What is Survival Gardening?
Let’s cut to the chase: you and your family can’t survive on the stockpile of canned food you’ve built up. That’s going to play a part – it will last pretty much forever in those cans – but they run out eventually. Our body also needs a healthy diet to stay healthy. It would not be beneficial to anyone to survive only on your stocks. What’s more, if you want to see just how much it will cost to ensure your family has the calorie intake needed try this quick calculation: add up the weekly calories of each person, then work out how much canned food you need. It’s going to cost a lot of money!
Having a survival garden where essential and nutritious edible plants are grown at home is a good way to supplement your diet, whether SHTF or not. We’re not going to get into the various examples of what you need to grow just yet, for there is more to understand before we reach that point. First, we need to get you into how to grow stuff and how to plan your garden to perfection.
We’re starting from the point of view of someone who is not already an avid gardener. Many of you will have grown your own fruit and vegetables before – or perhaps have indulged in a flower garden and understand the basics – but just as many will likely have no experience in gardening at all, and that’s what this article is about.
The First Steps
Where is your garden going to be? Many blogs and websites that deal with survival are geared towards people who have plenty of space. They assume a survivalist is someone who lives out in the wilds on a ranch or compound. Yet many of us live in the suburbs, in average homes, with average yards or gardens. We want a survival garden that doesn’t need acres of land, just a small plot.
So you have a yard, let’s begin with that. Now the first thing you need to get to grips with is the art of growing. It’s a mistake to believe that an inexperienced person can simply plant things and wait for them to grow. There’s work involved in keeping a garden, but it’s rewarding work, and you’ll see why.
Before we go on, here are few problems you will come across if you are planning a survival garden in a city or suburban setting, and how you go about overcoming them:
- Lack of space
- Poor soil for growing
- Hard standing (i.e. solid or paved surface) only
That’s three of the most commonly found problems for survival gardens in an average home setting. Now let’s look at these problems, and how to deal with them.
Lack of Space
This is a problem that many people face when they are looking to begin a survival garden. If you only have a small yard you can still plant in it, but not enough to feed your family. There are two answers here: one is to grow vegetables in containers. We’ll talk in more detail about what can be grown later on, but the likes of beans, peas and even potatoes can be grown in containers.
The second solution is to team up with others who have land to spare. People rent out plots for gardeners in designated sites in many towns and cities, or on the outskirts. This is a cost-effective way of starting a survival garden, but not one that is suitable or favored by everyone. Most like to have their garden on their own land. However, it’s worth looking into if you are stuck for space – perhaps you live in an apartment and have no garden – and there are opportunities out there.
If you live close to population centers where outdoor space is very limited, checkout our blog on establishing an indoor vegetable garden for that.
Poor Soil Quality
This is another subject that deserves more detail but for now we will say that the soil quality found in a typical suburban yard is uneven at best, and will likely not as fertile as one can hope for. The answer to this problem is to build raised beds. There are widely available from garden supply stores and you can also use recycle old pallets to create larger containers that are perhaps a foot high. A garden supplies store will be able to sell or source fertile soil and compost to fill the raised beds.
This method of survival gardening is popular with people who have hard standing only so that’s also the third major problem dealt with. Now that we have a few ideas to work with, it’s time to actually start growing. In the first instance we’re going to talk about the basics of growing vegetables, before we get into the planning of your actual survival garden.
How to Get Started
Let’s assume you have your plot, it’s got decent soil in, and you’re ready to sow some seeds. Growing from seed is something that takes a little experience to get right, but once you do it’s a brilliant and cheap way of growing your own vegetables and creating a sustainable survival garden.
To introduce you to the concept we’re going to suggest you start by growing two of the easiest vegetables of all, beans and potatoes. As the idea here is to get you into the routine and maintenance needed to grow plants, we’re not going to go too much into the details of the planting. Suffice to say that beans grow above ground, potatoes below. You are unlikely to grow potatoes from seed – actual seed potatoes bought from your garden suppliers will get you started – but beans you can.
Growing seeds should begin in a greenhouse or small cloche, or on a windowsill indoors that gets plenty of sunlight. There is plenty information on sowing seeds, so we’ll steer clear of that for now. Follow the instructions and your seeds will germinate in a matter of days. Once big enough you can plant them out in your prepared patch.
For this first season you are concentrating on keeping to the routine of growing plants, nurturing and watering them, keeping them fed and eventually harvesting them. For the inexperienced it may seem like hard work at first, but once started you will find it very satisfying, especially when you get to eat the food you’ve grown!
Remember that this first stage is just about getting used to growing. Now we’ve got you started we need to talk about planning your eventual survival garden.
