The Wildlanders

We are the Wildlanders! A family living off-grid, sustainably and on a tight budget! We're plantsteaders, vanlifers and eco warriors.

Farming without animal exploitation. Working with nature, encouraging pollinators and creating diverse food forests.

07/01/2026

Ever heard you shouldn’t water tomatoes in the sun? That’s one gardening myth that needs pulling up by the roots.🍅

This same old wives’ tale gets thrown at peppers, cucumbers, courgettes, beans, and leafy greens too, but there’s still zero science behind it.

Leaf scorch is almost always down to drought stress, disease, or nutrient issues, not a few droplets of water acting like tiny magnifying glasses on your plants.

In commercial nurseries and market gardens, growers routinely water from above, even in full sun, because the real risk is not watering soon enough when plants are wilting.

Whether it’s tomatoes, peppers, squash, brassicas, or salad beds, the priority is keeping the soil consistently moist so roots don’t swing from bone-dry to soaked.

So if your veg are flagging in the heat, water them—top down, in full sun if needed—because consistent hydration beats garden myths every time.

06/01/2026

The best time to plant perennials was yesterday 🌱

When we first started our off-grid homestead in Central Portugal, we made sure to plant loads of perennial edibles and herbs — berries, fruit trees, rosemary, mint, and more.

It’s wild how much those first-year efforts are paying off now. Every season, they just keep giving back with almost no work.

If you’re just getting started, plant your perennials early. Fruit trees, berries, and perennial herbs take time to establish, but future you will thank you every single harvest.

What’s one perennial you wish you’d planted three years ago? 🍎🌿

👇 Share yours in the comments — let’s make a perennial “must-plant” list for new growers!

05/01/2026

Grow what your family actually eats 🌽Tip of the day: Grow what you actually eat. 🌱

It’s so tempting to fill beds with “Instagram crops”… but when life gets busy, it’s the real workhorse foods that keep your family fed. Corn, potatoes, onions, beans, greens, herbs – the boring basics are what quietly save you money and reduce those “there’s nothing in the house” moments.

If the shops closed for a month, which 5 plants would feed your household best?

Our top 5 from The Wildlands in central Portugal are; carrots, corn, potatoes, tree cabbage and kales.

Drop your top 5 in the comments – you might give someone else a few ideas for their next planting list. 👇

02/01/2026

Tip of the day - Finish one system before you start five more. On a homestead, half‑built projects quietly drain your time, energy, and money. When you choose one core system to complete first—water, compost toilet, or power—you remove daily stress and create a solid base to build everything else on.

A fully working water setup, a finished compost toilet, or a reliable power system does more for your sanity than ten unfinished “almost there” ideas scattered around the land.

💡Tip of the day:
Instead of half‑building five systems, pick ONE and finish it properly. Then move to the next. Your future self will thank you every single morning.

👉 Which system would you finish first if you could snap your fingers today—water, toilet, or power?

⚡Drop your answer in the comments and tell us why. Your answer might help someone who’s just starting out.

02/01/2026

The weather in the UK, Chilterns is gorgeous, fresh and snowy. But a stark contrast to the almost spring-like weather we get in January on The Wildlands in central Portugal.

For Sybil the Portuguese Podengo, it was her first time experiencing snow! She loved it especially eating it!

Where are you and what's your weather doing? Id snow affecting anyone's homestead?

01/01/2026

Tip of the day – Design for tired you
Lay out your homestead for the version of you who’s wet, hungry, and exhausted. Which daily chore feels like the longest walk right now?

31/12/2025

No creature in nature lives by a 7‑day schedule.
Only humans force themselves to eat, sleep, and work on someone else’s clock — and call it normal.

Out here on our off-grid homestead in central Portugal — we call it The Wildlands — we’ve stepped away from all that. No alarms, no weekdays, no “weekends.” Just light, dark, and the rhythm of the seasons.

When we first moved off-grid, it felt strange to unlearn that constant pull to be “productive” at certain hours.

But slowly, your body remembers its natural rhythm. You sleep when it’s dark, wake with the sunrise, and work with the energy the day gives you.

That’s the real freedom modern life forgets — not running from work, but rebuilding your sense of time around nature instead of a calendar. Out here, every sunrise is a beginning, and every sunset feels like permission to rest.

Would you, or have you, trade the “9-to-5” for the rise and fall of the sun?

Follow our journey at The Wildlands as we rebuild life around nature’s clock.

