“1.Grow vegetables from seeds.”
Seeds, dirt, and water do not equal a producing food plant. If you haven’t done it before successfully, you will likely fail. I think Johnny will back me up as he is the one who told me and he was right.
Depends. Some foods such as Israel Melons (delicious!) will grow in all but salty beach soils (and sometimes even there), as will many annuals such as poppies (good for anesthetics/medicine) in most sunlight conditions.
Annuals are quite different from perennials, though. Perennial seeds need various stages of cold stratification, such as soaked in cold water overnight for kumquats or a month and a half dry in your freezer for giant blackberries..prior to planting.
The advantage to perennials, however, is that you only plant them once...then year after year your orchards, shrubs, and vines produce food. With the correct food selection, you will have different food production in each season, spring, summer, fall, and winter. Ideal for sustainable survival.
Grow food, not lawns. Start replacing decorative yard shrubs with food-bearing perennials today.
Annuals can grow in plastic cups in your window-sills. Yes, you have to plant and replant them time after time, but they have fast food production schedules and can grow in every environment from urban to suburban to rural.
Your stored food reserves should be able to make it through the periods in between season food production from your selection of seeds.
If you achieve that level of sustainability, then you will never be **forced** to forage or hunt at an inopportune time (e.g. an enemy nearby).
Seeds, dirt, and water do not equal a producing food plant.
I totally agree, and it’s sad to think how many people might believe if SHTF, they will just grow some tomato and lettuce plants and be OK.
Here in the pacific northwest, it’s peak harvest time. And I have enough food (including taters still in the ground) to keep me alive for maybe 3 weeks.
Very, very soon the sun will be too low and the days too cool and short to be able to grow only a few items.
Also, here in the PNW we have an abundance of gastropods, otherwise known as slugs, and there are few veggies that they ignore. A good idea of what they like and don’t like is essential to gardening.
Same would be true of rabbits or squirrels or even crows.
I cannot stress enough that people buy some books that deal with what is edible for their local area. Also, read up a bit on veggies and you will find out stuff like:
The entire radish plant is edible. Same with cabbage, carrots, and more.
Items like taters take a while, but are very high in calories, and things like taters, lettuce, mustard, and the cruciferous veggies are cool weather crops and ideal for the off-season.
I always recycle (sort of) my taters. When I harvest, I keep the biggest, most firm, and best of the crop.
The smaller ones, or ones that have defects, these ALL go right back into the ground. Come mid-April or so, I will have tons of tater starts already growing.
o am on my third season. 90% failure. still trying to figure out if its me the soil or the seeds.