Monty Don and Self Sufficiency

He is promoting his show and himself I should think. Being controversial.

I don't think he's bothered about promoting himself but he's certainly having fun with his wooden spoon.

....^creepily pathetic^ eh? That's rich! I wish he'd man up and stop looking like a tramp. From which you may safely assume I can't stand the man - or the Daily Mail!

I have seen many move here , buy property and go self seficiant , not one Tom and Babara succeeded , always knew come a very wet summer, very cold winter they would be shopping in the farmers market

I gave up on self sufficiency when my children started taking up too much time. If you live out in the country and have to drive your children to and from school and to and from all their after school activities it does cut into the time you have for all the feeding, mucking out, milking, egg collecting, weeding, cheese making, dress making and jam making that self sufficiency requires.

And vets fees

I've stopped watching Gardeners' World, mainly because they do nothing different from year to year, the same seeds sown, same shows gone to, it's like watching Chelsea, concentrating on the main show gardens and not the backstage or small gardens, which give more delight at times. Too poncy for my liking.

There is loads to learn about gardening and I don't think it is covered well at all on Gardeners' World. I do miss the dogs though.

Mr Don said: ‘Self-sufficiency, I have to tell you, is a non-starter. At best it consigns you to a life of dreary repetition and terrible food, at worst your teeth fall out, your breath stinks, you erupt in boils and you sink into 13th-century malnutrition – The Good Life indeed.’
but he doesn't say why your teeth should fall out and you would get boils; he doesn't go into what vitamins would be lacking (or why they should).

I am not advocating self-suffiency but he doesn't give any facts or proper reasoning to back up his assertions.

However, anniebach, yes, weather dependent, and it is very difficult to get rid of predators without some kind of help; organic is good but not easy to produce on a large enough scale even in a large garden. I suppose one could get plenty of manure from the house cow.
You would have to set up some form of bartering, too, unless you made your own flour, grew rice, kept sheep for wool, grew cotton for clothes etc, kept bees.

Exactly Jalima, I always feel sorry for them, they buy a property and have such dreams of being a Tom and Barbara, some have joined us in spinning classes and one can see the tiredness creep in

It was a sitcom. We don't all live in a tower block neither with our brother and grandad!

Aaaaagh! I forgot the vet's fees Anniebach

And not forgetting the rules and regulations for keeping a goat Deeda

There's a difference between being totally self-sufficient and being a smallholder with an aim to being as self-sufficient as possible. You need to have a product to sell, in order to pay the bills and a really good bartering system in place.

I normally really like Monty Don, but this smacks more of self-satisfaction than self-sufficiency.
Lighten up Monty, it was a sitcom, remember those?

Is he not saying any attempt to live a life of self sufficiency is unhealthy