Yes! Gardening! Gorilla Gardening to be precise. SHTF doesn’t have to go all the way to Captain Caveman for you to need the skills and tools to grow your own food. Even right now, today, you could benefit from growing some of your own food. The money you saved might not be much but it could be put towards other preps. Preps like firearms and ammunition that you can’t create for yourself (yeah, I know some of you are super bad-ass and actually can create your own firearms but the majority of people do not fit that description!) Not to mention the fact that after SHTF is NOT the time to start practicing a skill! Tactical skills, medical skills, hunting, bartering, gardening…..all of these are SURVIVAL skills that you need to perfect now, not later!
We don’t have to go all out WROL for these preps to be a benefit. If things are fucked up economically, SHTF can be a hit-and-miss, on-and-off, intermittent pain in the ass! This can be a long drawn out process and it’s gonna take a while to get things back on track. Between the start of the shit and the end of the shit, you need to not die!
Why Gorilla Gardening?
Unless you trust your neighbors 100% or have a full time security detail to guard your field you might want to consider unconventional methods to grow your food. Planting crops in neat little rows might look pretty but it also looks like food to people passing by. One solution is to try gorilla gardening, intermixing edible plants with existing weeds and wild growth will disguise your food. The goal of a gorilla garden is to keep weeds just enough in check to provide camouflage while not choking out the actual crop.
As far as what you should plant, you need to take several things into consideration. Your area, climate, current season, available space and what will your family eat? There’s no point in kicking ass and growing 300 pounds of sweet potatoes if no-one in your family likes eating them! I recommend Heirloom seed varieties for a couple of reasons. They are tried and true seeds that have been around for generations. Most importantly, heirloom seeds will make MORE seeds for you. You can set aside part of your crop in order to have seeds for planting next year. Most modern GMO seeds have had this ability purposefully bred out of them.
You can shop for all the gorilla gardening gear I mentioned right here on The Club. You can also find seeds, tools, books and more on The Prepared Mind Amazon page. Remember that when you shop on Amazon through my page, Amazon will send a little bit of commission my way which helps to maintain The Club and is greatly appreciated!
The bigger you conventionally grow (flatlander gardening) … the bigger you will be the target. Whether you grow hidey and bug gardens, you need to protect your assets from all the critters coming to your “free food bank and restaurant.” Same for any zombies and marauders scouting your landscape.
If fact, you should have all your topos printed out, and exactly have scouted everybody else and the landscape in that 20×20 mile area for all critical assets, gas stations, 7-11s, grocery stores, orchards, vineyards, gardens, backyard fruit and citrus trees, above ground propane (and gas) tanks, who has the most vehicles (has the most gas tanks and gas …) …. All assets are color codes (red – gas/fuel), green (banks, food, gardens, orchards, vineyards, wineries, breweries), blue (already water streams, but hidden spring water sources, water jug companies), brown (gun/sports stores/ hardware stores), orange (hospitals), …. Magic marker dot those places. Any hideys or bugs or caches of yours, make a SMALL !!! pin prick hole in the map (not obvious).
If you have options in the wilderness away from others, or in thick brush and briars, then consider installing normal fence posts (metal or wood posts) and small mesh fencing, with a locked hinged gate. Ditch the fencing and put into the ground and concrete up (no digging underneath by critters. Lock on the gate. Plant onery blackberries in the 6 foot width of the perimeter, and a small crawl hole underneath to the gate. Keeps out deer jumping in, humans seeing inside (or getting in). Having some incorporated critters traps allowing them to get in (rabbits, possum, squirrels, chipmunks) consider as a food source – or having a small rabbit hutch inside and grow feral rabbits (et al) into domestics for food production. Plant the garden (especially tree collards and tree kale) vertically. More growing space, more sunlight into garden area, greater food production for you (and the critters). And some berries also. Keep the berries well fed for foliage and cover.
Consider having non-water hog vegs (mostly tubers and hard squash/gourds). Water hogs need lots of water (watermelons, melons, soft squash, pumpkins, cukes, …). And don’t waste time with lettuce and celery – no calories and waste of space. Grow viable food calories. Onions, garlic, giant leeks, chives, carrots, salsify, parsnips, turnips, rutabagas, beets, potatoes, jicama, sweet potatoes, yams, sunchokes, jerusalem artichokes, (NO TOMATOES !), peppers and chilies (?), broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, kale, collards, tree kale, tree collards, giant amaranth/milo/millet (6-8-10-15 feet tall grains), … and use the greens from these (beets, turnips, amaranth, broccoli, cauliflower, ). acorn squash, winter squash, crook neck squash, gourds, …
If you have 5 gallon buckets and a small drip irriation tubing, you can have the other water-hog vegs, but this (even having a 50 gallon (metal or plastic water barrel) in the site, and you can have a constant source of water (and any included liquid fertilizer in the drip lines) – for super production. Then you could do pumpkins and some small melons (melons still a waste of space and time – only water and sugars).
If you have options and safe locations away from ruminants (rabbits and deer) you could plant fruit and nuts trees scattered across the landscape on forest edges, or in forest briar patch meadows (again keep visibility low for critters and humans). Native apples, citrus (if you have the growing zone, pear, cherry, native gooseberries, currants, elderberries, mulberries, bush blueberries, huckleberries, blackberries, raspberries, honeyberries, cranberries, kiwi, etc. All can be done discretely across the landscape with minimal maintenance and fertilizing.
Great tips and recommendations. I’d like to add soil, water, and replenishment.
Soil – consider what you have to work with. Putting a seed in the ground does not guarantee success. The quality of soil has great impact to the quality of product. There are many videos out there on the subject with Back To Eden (BTE) and Mittleider being prominent ones. Read, view, learn and trial in small areas to find what you like. I’m partial to BTE as my homestead is forested and have much material available.
Water – depending on your locality, could be an issue. Even where there is ample rainfall, shortfall/drought conditions can happen. When planting direct in ground and seedling stage, very susceptible to burn/fail due to lack of water. Ensure you have a close by source that is not dependent on municipality and if possible, power…unless you have SHTF/Off Grid sources. Rain catchment systems are great for this purpose and you don’t have to worry about water quality issue like you would for direct consumption. Also, water retention soils are great to reduce demand, again, BTE method is great as the mulch/wood chip layer naturally retains moisture.
Replenishment – This extends beyond the Heirloom seeds which is the obvious one. But even if you have the seeds, you need the education to harvest for propagation. Remember, not all edibles are seed based propagation so need to have the info. Again, many videos on the subject and behooves to learn and practice as it is very necessary. OK, now that you have the edibles covered, how about other items? Do you have chickens? Well, you are not going to the “store” during SHTF and your food scraps only go so far. So, try growing your own grains? Wheat, Milo, Black Sunflowers, Oats, Corn are very easy to grow and since would not be for human consumption, don’t have to worry as much about quality, harvesting peak, etc. The girls like tender greens and other parts of plants just as much as fully and undeveloped grain. Example, mine will devour Milo leaves and seed cluster just as much as the grain.
Hope you find the additional “tips” useful.