Retirement comes sometimes suddenly, but sometimes gently. In my case it has been a slow moving into a retired state. I had intended to continue supply teaching for a few years yet, but the while the agencies still have older people on their books, they seem more concerned to find jobs for the younger ones. Well, the younger teachers need a future! But we older ones still need something to do, and many of us need more money than are provided by our pensions. My own strategy is to carry on doing some economic work, but place far more emphasis on self-reliance.

Do an audit

A key part of any self-reliance strategy is to audit your opportunities and skills. In my case I am a qualifed horticulturalist and have an allotment. I am also generally competent at making and mending, but need professionals for some tasks, such as  plumbing, gas and electricity. I also have some economic opportunities still.  I am an examiner and am still being invited to apply for promotion [I don't want it.] I write and can continue doing my successful private tution business.  Mix self-reliance with some surviving economic opportunities.

Food

Key to any self-reliance strategy is the need to provide food. You need to develop the art of growing vegetables. If you have a garden or an allotment, fine, but you can grow in containers. Potatoes can be grown in sacks or specially designed containers in any yard. A greenhouse will provide you with tomatoes, peppers and other vegetables that require heat. A plastic one can be purchased quite cheaply. Window ledges and balconies can be home to containers that can produce some salad vegetables, but always ensure that you are not overloading a balcony. Salad vegetables are easy to grow and by regular sowing you can ensure a steady supply of salads.  

Mushrooms can be grown in any darker part of your house. mushrooms do not need darkness, but they do need an airflow. Some, like shiitake, are great but need warmth.

Adding value

Sometimes you can turn dairy products into cheese and yoghurt. I have a yoghurt maker. All you need is milk and a starter culture. Currently starter culturesare hard to acquire, but you can use a live yoghurt as the starter. It requires a good dose of starter, and ideally it should not be infused withany fruit juice. Similarly, milk can be turned into ccottage cheese quite easily. All you need to do is boil it to a high temperature and, if you cannot add rennet, do what I did and add lemon or orange juice. Add salt and then strain. Once it has drained tie it tightly into a bundle to drain and then three days later you have cottage cheese. Eat quickly, as it does not keep well. With cheese and yoghurt always ensure that your equipment is clean, so as to avoid impurity. If a yoghurt shows a red streak, throw it away! A good guide book is always very useful and can protect agains mistakes.

Wine is a great addition to your self-reliance strategy. You will have the time to forage for blackberries and elderberries. These with the aid of sugar and yeast can be made into wine. Wine made with only elderberries can be very tart and upsets some people, but elderberry mixed with blackberry is great. I have made a fantastic wine from blackberry and apple.

Foraging

Depending on where you are there may be opportunities for foraging. To do this you need a good book, such as Food for Free, by Richard Mabey. A range of books will show you various plants from different angles. There are a few poisonous plants to be avoided, but there are many nutritious ones growing round our towns and lanes. It is important to know what you are picking. If you live near the sea there is foraging that can be done on the shore, but if like me you live in a town, you have to make do with what is found by road and canal sides. Find out what is likely to be growing in your local area and concentrate on that.

Mushroom foraging can be profitable, but you need to be very careful that you know what to forage. Never pick a mushroom that you do not know. Never pick button mushrooms wild, as you cannot tell the difference between poisonous and non-poisonous ones. Get some good books on mushroom identification and be very careful.

Problems on the empty plot next to mine! Well, the half-empty plot because the front bit is taken by a new fellow who is working hard. But the rear is in mess. There was a large, overgrown damson tree and plenty of tree root penetration in the ground that makes it hard to dig. I thought of taking it over to get the greenhouse that has been left there, but in the end thought the better of it. I don't fancy working from scratch. But I did do some digging on the plot, purely voluntary and out of need, as the place is infected with plum sawfly larvae, and they might get to my damson and plum trees [plum and damson are so closely related that they are susceptible to the same pests]. So needs must!

Sawflies are a group of flies that each take a specific host. They are characterised by the female's having a saw-like ovipositor. With this she cuts into the leaf and deposits her eggs, which then a week later  turn to larvae that munch away happily at your leaves. Leaves can be ravaged by this fly. After a while the larvae drop off the tree and burrow into soil, where they dig cells in which to hibernate for the winter. In the cell they become adult and in Spring come out to mate and start the problems over again.

Which plants are affected?

Fruit saw flies include apple, pear [which also affects cherries], plum and gooseberry. There are several different rose sawflies.  Willow bean, Solomon's seal, pine, spirea and aquilegia are also affected. Hazel saw fly will affect birch, acer, hornbeam, ash, poplar, willow and some others.

