Mr. Rawles,
Jason’s good ideas the other day with his “five C’s” for garden safety brought to mind the old-timers who grew up during the Depression. By the time I was growing up, life was comfortable for them. But many of them, elderly by now, would grow large gardens as they always had, producing more food than they could possibly use even after they canned and preserved enough for winter, gave quantities to neighbors, friends, and relatives, and fed some of the excess to livestock. A couple of my relatives even had multiple gardens — one close by the house, another back in a secluded corner of their land. “Why?” I asked one of them, back when I was a child. “Just in case,” was all the answer they gave me.
It makes a lot more sense to me nowadays. If that garden is the difference between life and death for your family, you want some margin for when things go wrong. In a good year, you have far too much and the extra work you have put into growing it has been “wasted,” on the face of it. But in a bad year? Who knows? Maybe the deer and ground hogs eat most of it. Or it doesn’t rain enough. Or it rains too much. Or there is an early freeze. Or, as Jason said, maybe a father is stealing from it for his children.
If you can, grow enough to give to that hungry father and others in need, as well as your neighbors. One thinks of the jokes about New Englanders leaving sacks of zucchini on each other’s doorsteps; this is a remnant of old-time virtue. The time may come when a sack of fresh garden vegetables from a neighbor might be like manna from heaven. Regards, – Andrew H.
Dear Mr. Rawles:
We’ve a few comments to add to the excellent posts on veggie growing. Consider Jerusalem Artichokes as a “stealth veggie.” These are sunflowers native to N. America. We plan to use these as a screen for concealment along the only open area to our plot. And the roots are fine raw. These sunflowers are also pretty.
Our plot is on a gentle slope so we have constructed a number of terraces so that each can be flood irrigated with a hose placed at the high point of the terrace. As all farmers know, flood irrigation is far better than sprinkling as it goes deeper into the soil and encourages deep root growth. We will have asparagus planted on the high side of each terrace. Few folks recognize asparagus in the summer. This is also a concealment idea. Our rabbits ignore the asparagus. They also ignore southern field peas.
We arrange our plantings so that early harvested plants (onions, cabbage, broccoli, potatoes) are on a terrace that has on the adjoining terraces vining crops as sweet potatoes, melons, pumpkins. By the time the early veggies are harvested these vines will have reached those terraces and will have plenty of room
One poster mentioned heirloom “Bloody Butcher” corn. We use this partly as a support for pole beans. The local raccoons are not able to reach the ears which grow high up on the 9-10 foot stalks. Excellent cornmeal!
We dehydrate a lot of tomatoes. This reduces the storage space required. The shelf life is much greater and if the jars freeze no damage is done. We remove most of the air with a Pump ‘N Seal device.
Our opinion is that a ~24 horsepower 3 point hitch diesel tractor with a PTO-powered rototiller is the best thing since sliced bread. It allows us to cultivate more area much more easily than with lesser equipment. I note that in our area of East Tennessee there will be many opportunities to earn some cash money by tilling other folk’s gardens. I believe we all know that veggie gardening is about to become hugely popular. Store lots of stabilized diesel.
One final thought: save all the seed you can manage. Your seed may well mean the difference between eating and starvation for your neighbors in the future. We rotate the cultivars and the types of veggies each year so as to build up a huge stock of diverse seeds. – H.D.
Sir:
I just want to say about this, there is an answer for everyone. The idea of protecting or concealing your garden is good, but you are never going to stop the zombie hordes. My answer is potting everything, having a garden as a distraction, and moving the pots inside when things go bad. When the weather is bad and going to hurt the plants I can move them inside. I control the soil and the weeds. This is my first year with this system, but I had such a failure with my garden due to weeds and watering last year, I know this will work. I will grow inside all year if I can. Good test of the system. I encourage everyone to test themselves as well. Gardens provide essentials that your body needs, not calories. Unless you have a farms worth, gardens will only help.
One other thing regarding this article. We are preparing for the worst, but the question remains, what worst case will we deal with? When you look at history, Zombie takeovers or Crazy democrats are the extremes in our world. We will most likely never have to deal with either. (Sarcasm there, regarding zombies) The point is you should prepare yourself for everything, but plan for the most likely. We are going to crash like the stock market. Little bits as a time. Not all at once. Prepare for when things get “hinky”.
People accuse me of caring about mankind, wanting a better world for all, and saying I am good for the environment. Let me be selfish and blunt. I want you to grow your own food so you don’t eat mine. I want us all to live together in harmony, but if the circumstances present themselves, and you are stealing my tomatoes, I will kill you, any age. It is not my fault you don’t know or didn’t prepare. I will save water from my downspouts. Not because I am concerned about water but about energy. The government is going to raise our taxes on energy one way or another. Until our Rome is finished, take advantage. The scraps of yesterday are a meal today.- Matt B.