Survival Food

When my parents retired and moved to New Hampshire back in 1970, my Mom became an avid, if education-averse, gardener, all of the short summer, trying, mostly in vain, to grow vegetables in terrible, rocky NH soil.

My Dad, on the other hand, spent most of the summer at the extended family’s fishing cottage, about 30 miles away. On trips to the tiny town dump, he discovered that the area he was instructed to dump his buckets of catfish guts was the same place that the town’s 2 diners had to drop off their raw kitchen waste. The large mound of “unintentional compost” was literally overgrown with tomato, potato, pepper, zucchini and onion plants, free for the picking.

Most of the time, he made himself some very good, free veggie side dishes during the week, and never mentioned it, just to keep the peace :)

Fill Empty and Unused Space with Food

If you are at all into gardening, you have probably heard something about the “Guerilla Gardening” movement. It is primarily an urban/suburban phenomenon, where folks transform ugly, abandoned patches of ground into vegetable or wildflower mini-gardens, using only some terra cotta clay from a hobby store, an old cheese grater, some dried compost or earthworm castings, or other organic fertilizer.

Generally, they use a little water and some native wildflower seeds to make “seedballs/seedbombs/seed grenades”, and pitching them over fences and such into unused pieces of land, based on the pioneering agricultural work of the Japanese farmer/philosopher, Masanobu Fukuoka.

The grenades start to fall apart after the first rainstorm, and “plant themselves”.

There are better descriptions of building your own seedballs than I could write at Seedball.

 

Why stop with wildflowers?  Consider some open-pollinated vegetable and herb seeds in the same usage.  Why stop with your own land?  Take a walk or a drive around “the neighborhood” and find some non-obvious open spots, to plant yourself some self-seeding backup crops?  Toss some “grenades” and make yourself a map, in case you want or need to go harvest your backup crop.  It’s a heck of a lot of fun to go back and look at your handiwork, as well :)

This could be especially-valuable if you are stuck in a suburban area.  A well-tended ‘monoculture row’ backyard garden might become a target for raiding by hungry neighbors, but some ‘random’ plants in an undeveloped area are not likely to attract much attention. Not that I have a low opinion of most people’s knowledge, but your average urban/suburban individual wouldn’t know a radish or bell pepper plant from poison oak, and probably wouldn’t even think to look, because it wasn’t on something close to a grocery store shelf.

How To Make Organic Seed Bombs of Herbs and Vegetables

I’m by no means an expert, but I suggest a mix of some of the following seeds:

1. Perennial White Clover (tossed with the appropriate bacterial inoculant) Will make your plot look more “untended” and will fix nitrogen from the air into the soil for years – plant your own fertilizer.
2. Radishes – the first vegetable that comes up in the Spring, and if you let it go to seed, it generates an unbelievable bulk of green compostable material.
3. A few different leaf lettuces – tasty, nutritious, and since it’s not a head of iceberg, easily ignored by other hungry humans– could be some random weed.
4. Onions – you can eat the sprouts, let them go to seed and bulb, and they will overwinter well. Chives are not a bad idea, either.
5. Your favorite herbs – basil, thyme, oregano, parsley, etc. – the thyme and oregano will spread and maybe become “invasive” – if you’re eating it, not really a problem.
6. (Some) squash seed – not many, be careful. They’ll shade out other plants, and a 50 lb. Zucchini in September may not be the tastiest thing you ever ate, but it sure beats eating nothing.
7. (Very few) tomatoes and bell peppers. Pick “ugly” heirloom varieties. Perfect-looking bright red fruit could attract unwanted attention.

Get open-pollinated, non-hybrid, non-GMO seed.  You want “plant once, harvest forever” plants. I recommend Nichols Garden Nursery – http://www.nicholsgardennursery.com –  I have no stake in this company, just have been a happy customer for over 30 years. A VERY strict no-GMO policy, and all hybrids are clearly marked.

For more information about Fukuoka-san, and his farming methods, start here.

I know that his book “The One Straw Revolution” had a great effect on my views on the natural/spiritual aspects of growing my own food, even if no longer that applicable to growing my own in a suburban townhouse.

I bought this little garden shed off of Craigslist a couple of years ago for $50. Surprisingly it has never tipped over in any of the storms even though I did not secure it in any way. It has withstood below zero weather, mountains of snow, and has proved itself handy in the garden. But I just couldn’t seem to get the hang of how to organize it.