What to do about them.

The best bet is to dig over the soil in Autumn or early Spring when the larva are pupating in their cells. This exposes the larva to cold and to predatory birds. Regular garden maintenance, which involves digging ground once a year will help break up the sawflies' cells.

Cultivation techniques involve picking the sawflies off the plants. Ensure that you look under the leaves, as that is where the larvae prefer to feed, in the shade and the shelter, nice and safe. They hope! Solomon's seal sawfly lays its eggs in the joints where branches break out from the stem, so you can look there. Most gardeners pick off and burn infected leaves. On roses, if leaves are rolled, it might be leaf-rolling sawfly, for which the solution is to pick off and burn the infected leaf.

If you are not organic you can use a contact insecticidebut poisoning the sawflies risks poisoning useful insects. I have never used an insecticide

Whether you have a farm, a garden or an allotment, the nutrients needed by plants are the same. Obviously all plants need water, carbon dioxide and oxygen, but there are others. These  divide into macro and micro nutrients.Macronutrients are required in larger quantities than micronutrients, but all are important for plant health.

Macro-nutrients.

These are six in all. Many fertilisers contain a range of nutrients, though in different proportions. The three essentials are nitrogen, phosporus and potassium, which is why many fertilisers give you their N, P, K ratio, K being the chemical symbol for potassium

Nitrogen. This is essential for promoting green growth and it comes from manure to a great extent, though any kind of hair or feathers will also provide a good supply of this important element. This is why shoddy, wool waste from mills, is mulched over rhubarb, which requires a good nitrogen supply when in its early stages.

Phosporus.  This element makes for strong flower and fruit development, so  high phosphate feeds are known as bloom boosters. Do not overdo the phosporus, as excess can inhibit the uptake of other nutrients and lead to chlorosis, leaves going pale and dying. Cattle manure is good for phosphates, the form in which phosporus is absorbable by plants.

Potassium:  This element makes for a good root system and is considered important for maintaining plant health.  The best potassium feeds are woodash, which is high in potash, and banana skins, whose potassium level is very high.

Calcium.  This is vital for bringing soils to neutral pH, but it is also important for building plant cells. Calcium deficiency makes leaves go white. Blossom end rot in tomatoes is due to calcium not reaching the tomatoes in the  required quantity.Lime is a good source of calcium, as is bone meal, crushed seashells and eggshells

Magnesium: Calcium and magnesium work together. Lack of it produces symptoms similar to calcium. This element is often found in lime, particularly dolomite.

Sulphur.  This element fosters green growth and maintains a healthy balance of nutrients in soil. It is rarely lacking in Britain, as much has been added to soil by burning fossil fuels, which have deposirted sulphur from the air, but if the soil has too high a pH, sulphur can be added to bring it down.

Micronutrients

You rarely need to add a specific feed for micronutrients, as they are spread throughout a large number of different organic substances.A good seaweed meal is usually high in these micronutrients, and home made fertilisers, such as compost made from household waste, are high. Unless there is a specifically recognizable problem, a general addition of fertiliser will suffiice. Experts might design specific supplements based on chemical analysis.

Boron: Blackening and weakening of leaves and weakened root growth are deficiency symptoms. This deficiency is more common on sandy soils than on others.

Chlorine:  Paling of the leaves is a sign of chlorine defiiciency

Copper: Deficiencies are most common on organic soils, derived from peat, and chalky soils.  Mineral soils, those deriving from parent rock, but containing a good quantity of organic  matter are generally not affected by deficiency of this element. Leaves go yellow and wither.

Iron: Deficiency symptoms are similar to calcium deficiency, but most British soils are not lacking, the ones most likely to suffer being those on limestone. High levels of organic matter generally ameliorate deficiency symptoms

Manganese. This substance works in conjunction with magnesium and the deficiencies are hard to tell apart.

Molybdenum. Rarely deficient, except in acidic soils on occasion, but whiptail is a molybdenum deficiency disorder fround in cauliflowers, in which the leaf blade is thin.

Zinc: Few cases of zinc deficiency are found in Brtitain. Weakening of leaves is a symptom.

Conclusion:

Prevention is better than cure. Ideally growers will supply a good, well-balanced base dressing to the soil that includes a range of elements. They will use manure, compost derived form a number of sources and sea weed. This will prevent deficiency problems from arising. They will continue to supply soil supplements while the plants are growing.