Survival Gardening

[Nu Kua]

Whether you're growing from a bunch of pots on your patio, or you have full blown back-yard garden going on, these days leads one to think about planting food not just as a hobby, but to survive. The cost of food in the grocery stores is astronomical (I really wish I could grow peanut butter!) and god-only-knows what might be in it, so planting something, anything- is a good idea.

A busy person can easily grow their own salad greens and never have to worry about buying in bulk only for the greens to go bad- you just pick what you need as you need it.

I have found one of the best and easiest things to grow in a survival garden is kale and chard. Why? Because, I swear, it lives forever. When I left the house, I sadly left behind a chard plant that we'd been eating off of for four years! If you do not pull them up and do not let them go to seed, the plant just keeps producing leaves and getting bigger, wider, bushier each year. And it is a pretty plant, too- food for the soul.

Another thing to plant are berries- blueberries and strawberries require very little care overall once you get them in the ground, especially if you start them on good compost-y soil to begin with. They like a little acid (not that kind) so if you have pine or fir needles, use that each fall when you mulch them. Blackberries and raspberries are great, too- they will never die! But you do need to remove the dead canes each year for optimal results.

Make sure you plant a few herbs among your garden, too, not only because they improve garden health, but because when you're poor as hell, sometimes all those potatoes need is a little fresh chives to make something plain taste wonderful. All tomato dishes sing with the addition of fresh oregano and rosemary. Rosemary also makes a great hedge- and is good for tight muscles.
(If you plant oregano in your garden, cut the bottom out of a big pot, submerge the pot in the garden so most of it is underground but there is a lip atop about 3 inches high- otherwise, your oregano will spread all over your garden. I personally never minded that much and it didn't seem to do any harm, but some people hate it and I suppose it can get carried away.)

Some sites, blogs, ect.

The Survivalist Blog (http://www.thesurvivalistblog.net/survival-gardening-depressed-economic-times/)-
Survival gardening for depressed economic times
another site I just found and I cannot wait to check out these videos- looks like they have medicinal plants covered, too!

Survival Garden Guide (http://survivalgardenguide.com/)

Survival Seeds

If you do not have the space or the time to can your food, or freeze it, look to dehydrating it.
Check out this series of articles and how-to's from The Backpacking Chef (http://www.backpackingchef.com/dehydrating-food.html).

Good article on home dehydration from The Survival Mom (http://thesurvivalmom.com/2010/02/10/my-top-9-reasons-for-dehydrating-food/).

If you are in a warm, arid climate, you can try building your own solar dehydrator- Mother Earth News (http://www.motherearthnews.com/Do-It-Yourself/2006-08-01/Build-a-Solar-Food-Dehydrator.aspx).

I've seen cruder examples of homemade solar dryers that worked- basically as simple as a raised screen covered with thin white cloth.

You Tube has so many How-to videos on the subject of drying and building your own, you'd be foolish not to check them out. :thumbs:

Finally, seed sprouting is a great way to get those wonderful nutrients of green veggies in about a week or less.
Check out Sprout People (http://sproutpeople.org/) to get educated on the wonderfulness of sprouts!

You can even easily and cheaply sprout seeds if you are on-the-go- a simple seed sprouting kit can be included in any bug-out bag.

*edit to add this great page I just found from the Outdoor Herbivore (http://blog.outdoorherbivore.com/sprouting/trail-sprouting/)-
Learn To Grow Your Own Food While Hiking

Check out this video from For Greenies (http://www.forgreenies.com/) -

OSt0DmAPDm4

[Tired Old Man]

you wil lbe back

Let me guess your psychic ? I'm back for now but only in the garden talk. As strange as it my sound, I Love playing in the dirt. I just never had the time to do it.
I worked six days a week, sixty plus hours a week. Hey it gave me enough money to pay off my house and car ( truck ) . Hell I was even able to save enough money to "float " if need be, for a year or two. I never float, I work. Anyone who say's they can't find a job is not looking. Within two weeks I found what I wanted. Five days a week,midnight work. Half the pay I was making, but good enough for what I want.
What do I want ?????
Some free time to play. Get my hands in the dirt. I have some fine smoking tobacco. And that was just from two plants. I need more Plants !! Lucky me I'm in Florida. Have you ever ate a papaya ? They taste great. Plenty of free seeds. I'll let you know how they grow.

All work and no play sucks !

[Tired Old Man]

From reading online I'm still not sure how long Papaya seeds should take to sprout. I could be wrong but after 7 days I think some of the seeds are sprouting. Hell it could be weeds. I'll know in a couple more weeks. I'll post pictures then.

