The Gardening Category
Seeds for a survival garden
Lets talk about stockpiling seeds and the value of having the ability to plant a survival garden. Stockpiling food – dried rice, beans, canned goods – is fine and dandy, but that is a none renewable resource. When you eat that can of beans, are you going to plant the can, and maybe it will sprout a canned bean plant, for you to pick more cans off of? I don’t think do.
Stockpiling food provides a family with a limited food source.
Having a garden can provide an unlimited source of food.
2,000+ years ago, did the Romans and Egyptians have canned foods and mylar bags? Nope, they raised what they wanted to eat. What about the Greeks and the Chinese, did they have mylar bags full of rice and beans? Nope, they raised what they ate.
There is nothing wrong with stockpiling food. It appears to me that a lot of survivalist put more focus on stockpiling a limited food source, then on learning how to develop an unlimited food source.
Saving pumpkin seeds from halloween
Halloween is a good time to stock up on pumpkin seeds. When your carving the jack-o-lantern for Halloween, take the pulp and seeds from the inside of the pumpkin, put into a strainer and wash the seeds to clean them. Getting the pulp off the seeds will help prevent mold growth while in storage.
Buying seeds for a survival garden
When its time to stockpile seeds for my survivalist garden, I usually get my heirloom seeds locally. There are 2 feed and fertilizer stores here in town that sell seeds – all kinds of seeds. Instead of getting seeds in packets, the stores get their seeds in burlap bags, and then sell the seed by the ounce. I like to go to the stores, talk to the people there, see find out what are the best types of plants to grow in my area, and go from there. The local stores usually know what will be in short supply before spring gets here. They will put their orders in several months ahead of time, and the distributor will tell them what may not be in stock. This information is then distributed to the local gardener faster then you can get it through the nation news.
Most of the time, the people working in the feed store are pretty knowledgeable about the different types of seeds they have in stock, whats heirloom / open pollinated and whats hybrid. All you have to do is ask. One of the local stores usually has 5 or 6 types of corn in stock – field corn, sweet corn, G90,,,,,. So might pick up 1/4 – 1/2 pound of corn one year, then the next year pick up a different type of corn.
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Are you ready to plant a garden
Are you ready to plant a garden? If not, why not? On Tuesday October 5, 2010 by Time magazine posted an article saying that Wal-mart had to roll back its rollbacks. As a result, food prices have jumped to a 2 year high. Add to that the Russian failed fall wheat crops, that has pushed wheat to a 22 month high.
Producing your own food is one of the easiest ways to off-load some financial strain. If your having problems paying your house note, electric bill, insurance, buying clothes, internet bill, cell phone bill,,,,,,,, something has to give. If you and your family are running on a shoe string budget, sooner or later that string is going to break. When that happens, financial disaster can set in.
Raised bed gardens – do not take any special equipment – just get some landscaping timbers, or old cross ties and build some raised beds. Find someone with rabbits, get some manure, and use that instead of potting soil. Rabbit manure makes great fertilizer and it can be cheaper then potting soil.
The best survival crop
There is a discussion on the forum about the best survival crop. In other words, if you were going to stockpile seeds, what type of seed would you focus on. Or if you were going to grow 1 crop, what would it be? Some of the suggestions in the thread were – corn, beans, peas, greens, peppers, bell peppers, potatoes,,,,,,.
In my opinion, one of the best seeds to stock up on are greens:
Turnip greens
Rutabaga
Mustard Greens
Radishes
Onions
Spinach
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Asian Stink bug invades North America
Not only do we have to worry about drought, the lack of honey bees, global warming, global cooling, hurricanes, earthquakes,,,,, but now the asian stink bug has invaded the northern states. The Baltimore Sun posted an article about the Asian stink bug invading the northern states. Here in Texas we have the native stink bugs. If you have a home garden and try to grown tomatoes, expect the stinkbugs to flock to your backyard by the truckload. They use a tube to suck the juices out of the tomatoes. As a result, the tomatoes will have a bruise on them. Maybe there is a difference between the Asian Stinkbug and the Texas stinkbug, but I bet they do the same thing – they destroy crops.
There have been times when I went outside to water my tomatoes, sprayed the plants down with a water hose, and stinks bugs went flying everywhere.
Survivalist seed stockpile
Do you have a survival seed stockpile? I do. In fact, my survival seed stockpile is something that I like to keep an eye on – its on the top shelf of the freezer. I see it every time I open the freezer to look for something to eat.
If your thinking of stockpiling seeds, certain times are more favorable then others for buying seeds.
Early Spring – this is when the feed and fertilizer stores get their seed shipments in. This is usually the best time to buy fresh seed, and it gives you an idea what might be in short supply.
In the early spring of 2010 I went by 2 different seed stores here in Jasper, Texas and both of them told me the same thing – certain types of cucumbers will be in short supply. Which really did not bother me because I had more then enough of those types of cucumbers stocked up anyway.
Late spring early fall – this is when a lot of stores may put their left over seeds on sale. This is a great time to pick up odds and ends types of seeds. Usually, the more favorable seeds were snatched up in early spring. So the left overs might be a mix of “what is that?” type of stuff.
Harvesting the first potatoes of 2010
The time has come to harvest the first of the potatoes. When the eyes were planted, they broke through the ground at different rates. So that means that the plants may mature at different times, and the harvest will be spread out.
When is it time to harvest potatoes?
A lot of people ask the question – when do you know when its time to harvest potatoes. Its a simple question and a simple answer – when the tops of the plants start dying, its time to dig the potatoes up.
If you have access to a tractor, a plow can be mounted to the rear end. The tractor is slowly driven over the row, as the soil is turned up, the potatoes roll out the ground. People can then walk behind the tractor, dig through the dirt and harvest the potatoes.
Harvesting snap beans
The snap beans are really starting to come in. If we could get some rain, they would be producing a lot more, but you just have to make due with what you have. In all, we probably picked 4 – 5 gallons of snap beans.
Fruit trees and the urban survivalist
Fruit trees are the friend of the urban survivalist. Unlike a garden, you do not have to replant the fruit tree every year, during the spring your neighbors will be jealous of the beautiful blooms, dwarf fruit trees can be planted just about anywhere, and some types of fruit trees are high producers. Meaning, that…
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