Can you live a self sufficient lifestyle in the suburbs, to an extent yes you can live the self sufficient lifestyle just about any where you choose, how ever alot depends on the amount of available space you have around your house and property, if you are living in an apartment building in the cbd you are restricted to what you can grow for yourself.
New Zealand has alot of small rural towns spread around the major cities more so south of Auckland and these small towns still retain the great sections from the original subdivisions and a great deal of them are the quarter acre sections these lots offer a great deal of room to be a least partially self sufficient to some extent.
With a small section there are various options for growing your own food, a small area can be set up as a mini orchard with a apple tree and maybe a orange and a lemon tree, if you are restricted on available space then the small tree varieties may be more suitable and make sure they are self pollinating when you only have one tree of each species.
A raised garden bed or beds can be built out of retaining wall timber, which need to be treated other wise your garden bed will collapse in a short time from moisture, with a raised garden bed you will need to fill it with a good quality soil and make sure to add nutrients before planting and once again when harvested.
These garden beds are suitable for the salad varieties like the lettuce which should be planted in intervals as they are fast growing particularly in the summer so once they mature they need to be harvested, cucumber are suitable as well, and so are the small and compact tomato varieties.
Small planter boxes can be constructed from retaining wall timber and these boxes are ideal for a large variety of herbs and spices and other plant species that are great for food preparation and added flavor to dishes, the spice gardens are compact and do not take up much space.
To aide your small food selection in growing in the most suitable conditions you can construct a composting bin, there are many videos on you tube that explain how to build a compost, the compost can be fueled with your left over food scraps lawn clippings etc, there are foods not to add to a compost these include any meat or dairy products, they will pollute the compost and kill the worms.
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