Survival Gardening.
Sounds like the end of the world. That is not what I am looking for. Hey if it is the end of the world, your dead. Enough said.....
Victory Garden ???? Victory over what ?
For myself, just the thought I could grow enough food to survive. This IS the Survival Garden Thread.......

[Tired Old Man]

This was fast. 11 days from planting to "some " seedlings. In a year from now I might have some free food.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/th_papayaseedlings.jpg (http://s527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/?action=view&current=papayaseedlings.jpg)

[Tired Old Man]

How time flys when your having fun. Okay it wasn't that fast. But my papaya seedlings are growing. Maybe to fast. Some have fallen over. Darwin at work here ?
New pictures after I have to prune the seedlings.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/100_0056.jpg


Wish I could have found a passion fruit, fruit. Must be out of season. So I bought the plant. Lucky me it hasn't died yet.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/100_0057.jpg

Tobacco !!!
Plants not only grow good but also smoke good. You can almost get a high. It would seem I have plenty of seed pods also. Each seed pod has around 700 to who knows how many seeds.
Free Seeds !!!! No way in hell I can use all of them. PM me if you want any.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/100_0058.jpg

[Nu Kua]

Well, finally in an apartment, not much room for planting a garden but I can grow some things in containers next year. I still have the pots of soil taken from my original backyard garden, which I hauled around with me all summer long and kept the worms fed. One of the pots had strawberries, and the other broccoli. Week before last I decided to winterize the broccoli and the strawberries, so I cut the tops off the broccoli and planted them in with the strawberries, adding soil from the other pots, and WOW, no kidding, the dirt was so healthy, and full of the fattest earthworms I have ever seen! One was so big it kind of scared me when I saw it.

So anyway, I planted the broccoli in with the strawberries, added a lot of leaf mulch, and covered them with some plastic I've been collecting from work, that was used to wrap newspaper bundles in.

Happily, I discovered that I managed to grab my seed warming mat, which you put under seed pots to help them sprout faster. Downstairs is an old florescent light. I am thinking of attempting an indoor herb garden. My apartment is not well lit- no South-facing windows at all, the the two that face East are really small, so I am not really sure if I should attempt to grow them solely with the fluorescent light until Spring when I can move some to pots outdoors. Maybe if I got a light meant solely for plants, I'd have a better chance? I dunno, this aspect of indoors gardening is new to me. However I have developed a taste for fresh herbs, and cannot deal with paying so much for them at the supermarkets.

I mourned my garden yesterday, as it was Thanksgiving, and I had grown very use to picking greens mere minutes before cooking them. Currently my best bet for good greens is the natural food store-co-op just about 6 blocks from here- better than grocery store, as they are grown local, at least- but still feels really weird paying for them.

I wonder now how my old garden looks, imagining it has been left to be taken over again by weeds, morning glories, and brambles. I believe I have grow soft in the head, as thinking of it neglected and unloved brings a lump to my throat. The wild things though, must be happy. The weeds and brambles probably knew all along that somehow, they'd win in the end.

Life goes on. Silly me, I take a little comfort knowing that in those pots of dirt out here, recently re-fortified with autumn leaves, coffee grounds, and egg shells, that one day this dirt will be incorporated into a garden that is on my very own plot of land. SO in a way, my original backyard "survival" garden will live forever.

Reading this thread reminds me I do still have my seed-sprouter kit packed away in a box. I should start some sprouts- they will be happy enough in one of the small East-facing windows. :thumbs:

ToM, I'd love some tobacco seeds! I worked in tobacco when I was young and always thought the plants were so beautiful.

[Tired Old Man]

All I need is an address to send them to. And yes the plants are.....nice to lot at. From such a small seed.

[Tired Old Man]

From a small amount of seeds back on 9-13-2012 I have tobacco plants. I took one seedling out and transplanted it as you can see. So far it is still alive....lol. I do not have a green thumb. But I do have plenty of seeds. As far as smoking goes the tobacco was very mild. Seems a few people on you tube like free seeds. But I still have more than I'll need. If anyone would like a free seed pod pm me. All I need is a SASE.

For some reason I can't get a photo to load so here is a direct link.


http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/100_0072.jpg

[Tired Old Man]

Now I got it.


http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/th_100_0072.jpg (http://s527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/?action=view&current=100_0072.jpg)

[Nu Kua]

How do you cure your tobacco?

