Any of you who are experienced gardeners will recognize
these simple truths.
(1) It takes practice to become a successful gardener.
(2) Gardening skills developed in one location will not
necessarily transfer to another location
(3) Even the most experienced gardeners have bad years
Let me address these statements one at a time:
(1) It takes practice to become a successful gardener.
It never fails to amaze me that perfectly intelligent and
rational people think that they can read a book about gardening, buy some
seeds, and think that they will be able to produce enough food to feed
themselves and their family in an emergency.
If you told the same person that they could read a book about golf, go
buy some clubs, and then provide for their family by becoming a professional
golfer; they would say that you were crazy.
Making things grow is a pretty complicated skill set. There are so many variables. Even commercial farming operations, which try
to carefully control all the variables possible, still have disastrous
years. I would say that it takes a
minimum of three years of gardening, in the same location, to come anywhere
close to understanding how to cultivate a successful garden, and it will take
that long or longer to get your soil built up to the condition that you want. You will probably need to turn in compost and
mulch. You may need to add crushed
limestone if the soil is too acid.
Remember, survival gardening will mean organic gardening. Commercial fertilizers, soil amendments, and
insecticides will be hard to come by in a post catastrophe world. My advice would be to start gardening
now. If you don’t learn how to garden
before the collapse, you would be wise to have several years of food storage so
that you don’t starve during the learning curve.
(2) Gardening skills developed in one location will not
necessarily transfer to another location
When I first started gardening I lived on the Texas
Blackland Prairie. The soil was black,
heavy and very alkaline. We received
about 35 inches of rain a year. I only
gardened there a few years, but I was starting to get comfortable with my
gardening. Then I moved to East Texas about a hundred miles away. Sandy loam soil, very acid, and about 45
inches of rain. Hardly anything that I
learned on the prairie did me any good in the Piney Woods. For one thing, the plants that were hardest
to grow in the alkaline prairie soil were the easiest to grow in the eastern
acid soil, and vice versa. Fortunately I
moved from West to East and the elevation was about the same, so there wasn’t a
huge difference in temperatures or planting dates. If you move North/South, or change elevation
by more than a hundred feet it can make a big difference in planting dates and
length of growing season. Other local
gardeners and your local feed store owner can be a big asset in choosing the
crops and varieties that will grow best in your location; and how and when to
plant them. So the best thing to do is
practice gardening where you will be trying to produce your survival
crops. This may not be possible; but you
should, at least, be aware of the differences that you may encounter when you
move.
(3) Even the most experienced gardeners have bad years
I have been gardening and raising fruit trees for years. This year we had a late frost and I did not
get one piece of fruit off of any of my ten fruit trees. No amount of experience could have overcome
this. Just ask a Florida orange grower. Some years it doesn’t rain enough, some years
it rains too much. One year the coons got in my corn field and wiped it
out. One year the deer cleaned out my
pea patch. These things just happen. An old neighbor of mine used to say, “Plant
enough for yourself, then plant some for your neighbors, and be sure and plant enough
for the bugs.” The best plan is to always have a year’s worth of food and two
years worth of heirloom seed stored.
2 comments:
Morning, My name is Bill Keller. I am currently gathering images for a book I am publishing and I am very interested in using your image of the proper throwing grip for an atlatl. The like to the image it:
http://sensiblesurvival.blogspot.com/2011/07/using-atlatl-and-dart.html
I will be more than happy to give you fill credit for the image and send a copy of the finished book to you.
Thanks for your consideration.
Bill Keller
Bill,
You have my permission to use the atlatl picture in your book. Thank you for asking. I would love to see your book when completed. You can contact me at sensiblesurvival@gmail.com if you wish.
Hank
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