Planning Your Survival Garden
You’re ready to plan your survival garden. You have got into the groove of growing from seed and are set to go. The first thing we will say is be realistic. We began above by growing the basic plants, and this is what you should continue to do. You can add to the beans and potatoes with other plants – there is more detail below about what you should plant and why – but start small.
Trying to go all out with a dozen different vegetables in the first instance is not a good way to achieve success. Pick a handful – five or six vegetables that your family will eat – and start with those. Once established, you can move on to add other plants. We recommend, for example, that you stick with vegetables a while before branching out into fruit as this will be the staple diet in your emergency situation.
We don’t want to overdo the detail here as we need to leave space for the next section, in which we give you ideas as to what you should be growing in a survival garden, when and why.
What to Grow and Why
You might have some ideas about what you want to grow but remember that this is a survival garden: you’re growing what you need to grow. That is, plants that your family can survive on in that emergency situation.
The good thing here is that most of the plants you need are easy to grow. Let’s have a look at a few. We’ll start with those we’ve recommended above:
Beans – there are two types of bean plants, Bush Beans and Pole Beans. Bush beans grow as a bushy plant, pole beans as a tall plant that needs to be supported with a stake. Both types are easy to grow, take up little space – especially pole beans – and produce a harvest throughout the summer. Plant beans two weeks apart for an ongoing crop. Beans need full sunlight and regular watering to reach maturity, and there are many varieties to choose from so have a look at your local garden suppliers.
Potatoes – one of the most widely-grown crops in the world, potatoes come in a vast array of varieties and are very simple to grow. Plant your seed potatoes in the ground or even in a container and simply keep them watered – but not too much to make them rot – and harvest when they have flowered. You’ll get a good crop of potatoes from a few seed examples.
Storage is Important
Talking of potatoes brings us to an important point when choosing plants for your survival garden, and that is ensuring you grow plenty of vegetables that can be stored successfully. Some crops – beans and peas, for example – do not store for long, but potatoes can be stored in a cool and dry place for a long time. Other vegetables that are suitable for this purpose include:
- Onions
- Beets
- Turnips
- Carrots
- Cabbage
- Kale
- Leeks
Each of the above is an easy to grow vegetable that you can take on in even the smallest of survival gardens and will last a long time when stored correctly. There is another factor you need to consider, and that’s the nutritional and calorific value of the plants you choose to grow.
Calories and Nutrients
In the event of the emergency situation your survival garden is there for you may find you are relying on a largely vegetarian diet. You may be lucky enough to live in an area where hens can be kept – although this is often forbidden in suburban areas – in which case that is a recommended option, but a subject for another day.
The switch to mainly vegetables means you must ensure you grow plants that provide the right nutrients and calories. We suggest the following:
- Potatoes
- Beans
- Corn
- Winter Squash
- Sunflowers
These are just a few – there is more information on nutritious plants for a survival garden at many sources – and you may be surprised to see sunflowers included. In fact, sunflower seeds are a useful source of essential fats within a survival diet, and while easy to grow, also add a touch of colour to your garden. Before we go there’s one more category of plants to consider – those of a medicinal nature.
Medicinal Plants
Obtaining traditional medicine will be a problem in the event of an emergency of the anticipated kind, so it’s vital your survival garden includes some medicinal plants. There are many natural remedies for a variety of problems, and most are easy to grow. Following are some of the most important and what they can be used for:
- Garlic – a simple to grow root crop that not only adds flavour to your dishes but also has many medicinal qualities including reducing blood pressure, antifungal and antimicrobial properties, and may reduce the chance of heart attack. Also includes B6, which is vital for good health.
- Basil, Rosemary, Oregano, Thyme and other herbs – herbs of this type are great for cooking with and also aid digestion as well as being a source of nutrients that keep the body healthy. Easy to grow indoors or out, ensure you have a good herb garden.
- Gingko – this ancient eastern tree is worth having in your survival garden as it provides brain food. Gingko tea – made from the leaves – has been used for many centuries in Chinese medicine and is known to keep the brain working and helps with dementia.
- Turmeric – a proven pain reliever, turmeric is another vital addition to your herb garden that also offers properties that help keep the skin healthy.
- Echinacea – these beautiful flowers are not just for show as the leaves when used in tea boost the immune system, getting rid of the common cold quickly and also attacking viruses. Easy to grow and providing more colour to your garden, this is another ancient Chinese remedy.
The above are just a few of the medicinal plants that you can grow in your survival garden and we recommend you investigate Chinese and Eastern medicines for more ideas.
Closing Thoughts
We have only touched on the details of creating a survival garden in this article, and there is much more to talk about including how to grow certain plants successfully, and what else you can do to plan for all eventualities. We hope we have given you a good idea of where to start, so get planning your survival garden now.