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

Onions are a winter crop, which speaks to planting for three seasons or even four. I am working on soil quality, as that would be hard for a looter to carry off, and I am working on it in more than one place with double digging and nitrogen-fixing cover crops like clover, black-eyed peas, buckwheat, and vetch.

He mentioned 100 jars of food. I figured out that I need 400 jars (pint) for my family of six (grandma, husband, wife, and three children). I am using pints, because you can always open two; keeping half of a larger jar is not convenient without power. That gets me through winter with some margin for error in Zone 8, if a crop fails to germinate. (You can’t live on radishes forever.)

I am also practicing the harvesting of seeds. I have handed out a third generation batch of heirloom spinach to my sister and nephew just last week. My current challenge is the carrot. I got a couple of second year plants with lots of flowers, but they are being coy. – R.V.

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HJL

I find it frustrating to read any article on growing any plant without the climate information. I understand if the person doesn’t want to give their city and state, but they could give a zone number from the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map You could publish one of these maps on your site and everybody could use it as a reference. Without this information any gardening article is much less useful.