And, what kind of a light are you using there?

[Tired Old Man]

I guess I would have to say air cure. If I pick the tobacco when still a little yellow I let them brown in a cardboard box. Once they are completely dry I cut them and place them into a humidor for a couple of weeks. Then I smoke them.

Shame on me but the light is a CFL. Hey it works better than a incandescent light. Something about light spectrum. Plus lower cost.
Wiki
Today, fluorescent lights are available in any desired color temperature in the range from 2700 K to 7800 K. Standard fluorescents are usually used for growing vegetables and herbs indoors or for starting seedlings to get a jump start on spring plantings. Standard fluorescents produce twice as many lumens per watt of energy consumed as incandescents and have an average usable life span of up to 20,000 hours. Cool white fluorescent lights are sometimes used as grow lights. These offer slightly lower performance, a white light, and lower purchase cost.

[pico]

nice concept... and nice that you can grow your own and not have to pay the sky high taxes

[Tired Old Man]

nice concept... and nice that you can grow your own and not have to pay the sky high taxes

Sad to say...or I'm lucky to say I don't have the room to grow all that I could use myself. We all know smoking is bad for you. The cheapest I can remember cigarettes costing was 30 cents a pack. Yes....lol, that was a very long time ago. With my home grown my cost today is 40 to 60 cents a pack. I didn't keep track but I guessing I got two cartons ( 40 packs ) from my two plants. And a shit load of seeds.

[pico]

LOL... plant those seeds in parks and other places and pick the leaves as weeds down the road. Still nice idea. I do not smoke, but could see how that would be a nice way to provide in a bad time of excess taxes and a crappy economy.

[Bob]

I saw this video on netflix today and thought this would be a good place to share it, facsinating stuff...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XI5frPV58tY

[Tired Old Man]

Lucky me , tobacco plants are easy to transplant. Hey they grow like weeds. Water once a week and watch them grow. I hope to have around twenty plants ready in the next month. Now the plant on the right should have been a strawberry plant. The seeds came from a pack of strawberry seeds. Damn thing looks like a carrot to me.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/100_0078.jpg

Speaking of carrots, My five gallon bucket of carrots seems to be doing just fine.

http://i527.photobucket.com/albums/cc352/TiredOldMan1955/100_0079.jpg

My transplanted papaya seedlings ? Not looking that good. I forgot to water them. But I still have plenty of them growing in the ground.

[pico]

That is definitely not a strawberry. My strawberry plants have a much different leaf. It does look like carrots, or raddishes

[Tired Old Man]

That is definitely not a strawberry. My strawberry plants have a much different leaf. It does look like carrots, or raddishes

LMAO . So much for store bought seeds. I planted some jalapeno seeds last year that grew into tomato plants. I'm starting to think the best seeds comes from something you already have. I should have saved some of the seeds from the strawberry plants I grew last time.

[pico]

I have found strawberries are best bought in the bags that have the plants ready to go. Usually they can be picked up in bags of 25 plants. I have tried growing them by seeds, but never have had much success... same with onions. Once you get strawberries to take, they will spread like weeds with runners that shoot out everywhere.

[Tired Old Man]

I have found strawberries are best bought in the bags that have the plants ready to go. Usually they can be picked up in bags of 25 plants. I have tried growing them by seeds, but never have had much success... same with onions. Once you get strawberries to take, they will spread like weeds with runners that shoot out everywhere.

I have taken fresh strawberries grown in Fl and was able to get the seeds to grow. Kind of like a tobacco plant. A ton of seeds from them. I'll buy some fresh strawberries and save the seeds.
I finished cutting the seed pods from my tobacco plants this morning. Holy Fu@king crap. I have enough seeds to replant North America. I also rolled a few smokes from the tobacco leaves. So damn smooth... Makes me wish I could grow other things to smoke....cough...cough. That is a different story better left alone. For now, until the laws change. I love plants that grow like weeds. Tobacco, sweet potatoes and......

[pico]

Here in Iowa my blackberries have spread like weeds... I would think they would be even more aggressive in your neck of the woods. Up here winter slows them down a bit. Having access to a ton of seeds is pretty nice. You can likely store them well enough to have for future years, so long as they are not expected to yield huge results. I have even read that some grain found in an egyptian tomb was able to be grown, which was a few thousand years old. I would think tobacco would be fine for a few years, if you find yourself in an abundance of seeds you cannot plant all at once. Perhaps put it in an envelope with a couple of silica packets from shoe boxes or such to keep them dry.