I won't stop gardening since I am a prepper and if the SHTF, I need to know how to grow food plants and have the seeds and equipment to do it.
Johnny was right when he told me at the beginning that seeds and water and dirt doesn't mean you can grow food plants. I found out ground dirt is evil stuff harboring deadly insects and mold and other blights, and I found out cute squirrels and pretty birds are killers.
I started war against all those enemies after finding out the truth about some of nature's products, both moving creatures and organisms that kill.
Gardening is a mental and physical understanding of one’s surroundings and how they work. :o)
WOW! First year, you learned a primary lesson that some never understand in a lifetime of killing plants, while involuntarily feeding the pests & vermin.
Speaking of pests and vermin, I shotgunned a squirrel off the roof today. It was trying to get at the drying sunflower heads under the porch roof, and ran up the wall when I stepped out the door. It made the mistake of sitting upright on the peak to chitter at me. Low power shells with small shot, and aiming a little high = no roof damage.
These buggers have chewed their way into the attic several times over the years, and are nearly inedible .
The red squirrel is a small arboreal squirrel, smaller than the gray squirrel or the fox squirrel, and weighing an average of only 11 ounces... they also taste terrible; nothing like a grey squirrel.
The article fails to mention they love the taste of electrical cable insulation; and that they love to chew holes in walls to enter barns and houses, then make nests by tearing up attic insulation.