- What Should Every Survivalist Grow in His Greenhouse?
Typical survivalists want to be reliably independent in their food production, and that can be a tall order. It includes, raising, feeding, and milking or slaughtering livestock; planting, tending, and harvesting an outside garden and greenhouse; salting, preserving and canning any excess; and providing water for all of it.
To reduce your workload to a manageable level, make sure that everything you grow supports its weight in effort and resources. In your greenhouse, concentrate on high calorie, densely nutritious foods that produce a large amount of food in a small amount of space. Potatoes and sweet potatoes, lentils, green beans, black beans and black-eyed peas; cabbage, kale and spinach; onions and garlic; berries and summer melons.
Look for plants that can be trellised and grown vertically (provide melons and other large vined plants with supportive nets for their fruit). Consider focusing on fruits and vegetables that can be canned and preserved - tomatoes, beans, pickled carrots, pumpkins, strawberries, and raspberries.
Make sure you grow crops that can reproduce reliably. Heirloom seeds are an excellent choice, since the hybrids found in your local garden store are often sterile or their seeds don’t produce a plant with the same characteristics.
- Is Gardening a Survival Skill?
Gardening is a critical part of becoming self-sufficient and providing food security for yourself and your family, so yes, it is absolutely a survival skill. In short term situations, or while on the run, a garden may not be your first priority, but becoming a nomadic hunter-gatherer in the long term won’t necessarily offer you much opportunity to flourish.
Even more important to consider is that gardening is not an instant solution you can implement at the first hint of disaster. Crops need time to grow, and you need time to build up your surplus to carry you through hard times. Start your garden now, even if it’s just a mini greenhouse in your kitchen or on that tiny “balcony” in your apartment. Learn the ins and outs of what makes plants happy and study up on how to plan for year-round food production with a greenhouse. These skills will keep food on the table and stand you in good stead if you choose to join a community in the future.
- What Happens When It Gets Cold? Does Everything in the Greenhouse Die?
Many casual greenhouse keepers do let their hobbies die during the winter, which is more a statement on their goals than on the capabilities of their greenhouse. In fact, a well-built greenhouse can support food production all year long, if there is adequate sunlight to keep the plants happy.
Keep your greenhouse well-insulated so you don’t lose excessive warmth at night, orient your greenhouse so it absorbs maximum heat during the day, use barrels of water (painted black) to absorb solar energy during the daytime and slowly release it during the cool nights. Place compost piles throughout your greenhouse - the biological processes of breaking down organic matter will naturally produce a considerable amount of heat.
Even if you don’t keep your greenhouse at near-tropical levels, unheated greenhouses that stay above freezing are ideal environments for growing cold and cool season vegetables like kale, cabbage, carrots, leeks, spinach, salad greens, and even strawberries!
- How Do You Replenish Nutrients in the Soil?
One of the modern conveniences that a survivalist should be prepared to do without is chemical fertilizer. Most agricultural fertilizer in the US is shipped in from overseas, and supplies are likely to dry up quickly in the event of a widespread disaster, especially when it comes to shipping and supply chain complications.
When you’re growing food in your own greenhouse, concentrate on returning whatever you can to the soil. Grind and compost your kitchen waste as well as the stems and roots of plants that have finished production. Not only will the compost return the nutrients it absorbed to your soil, but it will provide organic matter that helps your soil retain moisture and supports colonies of beneficial soil bacteria that promote plant health.
Seaweed and kelp (carefully rinsed clean of salt water) can be composted for a rich source of plant nutrients. Fish emulsion, water from fish tanks (from water changes), composted cow and chicken manure, and worm castings are all great sources of nutrients. Be cautious about chicken manure - it should be completely composted or aged before use, as it can burn and damage plants. Any kind of raw manure can contain pathogens that are harmful to both people and animals, and plants in your garden and greenhouse can carry those pathogens into your food. Always compost your manure! Always wash your fruits and vegetables carefully~
- What Do You Do When the Seeds Run Out?
