I have noticed a frightening trend being used by many of the “survival seed” companies that have started up in the past several years. The same trend shows up on many “survival/ prepping” web sites. This is pushing the idea that in TEOTWAWKI one merely needs to open the bucket and have an instant survival homestead. That isn’t necessarily so. Does buying the latest fancy rifle with rangefinder, laser pointer, and fancy toilet paper holder make you a marksman?
There is a range of preparations and skills necessary for running a successful farm or homestead. That is why our forefathers often screwed up and starved to death. If all the pieces are not there then the potential exists for failure. Today this is heartbreaking. In TEOTWAWKI this can be fatal.
Let me preface my remarks by saying that I have killed more plants, lost more animals, and had more failures than I would have ever envisioned when I first started my hobby farming. I am a police officer by trade not a farmer. It shows. Right now I have a nine-day-old baby pot-bellied pig in a box next to me. He was born on an 18-degree day and his mother didn’t care for her first litter. When I found the six piglets in the nesting hut, they were already hypothermic. I lost the first in less than an hour while still trying to get Momma Pig to care for them. Once the decision was made to bring them in and bottle feed them I hoped they would be okay. I was wrong. My wife and I worked and fed day and night and gradually watched all but one of these precious little creatures die. This was with veterinarian’s and local expert’s tips. My one little boar seems to be doing well.
Losing the offspring was heartbreaking after caring for them. It is also expensive in lost revenue. Locally, the piglets run from $50 to $200. That means potentially $1,000 lost from my profits already this year. Today that is lamentable. Tomorrow it may be deadly. What if this litter was one from my Yorkshire sows that was going to supply meat for my kids? There is a learning curve involved here. Now is the time to be making mistakes not in TEOTWAWKI.
The Garden of Eden in a Bucket group would have you believe that these skills can be learned and preparations made after the fact. In truth this is too late. The time to make mistakes is now while you can still purchase food from a farmer’s market to replace your failures, not when your children are praying for their next meal. We must start today building our knowledge and skill base to handle the chores necessary to a successful homestead. We have to start the garden, plant the fruit and nut trees, and start husbanding the animal today in order to have the ability to do so when TEOTWAWKI comes. Perhaps it is because we are further removed from our food sources now that we must relearn the skills of the past. These are not innate abilities. They must be cultivated
A garden doesn’t just happen. It takes planning, work, skill, luck, and plenty of prayers. I have been growing a garden of one size or another from a few tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers for fresh use to three to 4 acre canning gardens that took full time work to keep up. Lack of experience is a big problem in the amount and consistency of harvest. Even experienced gardeners have bad years. The difference is that they usually have some harvest. Inexperienced gardeners often lose the whole crop. Gardening is a skill best learned by doing it not just reading about it.
In the beginning one must choose the location for the garden. This should be done based on soil type, drainage or water availability, and sunlight. Different parts of the country have different soil types and needs. Some are more acid or alkali than others. Did you realize that the soil will vary on your property? The south side of my yard is hard packed red clay with no real topsoil. Grass will grow but is severely affected by drought. To the north of the house is where all of that topsoil was pushed as fill when the lot was leveled and the house built. That is where we chose to put the garden. This location also provides good sunlight with no trees to the east, south, or west. We are in the process of planting fruit trees to the north side of the garden since this will not affect the amount of sunlight. This location provides good drainage and access to water. Right now that means access to hoses but hopefully this year we will install guttering on our metal roof and build a rainwater recovery system to provide for our needs.
When your life depends on it is not the time to start breaking ground on a garden. How are you going to do it? Are you going to use a shovel? Good luck. I have and it has been slow going with about four wide rows added each year. The ground was initially run over with a tractor with a tiller attachment behind it. That was probably a mistake since it just chopped all of the grass roots and rhizomes up and sprigged the garden with them. The tiller only cut about 8 inches through the sod. It was more like aerating the soil than prepping it for planting. I had to then resort to the shovel and rake to get my rows made. I use wide rows about 42 inches wide for planting. This allows me to reach the middle from either side but minimizes the area taken up by walk space. I would love to frame them in but have not had the money to do so. My rows are 36 feet long, and I have been able to break and cultivate about four new rows each year. Remember this is practice for not having the modern conveniences. This garden has been a learning process and is a long term prep.
As I said, I have had a battle with grass and weeds due to starting off wrong. Apparently I had done too good a job on that lovely lawn. I would have been better off spraying the area with Roundup first. I prefer to use natural methods but I do have to admit its effectiveness. Hand weeding and hoeing are tough on the back. It is better to kill of as much as possible first before planting. One can use chemicals to accomplish this. You must decide how you feel about them. You can also use a heavy layer of mulch to kill off the grass. This is slower and can have its own problems. I don’t recommend using hay for this. Hay contains the seed heads of grass stems. It can bring in more problems than it fixes. Use leaves, straw, or grass clippings in a layer at least four to 6 inches deep and be prepared to wait a few weeks to kill it off. Better is to lay a layer of newspaper or cardboard down first then cover it with your mulch. The great thing about this is that it improves the soil as it kills weeds and grass. Leave it alone and plant right through it if you choose. This method was touted by the great Ruth Stout who wrote several books about her “no-dig, deep mulch” methods. Doesn’t sound like it can be accomplished overnight does it?
