How To Grow Your Survival Garden

So you have been storing food and other important items that disappear during a crisis. This will get you going at first but what will you do when your stored food begins to run out?

Having the knowledge to maintain a garden that will provide for you and your family becomes vital to your survival. Most people will know the basics of Gardening but maintaining a garden that provides for your family requires some special knowledge.

You can start with the following 7 helpful ideas by offgridworld.com. these 7 tips can be the difference between thriving or barely surviving a disaster.

Growing a Survival Garden

1. Choose your ideal location

As with all gardening, your survival garden needs to be in an area with optimal growing conditions. To sustain a garden an area needs to be well-drained and receive a minimum of six hours of full sunlight each day. Because we never really know when an emergency situation may arise, planning your survival garden location and preparing the surroundings is something that you can and should do as soon as possible. There is no harm in having an abundance of fresh food, and you will gain experience in growing your food which will serve you well in the future.

2. Consider your area’s climate zones before you choose your plants

Local climate zones will directly affect the success of your garden. Consult online sources or seek the advice of local gardeners to find out what plants will grow best in your area.

3. Decide what you will grow and compile a collection of seeds made for future use

Create a list of what kinds of freshly grown foods that your family will eat. Growing food in advance of an emergency situation helps you to figure out the foods you and your family enjoy. You can get seeds which are specially packaged to last for years from various survival websites.

4. Research nutrition and longevity

If your garden becomes a significant source of food for your family, it is vital that you are growing foods which will meet many of your nutritional needs. If your area has short growing seasons, growing foods which store well is essential. Regardless of family favorites, there are some foods which are necessities in a survival garden.

Plants for optimal nutrition:

Beans
Peanuts
Potatoes
Sunflowers (for seeds)
Sweet potatoes
Peas
Squash
Carrots
Beets
Cabbage
Corn
Tomatoes
Berries
Grapes

5. Plant herbs

Be sure to add herbs to your survival garden. Herbs require little space and no specialized care, yet they offer many medicinal benefits and also will make the food from your garden taste great. Be aware that there are various ways to use these herbs in order to tap into their medicinal properties. For a comprehensive guide to the healing properties of these and other herbs, you can consult local herbalists or use online resources.

Must-have herbs for survival gardens:

Basil
Parsley
Rosemary
Chamomile
Lemon Balm
Thyme
Echinacea (Purple Cone Flower)
Milk Thistle
Lavender
Chives
Sage
Dill
garden herbs

6. Create a system for natural irrigation

Depending on the nature of the emergency, you may not have access to running water from your local provider. The simplest way of providing water for your plants is to use a rain collection barrel. Large barrels suitable for rain collection are available online as well as in some home improvement stores. You can carry your water to the garden with smaller buckets or install a spigot and hose to your barrel before use. Be sure to use a screen or mesh on top of the rain barrel to keep out debris. Additionally, you can treat this water with purifiers and drink or cook with it.

7. Protect your survival garden from animals and humans

If you need food grown in your garden to stave off starvation, it is likely that any nearby animals and people are also looking for food. Fencing your garden plot is one way to keep out hungry animals, but it may not be enough of a deterrent. If you have a pet dog or cat, gathering loose fur and burying it close to the surface around the garden’s perimeter will frighten away creatures. If you do not have access to pet fur, gardening websites and outdoor shops sell wolf urine which deters garden bandits.

Keeping people out of your garden is more difficult. Many survivalists suggest you plant a garden in an unstructured way so that it does not look like a garden at all. Allowing berry bushes and vegetables which grow on vines to become somewhat overgrown is an excellent way to disguise a garden. Also, avoid telltale signs like leaving garden tools in plain view. You have the option to guard your survival garden, but often avoiding a confrontation over food is the best option.

Read the full story here offgridworld.com