I expanded the garden and needed to move the shed which I did. I keep a bench in the garden just to sit on and contemplate things and that is when I figured out how to reorganize this little shed to be much more functional than just holding a few hoes and shovels. Here is the overview…

We all have garden pots laying around. I grabbed the ones that were very well made, and screwed them onto the walls.

How fantastic! I now have storage for my garden gloves, seed packets, balls of twine and rope, plant markers and even several I haven’t filled yet, with room to add more!

So then I added some screws to hang stuff on. I’m using the star headed decking screws as they are weather resistant and I love the star heads – less likely to strip out.

So then I screwed four of the very large garden pots to the floor in the back of the shed. I had a couple of strips of that composite decking left over and cut them to fit in the corners to keep my hoes and shovels in place. You could use wood if that is what you have around.

The middle buckets are handy to hold rolls of anything, fertilizer, whatever. The bonus was that my post driver fit between them. So then I drilled several holes to hold scissors, wire cutters, knifes, etc. I did these with paddle bits. Very handy.

A couple of hooks came with the shed and some tools just lend themselves to this type of hanging.

I have found a few more of those pieces of composite board laying around, so one of these days I think I will add a few horizontally to make some enclosed shelves for tools like the tape measure, etc.

When I was done, I even had space for my little kneeler/sitter seat. Once I had gathered my tools, it took less than one hour to totally reorganized this shed into a much more functional area.

Another big advantage? If I decide that I want to clean it all I have to do is take out the tools, etc. and hose it down! All the pots will drain automatically.

Gardening is work and good tools can make all the difference. I’ve spent a lot of money on garden tools through the years between rummage sales and buying new. Sometimes you think you have exactly what you need and you get it home and work with it, and well, it just doesn’t perform as expected.

Tools are also very personal to the individual. Your height, weight, strength and how you garden. I thought I would share some of my favorite tools and why they are my favorites.

First off, I love flower gardening with perennials. I have a lot of shade so I have a lot of hostas and hostas have wicked root systems. I also love daylillies and they too have some really tough root systems. I have several raised bed gardens for veggies, several square foot gardens, and have gone back to row gardening for certain crops. And a small greenhouse (although I wish I had the space to have this one). I do not have a rototiller or power cultivator – I do everything by hand.

I wish I would have bought this hose sprayer end a long time ago and am considering buying a couple of more when they come on sale. It is a shower wand. It turns on and off with a lever – yeah when you have arthritis! It sprays a gentle shower that doesn’t wash your seeds out, or your young plants, and yet soaks them to perfection. It reaches 4′ and has a rubberish grip so your hands don’t get cold either. I love it!

This little hand weeder is a surgical instrument in the garden. I actually have two of them. That dandelion or thistle in the middle of your strawberry patch or asparagus can be removed easily and quickly without hurting any of the plants you want to keep. The V in the middle lifts the tap root on plants easily.

Besides weeding it does a wonderful job of lifting individual strawberry plants (often in the aisles in the spring), small raspberry plants for transplanting, individual flowers or small groups for transplanting and will even work to plus in plants in an already established bed.

Another advantage is that it will act as a “mini-cultivator” in a square foot garden. Drag it between your mini rows and it pulls out the little weed seedlings quickly and easily. Extends your reach too.

For row gardening, there is nothing like the standard arrow head hoe.  Chop, hill the potatoes, drag sideways across young weed seedlings, get in narrow spaces. I have a half dozen hoes, but this is my favorite.

Second favorite hoe is the stirrup hoe. You can drag it through the rows and it just slices off the young weed seedlings. Work it back and forth and you can almost dig a hole. Perfect for row gardens with open spaces.

Absolute favorite shovel in all the world! Went to a garden sale of daylillies and hostas and the guy was using this shovel to split and dig huge hostas! Yes it is pricey at $40 for a shovel, but well worth it!

Stainless steel one piece construction I believe. Can’t break it! I have broken a lot of shovels, even the expensive ones that say they won’t break. This one doesn’t break! It has a narrow, tapering blade with a SHARP end – perfect for cutting tough root systems. And I LOVE the cushioning on the handle.

Over the past week I have been pulling up plants that have gone by and no longer producing in the garden, and started planting a second round.

Living in South Carolina the climate affords a pretty long growing season. Honestly – by this time of the year I am pretty sick of weeding and picking. We get WAY too many vegetables to consume ourselves and give away lots. I plant a second round to continue to practice, learn, and I just can’t stand seeing that empty ground knowing the potential it contains.