30/12/2025

Ever feel like the modern world’s got you running on someone else’s clock? You wake up tired. Rush. Consume. Repeat.

But deep down, there’s a voice whispering — “There’s a simpler way…” 🌿

That’s exactly what led us here — to The Wildlands, our off-grid paradise tucked away in the hills of central Portugal. A place where time finally feels ours again.Here’s what changed everything for us:

1️⃣ Grow what you eat. We started with one small garden bed… now we harvest from soil we built ourselves in fabulous food forests. Nothing — nothing — beats that first homegrown meal. 🌱

2️⃣ Catch your own water. Every drop we collect from the roof reminds us we’re part of nature’s rhythm, not fighting against it. 💧 Store the water you need for every eventuality. 🚿

3️⃣ Cut the noise. No traffic. No endless scroll. Just birdsong, crackling firewood, and conversations that actually matter. 🔕

4️⃣ Build with what you’ve got. From reclaimed wood to old metal finds — every corner of The Wildlands tells a story. 🪵 Our last build was made from reclaimed wood and pallets. FOLLOW to see all our builds 💪

5️⃣ Live by the sun. Work when it rises. Rest when it dips behind the hills. Simpler, slower, realer. ☀️ We wake at dawn, sleep when it's dark, with the rhythm of nature 💚

Living off-grid out here isn’t about escaping society — it’s about coming home to ourselves, to the land, and to what truly matters.

💬 Thinking about your own version of The Wildlands?

Comment “YES” if you’re craving that slower, richer life — I’ll share exactly what we did to start living free. 🛠️🌾

28/12/2025

It’s funny — when you first set up rainwater tanks, they feel huge. You watch the rain pour in and think, we’ll never run out. But a few dry weeks later, you start doing math in your head every time you turn on a tap.That’s when you learn the real lesson: it’s not just about storing water, it’s about managing it. Every leak matters. Every drop you reuse counts.

You start to see value in greywater systems, shade plants, and even buckets under the roofline.Out here, the rain is both a gift and a test. It reminds you who’s truly in control — and it’s not us.

Rainwater tanks fill slower than you think… until the first dry month reminds you.

How much rainwater storage do you have right now — and has it ever caught you off guard?

Drop your best water-saving trick in the comments; those small habits are what keep us going through dry months.

And if you’re working toward water independence too, follow along — we’re learning with every rainfall here at The Wildlands.

28/12/2025

Hidden in the hills of central Portugal, two total beginners are slowly building a tiny off grid cabin in the woods with our own hands – no crew, no blueprint, just a big stubborn dream and a lot of scraped knuckles.

Every plank we lift, every mistake we make and fix, is turning this little patch of wild land into a home, a place for campfire dinners, forest mornings and muddy boot sunsets.

Tucked away on the Wildlands, our little cabin sits on a 3‑acre plot of raw hillside, miles from civilisation, surrounded by pine, rock and wide open sky where the loudest noise is the wind and our own laughter.

This reel is just a tiny teaser of what’s coming next on our off grid build journey, from learning new skills on the fly to making this space cosy, functional and as self-sufficient as we can.

Now it’s your turn: what’s the greatest thing you’ve ever achieved off grid, homesteading, or even just in your garden – a single tomato plant, a whole food forest, a DIY project you’re proud of?

Drop your story in the comments so we can celebrate your wins and maybe share them in a future video – your journey matters as much as ours.

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26/12/2025

Life here at The Wildlands our homestead in Central Portugal is a constant lesson in balance. We came here dreaming of full sustainability — of closed loops, thriving soil, and total independence. But the deeper we go, the more we realise it’s not about arriving at perfection… it’s about learning how to live in rhythm with what’s real.

Every harvest, every rainy day, every repair job teaches us the same truth: true sustainability might never be absolute. There’s always a little compromise — a bag of feed, a solar part, a material we can’t make ourselves. But maybe that’s okay. Maybe sustainability isn’t about purity, but about respect — doing our best to work with the land, not against it.

That’s what The Wildlands is to us — not a finished idea, but a living conversation between people and place.

So tell me, do you think true sustainability is ever fully possible, or will it always be some version of compromise?

24/12/2025

Christmas in the Wildlands: woodsmoke, stars and way too many chickens… just how it should be 😅✨

May your days be filled with joy and happiness 🎄

Endereço

Castelo Branco

Horário de Funcionamento

10:00 - 17:00

Website

https://wildlandsplants.shop/

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