PATRIOT GARDEN MEGAPOST - Please compile gardening tips here for your Patriot Garden
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I have been gardening for 15 years, and I am a certified "Master Gardener." I have provided a large portion of my own calories for the past 5 years now, and I am happy to share my knowledge with you!
Survival Gardening:
I have been working on a “SHTF” garden in the woods on a piece of land that I lease for hunting. This garden has been grown using no power tools, irrigation, or chemicals. This year is my 4th year with this particular garden. Here are some of the things I have learned. This is a work in progress, and does not represent even a fraction of the knowledge I have to share. If you are interested in learning more, just ask me!
Tools:
Broadfork: get a broadfork now before SHTF. They will last practically forever if used properly. If you haven’t heard of a broadfork, look it up. Meadowcreature makes the best one.
Scythe: Mulch will be the fuel for your garden, and a scythe is the best way to harvest large amounts of it quickly.
Spade: A good shovel is always needed.
Hoe: Use a how for shallow weeding, and to help form rows.
Axe: You will need to chop down small trees.
Machete or kukri: this is for clearing land a scythe can’t handle.
Ensillage Fork: A good fork is necessary for moving hay and manure.
JADAM inputs: Advanced gardening inputs can be manufactured using JADAM techniques. https://en.jadam.kr/ JMS: JADAM Microbe Solution. This increases microbial life to prevent pathogens from overtaking. JLF: JADAM Liquid Fertilizer: This is a fertilizer made using jadam techniques. Castille Soap: This can be made with jadam techniques also.
Prepping the garden: Start prepping your garden now, now is the best time to start. If you really need to get it started quickly, you will want to burn off the area to be planted. This will help fix the pH, assuming you have an acidic soil. If you have access to manure, now is the best time to add it. You can also spray JMS down to jump start your soil life. After burning, and adding manure, you can loosen the soil with the broadfork. Next, you will want to cover the area with mulch. Almost anything can be used for mulch. If you live in an urban environment, people usually leave mulch by the side of the road for garbage pickup. They even bag it up for you to make it easy to grab! Try and get nearly a foot of mulch on new sites. This will prevent new weeds from coming up, and it will break down to increase the organic content in your soil. This carbon will hold water and nutrients for the plants to unlock as they need them. This style garden grows best after a year or two. move the mulch to plant and put it back as the plants grow. Replace the mulch at the end of each grow season, and as needed. Hand pull weeds.
Planting the garden:
What to plant? Calories, ease of growth and long-term storage are the most important factors when choosing what to plant in your garden. I live in the SE USA, so I will give recommendations that work for me.
Winter squash: This is great for a first-year planting. This can be planted directly in manure and mulch and will break through hardpan soils. Winter squash is extremely easy to store and will last for over a year on the counter if cured properly. Winter Squash is also resistant to the most pesky and persistent pests.
Sweet potatoes: sweet potatoes are packed with nutrition. They also store very well and grow great in hot humid environments. The foliage is also edible and makes a great replacement for greens!
Okra: Okra is hardy and grows with ease. The pods make great pickles, and the leaves are edible replacements for greens. The pods can be allowed to mature, and the seeds can be roasted and make a great flavorful coffee replacement beverage!
Garlic: Garlic has so many uses, from flavor to medicinal, as well as for making garden inputs. The foliage also helps repel pests, and when planted in a circle around the garden, they will even keep out small rodents.
Collards: Collards grow all winter long in my area and will sustain you in the hard times. They can be planted in late fall and you will have almost no competition with pests.
How to plant? Always try and align your garden North to South. Plant three dimensionally. Consider for the height and spread of plants and their roots. Taller plants should be planted in the north-west corner of the garden. Plant short plants under tall plants. Plant root vegetables among all of it.
How to keep out deer: Deer are skittish animals. Bury tall saplings around the garden spaced out 15-20 feet. Tie clear monofilament fishing string up at 1-foot intervals around the perimeter of the garden up to about 6 feet tall. The deer will feel the fence and get scared. They will not jump it because they don’t know how tall it is.
Seed saving- always save your seeds for replanting. Make land-race crops by planting multiple cultivars nearby and keeping the seeds of your best fruit for several generations.
Soil and prep--give me your best advice
-rock hard dirt ground, desert zone 8/9 climate. Dirt is so hard, in trying to break it up sometimes you think its a rock, literally, and its DIRT.
-small areas, maybe 15 -50 sq ft each--multiple, in different parts of front, back and side yard in suburbs, not rural unfortunately.
Tell me what to do to plant anything.
