Augustine grass.

I looked into the idea of having a goat recently, but I don't have enough space. Here is what I found in the zoning code about animals.  Doesn't look good for chickens either unless you can get an exception.

Section 656.401 Performance Standards and Development Criteria:

(a) Animals.

(1) Horses and ponies are kept for private riding use only and the minimum lot area shall be not less than one and one-half acres. The same shall be kept inside a fenced enclosure.

(2) Goats, sheep or swine shall not be kept or permitted within 200 feet of a private property line.

(3) A shelter shall be provided for any poultry, which shall be located not less than 50 feet from any property line. Poultry shall be permitted in the AGR and RR Districts only.

(4) Animals other than household pets shall not be kept for commercial purposes.

[uptowngirl]

Most cities are changing ordinances around backyard animals. You can keep chickens and bees in ....Santa Monica! I would love to see Jacksonville address this issue in 2011, it would be a small advancement in the right direction. The waste removal and storage savings alone should prompt the city to act. The side bonus is fresh protein which can be critical for low income households. Even the cheapest eggs are expensive, and in a lot of cases a prepackaged frozen or add water meal is more attractive when it costs less than a dozen eggs.

The Duval County Extension office has some interesting classes coming up:
Save the Water: Water conservation and how to make a rain barrel
Starting Vegetable Seeds: ($15 but you get to take home your own seed tray)
Warm Season Vegetables
Arbor Day Program
Days of Gardening

The flyer also has some great tips, four pages of them! You can get one on-line or at your local feed store (for us it is King St. and as an extra bonus one of our own neighbors is working there!)

Chicken's will be in stock at King St. next month, and I was told by the manager any males can be returned.

If you are not daring enough for backyard chickens, you can always get a worm factory. What the heck is a worm factory? A whole bunch of beautiful worms you can feed all your kitchen waste and even torn up non-glossy cardboard too. In return they will give you black gold for your garden! You can make a worm "factory house" out of a rubber storage tub by adding good dirt, and punching small hole in the lid, or you can get fancy and order one online with trays for easy dirt removal without having to pick out the worms. They even have small ones you can keep in your kitchen (don't worry the worms do not get loose!)

There are so many ways you can try to live a more sustainable lifestyle, some big and some small but all benefit not only you but our environment! Now if I could only figure out what to do with those pesky plastic bags from the grocer and farmers market...right now I can only think to use them as doggie poop bags (saving at least a purchase of additional plastic in the household), but there has got to be something else....

[Keith-N-Jax]

I would love to keep chickens. I already called the city a few months ago and was told that I couldn't keep chickens. I grow alot of my own veggies and have several fruit trees in my yard. I'm already doing the rain barrel thing and I have a compost pile way in the back in the corner of my yard. I sometimes go around the neighborhood and pick up bags of leaves other people have left out.

[Captain Zissou]

What's the Rain Barrel thing??

[Keith-N-Jax]

Catching and saving rain water in a barrel or any container for that matter and using that water later when needed.

[uptowngirl]

absolutely, and for the price of water in Duval County it is very cost effective (esp if you already have directional gutters!). I have seen some really cool rain barrels with a removable planter on top, you wouldn't even know it was a rain collection device :-)

Oh and BTW, chickens eat fleas, termites, and yes even mosquito's! Just another bonus to keeping chickens! I think chickens are going to be the unsung hero of the sustainability and green movement. I know there is a lot of research already done and even more being done on how chickens can, do, and will contribute to a better environment :-)

Another thought, if chickens or worms are not for you-there is always small scale bee keeping, I think we have all started to hear the conversations on bee loss, and I am sure we are going to hear more as bees continue to be impacted by our environment, loss of space, and technology impacts.

[north miami]

My wife recently purchased two rain barrels.I just set them off to the side next to the garage wall while I pondered installation.I imagined that the hip roof over the garage would not be near enough supply area and of course there would need to be masterful guttering/downspouts...................

Tinkering around next to the garage,I went to move the barrels and they would hardly budge...........even with just the small amount of rain we have seen and with no guttering,these things were half full!!

[cityimrov]

Catching and saving rain water in a barrel or any container for that matter and using that water later when needed.

Be careful, collecting rainwater is illegal in several parts of the US (I don't know about Jacksonville) like Colorado.  http://articles.latimes.com/2009/mar/18/nation/na-contested-rainwater18  

The biggest thing preventing self-sustainability in cities is well, rules & laws.  If you live in an HOA Property, you might as well forget about it for the most part.  Being self-sustaining and eco-friendly is very difficult especially if your neighbors DON'T want you to be.  

I have a relative who lives in a neighborhood where if you don't keep the mandatory St Augustine Grass watered every day or put an animal in your backyard that isn't a cat or a dog, the locally elected neighborhood community will come at you with a cease and desist order with large fines faster than you can blink.  Don't even think about putting solar panels, solar collectors, chickens, or even goats.  The neighborhood would be trying to figure out ways to get you out ASAP.  

[Ernest Street]

Remember mosquito's...My brother had purchased a poly barrel for collection ,I guess intending to seal it at the gutter that he was going to feed it with? Project abandoned.
Well after being told by everyone how Extremely bad the skeeters were in my yard...yep you guessed it.I watched thousands of larva pour out and wriggle on the ground. Remember the frequency of summer storms and the amounts of water.
Just sayin...

[uptowngirl]

So Iread the artcile on CO rainwater, but I was not aware water rights applied to rain water that has not hit the ground yet, so according to this article some think by purchasing water rights that includes any moisture in the air? Does it apply to individual clouds, or clouds hovering over specific GPS calculations? How does one determine what water would fall where by particluar shower so they can prove which river, creek, pond, lake, or puddle it may impact?

BTW, they sell pellets that will ensure you do not have mosquitos growing in your rain barrel, also if you have chickens they LOVE mosquitos!

[ricker]

most excellent post!
thanks
I forgot that I had read that before about the legal standing of rainwater collection.
thanks MJ

[cityimrov]

Here's a link that explains more about HoA and self-sustainability.  It's Alternet but the article is still informative. Neighbors weren't to thrilled with it.  

http://www.alternet.org/environment/51001?page=entire

I'd say one thing we can do is to create lobbying groups and provide some type of assistance to anyone wanting to be self-sustainable but having problems with their neighbors not wanting them to be.  

[dougskiles]

Another often forgotten source of water is condensate from the AC unit.  Ever notice how the plants are so much greener where those pipes come out of the house?  In the summer you can almost get a steady flow.  Probably not as much volume as you get from the rain over an entire roof, but it is available to you during the hot, dry periods.

[Keith-N-Jax]

Most of us dont have to worry about HOA, and any one collecting rain water would or should have enough sense to cover the water you would think.