Category: Gardening

Letter Re: So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI

Dear Editor, I just wanted to add some thoughts regarding your recent article on starting a garden now. I grew up in the Midwest, and our family had one and sometimes two gardens. We grew a variety of vegetables, and we canned and froze whatever we didn’t eat. After I moved away and eventually moved into a city, I got out of the habit of having a garden. My travels took me from Iowa to Minnesota, back again, and eventually to Texas. This year my wife and I decided to grow a small garden. We have a home in the …


Two Letters Re: So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI

Hugh, Finally someone has addressed something that has been on my mind for quite some time. Thanks Dr. Prepper for pointing out that gardening alone will be an insufficient means to provide adequate food when the SHTF! Your 2000 cal/day figure easily shows the shortfalls of relying solely on a vegetable diet, but under the high stress and increased activity levels that will be required when the SHTF a 3000cal/day requirement often is used as a more realistic figure. This would increase the required amount of the harvest by 33%! I wonder what the net caloric gain is with the …


Letter Re: So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI

Hugh, Regarding the article “Starting a Garden After TEOTWAWKI”, Have you forgotten the most rapacious “varmint” on earth? I’m referring of course to the Insects. Although here in FL, where we have cockroaches that fly around and knock out streetlights, bird screening may work. lol Maybe screening should be added? – R.D. o o o HJL, Hello and thank you for this series. It was very useful, concise information. I would like to add, when space is at a premium for you (as it is for me) or advancing age is slowing you down, some things are better purchased than …


Letter Re: Starting a Garden After TEOTWAWKI

Hugh and Jim, Thanks for posting this article. In my experience you can add to the rule of three here: Plant threeof everything that you want to eat– one that won’t grow, one for the critters to steal, and the last one for you to eat. – K.B. o o o HJL, I enjoyed reading the series on starting a garden post event. I’d like to point out that it’s not just a garden post collapse but any agricultural effort. I’ve raised chickens off and on for my entire life. When I was three years old we lived in the …


So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. Prepper – Part 3

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the preparation of a survival garden where grass used to be, amending the existing soil with compost, and the creation of rows or raised beds. In Part 2, I discussed the construction of an eight foot tall fence and gate with the intent of keeping out varmints. Specifically, and perhaps strangely to some readers, no mention has been made yet as to WHAT should be planted in the garden or how much and why. This is because many who are not familiar with subsistence gardening may be surprised at the true facts …


So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. Prepper – Part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I discussed the need to start a garden sooner rather than later, the pitfalls of starting a garden where grass has been cultivated, the creation of your gardening beds (whether rows or raised beds), and the use of composting for amending the soil. In Part 2, I will continue with discussing the structures of the garden with emphasis on fences, gates, and varmint control. Fence Basics Maybe you are one of those fortunate few where there are very few varmints– an undesired animal in an undesired place. (Some would ascribe the term to certain …


So You Think Starting a Garden Will Be Easy After TEOTWAWKI, by Dr. Prepper – Part 1

It amazes me when I see one of those “Survival Garden in a Can” products that supposedly sells you the peace of mind that if you purchase these heirloom seed kits, you will be able to strew these seeds around your yard and your entire year’s food supply will be ready and waiting at your fingertips, easy-peasy. They makes it seem that I can simply check that box off my list, since my future gardening needs have now been taken care of. Every time the topic comes up about potential upcoming food shortages and the possible inability to reliably get …


The Circle Of Life In The Garden, by S.M.

Every year brings subtle and not-so-subtle changes to a garden. In my fifth year on the learning curve of gardening, I’m amazed and surprised by the drastic changes that took place in the garden over the past six months. This past winter the weather was not typical, so that may have had something to do with the very different garden I have this year as opposed to the garden that grew this time last year. The fall crops grew beautifully through the winter, and we have large amounts of onions and carrots to show for it. There were only three …


Minimizing The BOB And Permaculture, by N.E.

I have come to a point within my preparedness goals that my life style has changed, as I spend the majority of my time seeking self sufficiency, with less dependence upon the globalized system. With this life style, I focus on preparedness with two schools of thought– short-term emergencies and long-term emergencies. This post is two parts, with the first being short-term emergencies, the BOB, and ways to minimize your ruck. The second part is focusing on the long emergency with Permaculture (sustainable gardening). Part 1- Knowledge and Items for Short-term Emergencies I highly recommend everyone interested in preparedness take …


Letter Re: Letter on Harassment of Front Lawn Farmers

HJL, In Victorian times, front lawn vegetable gardens were common, even within towns and villages. The way it was done was to use curving, attractive beds where the vegetables were interplanted with flowers, with the mixed beds surrounding patches of lawn. This can also make for good OPSEC: carrots and cosmos have similar leaves, cherry tomatoes do not require staking and are unobtrusive when interplanted with similarly colored low growing flowers. Lettuces, spinach and other greens can also be gracefully scattered about. Most of the harassment of suburbanites who are farming their front lawns appears to be due to aesthetics. …


How And What To Grow For Food In A Survival Situation, by T.K.

I have lived all my life in rural areas in the mid-south United States. Ever since I was little, gardens, orchards, vineyards, poultry, livestock, beekeeping, hunting, fishing, and trapping have been a way of life for me. Now, that is not to say we are off the grid or don’t buy any food from the grocery store, but all this supplements the life we live. Both the family I grew up in and the family I now have are large families, by today’s standards. Like my father, I have a job in town to pay for land and a home …


How To Save Seeds: From Your Garden, For Your Garden, by P.R.

There is nothing like a renewable food source, and seeds are one way to guarantee that you have a continuing supply of food. If you don’t save your seeds from year to year, you will eventually run out of stored seeds, and your garden will transform from a renewable resource to a one-harvest wonder. At the very least, seeds can make a great barter item in a post-collapse world. At first glance, saving seeds might seem obvious and easy, but there are actually many detailed questions that arise. Some include: How do you save the seeds? What do they look …


Letter: Night Soil

In a total grid down situation, night soil (fertilizer from human feces) will once again become a valuable trade commodity. None the less, I have estimated that a hill of corn needs about the daily output of two adults to obtain a good crop. This was based on the dried remains of one hound dog. I had to do something with the mess out in the yard, and burying it under a hill of corn grew a crop. This corn was planted on almost pure sandy ground. More of course would most likely work. NE Utah water tends to be …


Growing Without Pests And Without Pesticides, by T.D.

Chemical free gardening for organic food and ornamentals is no harder or more expensive than conventional growing. Remineralization by adding rock powder is perhaps the most important component, bringing the soil back up to the balance of trace elements the plants require to naturally resist pests on their own. Long before there was agriculture, there were plants that managed to grow, thrive, reproduce, and survive to the end of their natural life. They lived and died, and anything that ate them lived and died, all in the same neighborhood. This pattern continued until the last hundred years or so. The …


Composting to Maintain Sanitary Conditions and Nurture Crops, by G.M.

One of the many important problems confronting people in a SHTF situation is maintaining adequate sanitation. Clean water, soap, personal hygene, toileting, and kitchen waste will all need to be addressed. I am going to describe some of the things we do on our 1/4 acre suburban homestead to control waste and feed the plants we use for food. It seems to me that having an established system in place to deal with waste before SHTF is better that trying to cobble something together when all kinds of urgent needs have to be addressed in an emergency. A good composting …