Also, raised bed with store bought soil mixed with store bought bark. Tell me what to do.
A-Z
Rock Hard Dirt / Ground
First, test your soil. You will need to adjust pH first and foremost. If you have sodium issues, amend with gypsum.
I have been fighting this one in my wilderness garden. It happens when the sand/clay mixture dirt we have gets dried out and compacted. The broad fork will break it, but it takes time and lots of effort. Your best bet would be to let nature do the work. This will take a whole season or more, but you can use deep mulch and either plants or animals to do the work for you.
Plants: If you want to go the edible route, you can plant daikons, cowpeas, sunflowers, or brassicas in a thin layer of added topsoil. These plants will break through the hard compacted ground. as the plants grow, mulch around them until the mulch layer is about a foot thick. When they are done growing, cut them off at ground level and let everything rot. This adds carbon into the soil which keeps it from getting compacted.
Animals: You could raise chickens in tractor style coops, keeping deep mulch in the areas and letting the chickens work the area for a season or more until it's ready.
You could just let earthworms do the work. Layer a few inches of composted manure followed by a foot or so of mulch like hay, leaves, or grass clippings. After a season or two the ground beneath will have loosened up.
Broadfork: I have had success with turning rock solid ground into productive garden in less than a month. You will want to get about an inch of composted manure down in the area you wish to plant. you will want to water the area a few times until the ground beneath starts to soak it up a little bit. After a day or two of watering broad fork the area. It should be significantly easier to work. The manure will add carbon into the soil and keep it from re hardening.
Some other tips for dry gardens desert. Plant windbreaks. Plant some kind of native tree or shrub around the property to block wind and stop your topsoil from being eroded.
Try inverted hugelkulture. Basically bury logs underground to slowly rot and hold moisture.
Carbon: add carbon to the soil carbon holds onto moisture and nutrients to be released when needed to the plants. You can add carbon through mulch or compost, but the best way is with cover crops and perennials. Living plant roots constantly die and regrow. The roots that die are left behind to decay in the soil. Always keep life in the garden, and never pull roots out.
If you have land, the absolute best way to build soil is through ruminate livestock small pasture daily rotation. This style of husbandry mimics the large buffalo herds that once roamed the area. small areas were grazed, trampled, and fertilized by the daily habits of the herd. They would move on and wouldn't come back until the area had time to recover. Modern husbandry practices don't allow for this recovery, and don't concentrate the excrimates enough to mimic this process. Joel Salatin has done great work in this area.
wow thanks, you know your stuff.
I have no land, small 6500 sqft lot in the suburbs. But do have a large feral flock of pigeons that Im trying to make side area a forage area for, I planted some forage which they also called crop cover seeds. Starting to see some breaking thru, I admit I didnt work soil hardly at all, just rushed to get seeds in, was impatient so very grateful anything is breaking thru at all.
My soil has been just slightly acidic, almost neutral 6-7 depends on area.
Interesting about leaving roots! I will do that, I usually pull them but have thought why am I doing this, felt instinctively wrong.
In the front yard where we have grass, wen digging we had a lot of earthworms and the soil is better. The back and side are are taking more bc they had rocks. So Ive been using buckets for growing.
I have a built in rock planter tho that I need to be using since Im limited in space--what would you say is a good soil recipe for a raised planter bed.
Will you give me the exact breakdown of what you would do if yo had a raised rock planter, about 25 x 2 ft so ~50sqft in an L shape.
Exactly what you would put, if buying it since I havent been composting but need something now.
Thanks for your advice
I am sorry that it has taken me so long to get back to you. Your best bet, for such a large quantity is to find a wholesaler who will deliver a truckload to your house. You will need 3 cubic yards if your planters are 2 feet deep, or 4.5 if you go 3 feet deep. This is based on your assumption of a 50 square foot planting area. A cubic yard equals 27 cubic feet, if that helps. A standard pickup bed can hold about 1.5 cubic yards easily, if you have a truck and want to save money on delivery.
You are looking for a locally owned landscape supply store. They will usually have giant piles of mulch and rocks and whatnot that you can see from the road. These stores will sell a "garden mix" of some sort that will be absolutely perfect for what you are trying to do. This will by far be the lowest cost and simplest option. Being in a dry environment, you should be using lots of mulch to help conserve moisture. Make sure you plan that into your design.
That being said. If you are looking on advice on rock planters in a survival SHTF type scenario, I would say forget planters, especially in a hot dry environment. They get hotter and drier than the regular ground. You want to be planting in "ditches" and low spots, if that makes sense.