Category: Gardening

Simple Prepping for the Suburban Home, by Keep-it-Simple Suburbanite

Our family lives in an average house on an average lot near the edge of an average midwestern city.  While we have two evacuation invitations and are looking into purchasing “camping land”, our primary plan is to shelter in place.  From the very beginning, JWR’s “blinding flash of the obvious” has been the watchword in my quest for simplicity.  Limited time, space and resources have led to some streamlining that might give others a few helpful ideas. Garden Have you ever felt overwhelmed and intimidated by all the great gardening advice you read here on the blog?  If so, why …


Two Letters Re: How Does Your Garden Grow? (After TSHTF)

Hello JWR, I enjoyed the recent SurvivalBlog article titled “How Does Your Garden Grow”. I like the idea of gardening, but it takes time and a lot of trial and error. I have pursued sprouting as another gardening method. It’s easy to do. I bought my seeds and sprouter from Sprout People. – Ken S. Hi James,   We have spent six years getting our garden established and working. Fenced and footed in concrete. Electric wire around the outside to keep out the raccoons. An above ground watering system to each of the 16 plots. Four raised beds 24 inches …


How Does Your Garden Grow? (After TSHTF), by Tom from Colorado

Gardens will supply a large portion of our food after TSHTF. Those who already garden know that, in many cases, additional amendments and plant foods/fertilizers are necessary for a good crop. While a compost pile will help a great deal in keeping your soil in good shape, there are many other sources for fertilizers/plant foods that will be easily accessible after TSHTF. I’ll detail several of them and the manner in which to make and/or use them in this article. The Acronym NPK stands for Nitrogen/Phosphorous/Potassium. I’ll include NPK where applicable for more experienced gardeners wondering about the values. Human …


Aquaponic Food Production for Long Term Survival, by Stone of Scone

Food storage is important for short term survival, and everyone should have at least a six months to a multi-year food supply. But long term survival requires that you grow your own food. Whether it is TEOTWAWKI or just losing your income because you were laid off from your job, a home food production system is essential to your security. Most successful food production systems involve using a greenhouse for year round food production, as a greenhouse extends the growing season, and shields your crops from severe weather. Another advantage is that a greenhouse is better protected from nuclear, biological, …


Food Security: A Pantry and a Garden by Marianna

Believing as I do that a tragedy of some form is coming, I expressed to my husband that food security is a great place to start.  As he is somewhat skeptical of what may come, he did agree that a food investment is not frivolous.  We have four children and already know what feeding six people a day is like and are used to buying in bulk and shopping smart.  Our food security began by starting a pantry.  Since our house was built in the 1920s, it has a peculiar little room (about 10’ x 10’) off the kitchen with …


Letter Re: Gardening Year-Round

Knowing how to garden and grow one’s own food (or at least a significant portion of it) is one of the most important skills a person can have, especially during a “hard-times” survival situation. Fresh vegetables are a vital part of one’s diet, and they can be a great help in extending the length of time your stored emergency food lasts. I’ve always been interested in how people centuries ago survived through long winters. Clearly, storing food grown and raised during the warm months was a universal strategy. However, people also raised food year-round in winter gardens. France, especially, has …


Some Creative Gardening Techniques, by Kristi N.

I often have dirt under my fingernails. Fortunately, my husband doesn’t care.  He doesn’t care that unlike most of the women living in this southwestern suburb with us, I don’t have fake fingernails.  He doesn’t care that I like digging and fertilizing and mounding up dirt, burying seeds and planting seedlings so that we can enjoy a summer harvest of fresh vegetables and fruit.  My wonderful husband doesn’t care that I come in flushed and sweaty from watering plants and snipping herbs under a brutal Sonoran desert sun, and I am grateful for that!  It might sound like hard work, …


Lessons For a Novice Gardener, by D.M.