The first thing to do when you start your garden or greenhouse in earnest is to select your seeds carefully. While GMO seeds are not available to the general public and aren’t used in human food crops, you still want to be sure to avoid sterile hybrids and those that don’t reproduce faithfully. In other words, planting a seed from your grocery store lemon may produce a tree, but even after waiting the requisite 15 years, it may never produce edible fruit.
Instead, focus on purchasing heirloom seeds. These seeds are from varieties of plants that were grown before the commercial movement toward artificially hybridized seeds, created in the push to generate the ideal tomato or the ideal strawberry. For example, a cross between a horse and a donkey produces a mule who cannot produce young. If you want more mules, you need to cross more of the parent breeds. In the case of anything from a tomato to a lemon to a rose, hybrid varieties are created each year by cross pollinating in a lab using the parent cultivars.
Heirloom seeds are increasingly popular and there are dozens of mail order catalogs available, lots of gardener groups who are happy to share or trade heirloom varieties, and you can even find heirloom varieties at some garden shops from time to time. You will find information on proper methods for saving seeds (different seeds have different requirements) online at heirloom seed companies or hobbyist websites.
- What are Some Successful Old-Fashioned Techniques for Gardening That I Can Use?
Agriculture has been around for ten thousand years, and since the human population has survived all those years, there were obviously a few techniques that proved effective for food production despite the occasional bump in the road. You may want to give some of these a try.
One of the most famous is Indigenous Americans’ practice of farming the “three sister” crops. These were not only three important parts of their diet, but the three crops together formed a symbiotic relationship that permitted them to thrive better as a team than individually. Companion plantings like these are coming back into vogue, but the practice has been around for ages. The three sisters were a planting combination of pole beans, squash, and corn together. Not just in adjacent rows, but in clusters on a wide mound. The corn provided something for the beans to climb up on, the beans put nitrogen into the soil for the corn and squash, and the squash shaded the ground, keeping down weeds and conserving moisture.
If your land is hilly and not well suited to a traditional garden, consider the practice of terracing. Terracing not only makes it easier to access and tend to your growing plants, but it mitigates problems with runoff and erosion that will inevitably rob you of precious topsoil.
Make a habit of watching nature to cue you in on when to plant and when to harvest your crops. The practice of phenology sounds like it requires a college degree to master, but really it requires careful observation over seasons. While the weather service may be able to report average frost dates, you may get more reliable information year to year by keeping an eye on migrating birds. While specifics vary from locale to locale, some examples of phenological practices might include planting peas outside when forsythia blooms or planting cucumbers and squash when lilac flowers fade. Try talking to a master gardener in your area for other tips.
- What’s the Very First Thing I Need to Think About for my Greenhouse?
Your greenhouse will not succeed without adequate light - almost anything else can be corrected for, but natural sunlight is hard to replace. Consider your location options for your greenhouse. It should be located where it will receive 8 full hours of sunlight per day, even in the winter. Avoid nearby structures and shade trees, unless they’re providing necessary wind protection. Orient your greenhouse so the long end faces south.
After you’ve decided on the ideal location for your greenhouse, consider your soil quality. Ideally, you’ll be in a part of the country that boasts a deep layer of rich, dark topsoil, full of organic matter and free of excessive amounts of clay. Look for soil that is “friable,” meaning it can be formed into clods, but has crumbly texture which is easy to break down into small fragments. This is an ideal texture for encouraging healthy root development and maintaining proper drainage. If your soil doesn’t quite meet the criteria, plan on amending your soil with kitchen and yard compost, composted manure. Spread 6” or more of organic matter over your garden area or add it to a wheelbarrow of soil intended for your greenhouse plants. Work it carefully and thoroughly into your soil, breaking up any large clumps of clay as you go.
7 Top Questions About Gardening for Survivalists
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