When you are making your garden plans, remember that there is a pretty good chance that you will have long enough to grow more than one crop.

Typically every year I plant cucumbers (National Pickling), Crookneck Squash, Zucchini, potatoes, tomato’s, cantaloupe, watermelon, and onions. This year – like every other year – I had successes and failures. I am speaking like the season is over and it’s not – I still have stuff growing and lots of veggies left to pick, but most of my plants which I started in April have gone by.

One of my compost bins is overflowing!!! Yes – I keep it in my garden. History tells me my second round of plantings do not do as well as my first. There are many reasons for this but I suspect the main one is extreme temps and sun exposure. I have considered rigging up some shade out of PVC and weeding fabric – just not a lot of time.

Second plantings this year consist of cucumbers, tomato’s, zucchini, and yellow squash. Some are by seed and some are transplants bought locally.

I am already thinking about my Fall garden – gonna make it a good one.

For all of the hype about square foot gardening and raised beds, when two of my sisters, both avid and experienced gardeners (better than I am) stopped by last week, we had a little discussion and all decided that raised beds and square foot gardening is less productive and harder than the time tested standard row garden.

I can hear it already, “Heresy!”

So, here is why three sisters in Minnesota are going back to row gardening:

1. The raised beds dry out faster and hence need more water.
2. The raised beds aren’t high enough to stop the back breaking work of weeding.
3. The raised beds get just as weedy, if not more so after a few years of use, than regular in-ground beds.
4. With the intensive planting of a square foot garden, if you go on vacation for a few days at just the time the weeds are coming in, you can lose a whole crop of root vegetables (carrots, onions, radishes, etc.) because as you pull out the weeds the intensively planted fledgling veggies also come out.
5. Raised beds need tending at least 3 times a week. A standard row garden and you can get by with once a week weeding.
6. It is a lot easier to work a hoe between rows of plants while standing up than to sit and constantly be bent over weeding in a raised bed.
7. It seems to be actually easier to manage the fertility of the soil in a standard garden than in a raised bed – we don’t know why, we only know what is…
8. It is easier to water the whole garden than individual plants.
9. Intensive planting in small beds leads to more conflicts with companion planting.
10. Lots of paperwork recording when you planted what, where, how to plan rotations, companions, etc.
11. Expensive and time consuming to put in and get the right mix of soil in them.

I recently got this private email that Phil said I could share…

“Well I’ve been an SFG addict since I first read Mels first book, became a SFG certifed instructor and have been doing SFG ever since, and I couldn’t agree with you more.  
 
As in any system there good and bad things.  Everything you say about them is true.  My wife had a stroke 2 yrs ago in June and I had left my garden in beautiful green plots and when I came back to my garden the weeds had completely taken over. The soil/mix is so rich the weeds out grew my veggies and had gone to seed.  
 
When I had laid out my garden, I laid weed barrier down and then covered it with wood mulch and now I have weeds everywhere.  In desperation I have sprayed industrial strength vinegar, weed whacked, used a blow torch and finally I lowered myself and used some Roundup.  
 
I’m thinking I will have to pull up everything and go back to doing it in the dirt.   However, if one has the time, and energy to pamper their garden, you will get some fantastic results. but not massive amounts.”

-Phil

Don’t tear up everything! Just cover it with black plastic for a month and that should kill all of the weed seeds and anything else bad. I use black plastic and tarps to clear an area before I start a new garden – it works!

All that said, what is good about raised beds and square foot gardening?

• Great for small areas where you don’t have room for a row garden.
• Fewer tools and no rototiller or cultivator needed.
• Good for wet areas.
• They can be very attractive.
• Great for someone who has the time and is obsessed with their garden – picking at it every day and never leaving home.
• It is easier to build little mini-greenhouses over the beds thus extending the growing season.

So, what do we three sisters see that could work?

• The original square foot gardens were in-ground – retains moisture and uses the soil that is there.
• Intensive planting and vertical growing can save a lot of space in a small garden plot.
• It is easier to fertilize and water a small garden.
• It is easier to fence a small garden and protect it from wildlife.
• You only need a shovel to dig it and because you don’t step in it the soil doesn’t compact.

We three sisters from Minnesota….. think Mel got obsessed and made a good thing too hard and complex.