I don’t have much money to spend on prepping this year as some poor financial decisions in my past are still haunting me.  However, I did decide that I would put forth as much effort as I could to learning the skills needed to survive the nearing collapse.  I already have a few days of fishing in this year and going with experienced fisherman has taught me a lot.  I have also applied for all licenses that I could in hopes to enhance my already solid skills with hunting, and I have been learning all I can about trapping as …


Letter Re: The Easy Storage Survival Harvest

I have minor additions to Minnesota Rose’s excellent post on which storable foods have the most nutrition and food value.  In looking for which plants have the most protein, the HealthAliciousNess web site has very good information on the highest protein fruits (dried apricots, I was happy to see), vegetables (sun dried tomatoes, surprisingly), and beans and legumes.  The protein content of beans and legumes varies from a low of 11 percent for pigeon peas to a high of 28 percent for soybeans.  These are cooked percentages, which are much lower than dry percentages because of the additional water; i.e. …


The Easy Storage Survival Harvest, by Minnesota Rose

I have tracked down, purchased, and read over 25 books this past winter, all having to do with gardening, food storage, and food processing.  My goal was to come away from many long winter nights soaking and reading in my claw foot tub with more than wrinkled toes.  My agenda was simple: I wanted these new, used, and out of print gems to provide instruction and inspiration in formulating a plan to grow as much of my family’s food as possible as soon as the snow finally melted—and then put the harvest in storage.  As I soaked in the hot …


Letter Re: Got Worms?

James: One thing that I’ve uncovered in my research is that while composting worms are fine if you simply want compost.  However, the red wrigglers commonly used for composting are not effective as a worm for your garden [beds].  Their primary problem is that they prefer the top 2 or 3 inches of soil.  As a result your soil is not fully aerated. After a lot of searching I found a supplier that provided a mix of three worms types, each with different characteristics so that garden soil is serviced top to bottom.  We mixed several yards of mulch into …


Got Worms?, by Girl Raised in the South (GRITS)

I felt a sting of envy while admiring a neighbor’s tomato and pepper plants. They were lush and heavy with fruit, bursting out of their containers, while the straggly things in my garden struggled to produce an occasional ping pong ball for our salads. Our neighbor, Bud, mentioned that he had added castings from his aunt’s worm farm, and he figured that must be how come his plants were doing so well. We have our share of earthworms in our home dirt, and knew they were beneficial, but had never seen the value of  concentrated worm poop demonstrated so clearly. …


Letter Re: Gardening in Plain Sight

Dear JWR: A few years ago I started food plots for wild game on my ranch.   Since then, I have noticed that the game have returned in greater numbers. The reason is the variety of plants from the seeds sown. One of the plants in this mix is the turnip.  The seed mix allows there to be food from spring to winter, with the turnips being the last food consumed. I find deer, elk and bears eating them first thing in the spring.  I got an idea from this last year. If turnips grow this well in the wild with …


Letter Re: Web-Based Soil Survey Maps as a Resource for Retreat Selection

Dear Mr. Rawles, I came across this web site: SoilWeb: An Online Soil Survey. Its purpose is to allow users to access NRCS and NCSS 1:24,000 scale detailed soil survey data (SSURGO) in many parts of the lower 48 states. Where this data is not yet available, 1:250,000 scale generalized soils data (STATSGO) can be accessed instead. (In Arizona, California, and Nevada only.) An interactive map interface allows for panning and zooming, with highways, streets, and aerial photos to assist navigation. This could be useful for those considering relocation, as soil make-up and condition should be a consideration for any …


Suggestions From a 2 for 1 Prepper, by M.M.

I especially liked the February, 2001 SurvivalBlog article about Forever Preps. I now have enough salt to last me forever in Mylar lined buckets. That includes regular salt for salt curing. I need saltpeter. I have dry bleach, hand tools, skills, and Jesus. I’m working on the rest. As a matter of fact, within my extended family we have four medical people, a fireman, a teacher, a banker, an accountant, HVAC technician, mechanic, farmer, baker, trucker, engineers—we don’t exactly have a butcher or candlestick maker, but my son tends to his own deer and fish and I have made plenty …