I have tried a new approach this winter. I have the garden fenced off with “hog panels” and have it divided into two paddocks. The pair of pot bellied pigs is in one section and the four Yorkshires are in the other. Both share the area with four geese, a tom turkey, and assorted ducks and chickens. The pigs are constantly turning the soil over and working organic matter into it. Hopefully between the birds, sunlight, and freezing most of the weed seeds will be eliminated. There is not a sprig of grass to be found. This should be a viable way to expand a garden post Schumer. I feed them vegetable left-overs from the local fruit stand. They reward me by stirring in fresh manure daily. Any leaves, saw dust, and other mulches are thrown in for them to stir into the soil. I will have to report on the effectiveness of this method in the fall.
Notice earlier I said natural and not organic. Organic has come to be a USDA term for nothing. Organic produce in a major-chain store is no better than standard produce. They have subverted the word. I am talking about natural production methods like God intended. Composting, mulching, and fertilization should be accomplished working with not against nature. God knew what he was doing when he designed the system. It is when we try to act contrary to his laws that things fall apart. Leave any natural thing including stone alone and let the weather and the microorganism have their way with it and it will break down and return to a state usable by plants as nutrients. Compost is the best thing available for improving soil tilth and fertility. No man-made product comes close. The only problem is it takes time. Start now.
I mentioned the doomsday seed vaults earlier, and I know that it sounds like I am against them. Actually I think you are a fool if you don’t have something like them. Seeds for Security and Everlasting Seeds have wonderful products that give a security and peace of mind to any prepper’s future. They have put together seeds designed to maximize your food potentials in your survival garden. I keep a running supply of seeds that I rotate on a yearly basis. This way I have fresh seeds available at any time. I use a lot of open pollinated seeds now for safety. I can always save seed if needed and do so for practice each year. I do grow hybrids also. I know, I know, sighs of disgust. Get over it. Hybrids produce more crops for less work in most instances. They have been bred to give the most bang for the buck whether it’s disease resistance, taste, or vigor. Remember that being a hybrid is not a bad thing; it just means that the plant won’t reproduce true to form with all the traits that made you choose it in the first place. You can still save seeds from them they just won’t reproduce true in the offspring. You can still grow plants from them and they will share many of the original traits. Hybrids are good to have on hand early in the gardening experience because they usually have a vigor that exceeds either parent. As your skills improve you can work with the heirloom varieties.
Working a garden now also lets you learn what varieties you like the taste of. There are literally hundreds of varieties of tomatoes. Tomatoes are supposed to be bright red, period. Actually on the advice of a friend who runs a feed store I tried a pink variety, Arkansas Traveler, a couple of years ago and found it to be an instant favorite. It’s not as pretty, but it sure is good. An added bonus is that it happens to be an heirloom variety that breeds true. When do you start seeds where you live? What is the date of first and last frost and freeze? What varieties grow well on your soil? Will your family eat them? What diseases are in your area? Do you really want to wait to find out after the Schumer hits the fan?
Why haven’t you planted your fruit and nut trees? Are you waiting until after TEOTWAWKI to do it? Too late. The best time to have planted them is already gone but you can start today. The soft-fruits are the way to go for quick production. Brambles and grapes give a quick return for the investment. They will fruit quickly, usually within the first year or two after planting. Plums, figs, peaches, and blueberries usually take from two to four years to become productive. Hard fruit trees like pears and apples take even longer. Start with the oldest and largest trees you can afford. Dwarf trees mature faster than standard stock. Nuts are a long term investment. They may take twenty years to produce. When you plant remember to plan for the grown size of the plant. Also think about where the shade will fall so you don’t ruin your garden. Buy from a local nursery not the big-box stores. The local nursery will cost more but they will have varieties suited to your climate.
Do you have your pens built for your livestock? What about the materials to build them with, wire, wood, posts, sheet metal? Not yet huh? Okay do you have your medicines, wormers, milk replacers, and colostrum for emergencies like mine with the piglets? Not yet? See where I am going? I raise a variety of animals and have for several years and still got caught off guard with this last litter (didn’t know she was bred and she is pot-bellied after all). I had no colostrum on hand and had to wait until the piglets were almost a day old to get some in them. Do you think it will be easier to find these things after old Schumer shows up?
You need to plan now for what animals you want to raise, where you want them located, and how to care for them. You need to know how a ruminant’s stomachs (4) work. You need to know which plants will kill your goats (rhododendron family such as azalea). What is the gestation period for a pig? A rabbit? How long do you incubate chicken eggs? Ducks? Geese? What do you plan to feed these animals when you get them? There is a lot of effort required in keeping small stock. The time to practice is now. The time for mistakes is now.
This is the time to be learning and developing the skills necessary for a Pennsylvania homestead. No one on this forum would advocate buying a firearm now but waiting until the Schumer hits the fan to buy ammo and learn to shoot. Sweat in practice saves blood in battle. Start sweating.