Fruit trees are often over looked asset to the urban survivalist. Most people live in a neighborhood where the fence line goes straight back, makes a 90 degree turn, runs across the backyard, makes another 90 degree turn and goes back to the house.
What is planted in the 90 degree turns? Maybe some ferns, or maybe some landscaping? You can not eat those ferns or palm trees. Dig that stuff up and use it for compost.
A fall garden should be a serious consideration for any survivalist. Spring and summer crops are one thing, but late season crops deserve special consideration.
Examples of cool weather and cold weather crops are - Cabbage, turnips, rutabagas, mustard greens and onions. Garlic should be a consideration as well.
Rutabagas: After world war 2, the rutabaga helped stop most of Germany from starving to death. Rutabagas seem to grow pretty good in cold weather. My ex-father in law grew a field of rutabagas in the middle of winter. I remember walking out into this field during the wet and cold middle of winter, and there was this green patch of Rutabaga tops. My first thought was - “wow, how can these things grow in the winter?”
When adding potting soil to your garden, avoid the cheap potting soil sold at places like wal-mart. This stuff has been know to have pieces of plastic and other trash in it. Sometimes you get what you pay for, and when you buy cheap potting soil, you get just that - cheap dirt.
Growing potatoes is a pretty easy and straight forward process.
Once the tops of the potato plants start to die off. Which is usually about 3 or 4 months after planting, just pull the top of the potato plant up and then dig the dirt up around the plant. The potatoes will be easy to damage, so dig up with care. Try not to use tools such as shovels as they can damge the potato.
Some people use cloth gardening gloves to help protect their hands from injury (from debris in the dirt) and to prevent getting dirt under their finger nails. One way to quickly harvest the potatoes is to run a plow down the middle of the row. This will roll the dirt up and bring the potatoes to the surface.
One of the purposes of this site is to not only inform, but to provoke thought. One of the ways this is done is to ask a question. In the question, there lies the information. Now then, let us begin.
This shrub or tree grows to be about 20 feet tall, but rarely gets over 10 feet tall. To keep the tree at a reasonable height, it can be trimmed. The cuttings from the trimmings can be transplanted to sprout new trees.
This tree produces a fruit that is edible, and can be used to make jelly, jam and preserves. Just a few of these trees can produce a large amount of food. This might be the reason why these trees were popular with early settlers in the USA.
Zucchini is a small summer squash and a member of the melon / gourd family. It has an outer skin that can harden if left on the plant for too long - kinda like a watermelon or pumpkin. The immature fruit are best when picked at about 6 inches in length. Zucchini can be yellow, green or light green. It can be compared to a cucumber is shape, with the Zucchini being a little slimmer then an average cucumber when ready to harvest.
When getting ready to plant the seeds, soak the seeds between two wet towels about about 3 - 5 days. The seeds that sprout should be planted, the seeds that have not sprouted can be discarded.
While the seeds are soaking, the ground should be worked and prepared for the seeds. Zucchini requires a balanced fertilizer such as 13-13-13. Try not to use straight nitrogen such as 21-0-0, as you might get a large plant that produces little food. For prolonged production, add some organic fertilizer to the mix, such as mulch, pot ash, compost or manure. A quick release fertilizer might be good to get the plant growing, but those types of fertilizer will do little for future production. Zucchini can be a high production plant, but it must have the fertilizer to grow.
