Colorado Preppers: Garden

Showing posts with label Garden. Show all posts

A Survival Garden

If you can’t get to the store to buy your produce, what will you do? Plan now! Buy the seeds (HEIRLOOM!!), learn how to garden, learn how to preserve / can / dehydrate, and cook with what you grow. Practice seed-saving. Figure out what you have space for inside your home – if you can’t get outside to garden (in case someone sees your food and tries to steal it), stock up on grow lights and potting soil. Food is our most basic need, behind water. Do what you can NOW to ensure your health.

If you don’t have room for the following, choose what your favorite foods are, and which of the following are most versatile in your cooking.

Vegetables:

Artichoke
Asparagus
Beets
Broccoli
Cabbage
Carrots
Cauliflower
Celery
Cucumber
Eggplant
Greens (lettuce, endive, escarole, spinach, swiss chard, etc.)
Okra
Onion and Garlic
Pepper (Bell and Hot)
Radish
Squash (summer like zucchini or crookneck, winter like butternut or pumpkin, gourds)

Fruits:

Blackberries
Blueberries
Grapes
Huckleberries
Kiwi
Melons, including watermelon, cantaloupe, etc.
Raspberries
Rhubarb
Strawberries
Tomatoes
Wonderberries

Protein:

Beans, including soybeans
Cowpeas and Peas
Sunflowers

Starch/Grain:

Amaranth
Buckwheat
Corn
Oats
Quinoa
Rice
Wheat

Herbs/Other:

Basil
Chamomile
Cilantro
Cumin
Dill
Garlic
Lavender
Marigold
Parsley
Peppermint and Other Mints
Rosemary
Sage
Soapwort
Sorghum
Stevia
Thyme
Etc.

Some of the above are perennial plants, and some you need to replant every year. Radishes can be grown every 6 weeks or so.

Be sure to read http://www.survival-cooking.com/ for recipes and cooking ideas and http://www.backyardgrocerygardening.blogspot.com/ for the best way to grow these plants.

Backyard Grocery Gardens

You've heard me rant about Victory Gardens, and how they have completely gotten away from actually growing edible food in rough times. Who cares about garden design when you can't even afford a bag of salad that you KNOW isn't contaminated?!?!

We're taking it further. Look at the name "Victory Garden" (joke) - we're advocating the "Backyard Grocery Garden". Yes, the Williams family (us) have coined this phrase. But... it looks like other people are doing something similar. Check out these links:

At www.survival-cooking.blogspot.com, which discusses cooking, gardening and other survival and emergency preparedness info, it will increasingly have more postings about how to create a grocery in your backyard. Not only edible, but also fibers to make clothing, herbs for medicine, and much more. The gardening posts will occur more frequently in the Spring/Summer/Fall times of year.

Do you have a favorite website that talks about raising food in your backyard for your family?

Victory Garden - a Rant about the PBS Show

Does anyone remember what a Victory Garden used to be?

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victory_garden: Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom and Australia[1] during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort. In addition to indirectly aiding the war effort these gardens were also considered a civil "morale booster" — in that gardeners could feel empowered by their contribution of labor and rewarded by the produce grown. Making victory gardens became a part of daily life on the home front.

These days, the PBS show "Victory Garden" website says: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/victorygarden/show/index.html

With so many Americans aspiring to care for the environment and create their own outdoor living spaces, The Victory Garden's unique fusion of garden design, earth-to-table cooking, and eco-conscious how-to tips is of greater interest today than ever before in its more than 30-year history.

I've tried watching the show and it very rarely discusses edible plants. Can I just say.... why doesn't it actually tell us more about how to best garden in our yards like what a Victory Garden is supposed to be?