Posted on 07/27/2020 12:03:48 PM PDT by Heartlander
As a prepper who believes in a healthy diet, I have experimented with various ways to provide greens in a winter SHTF scenario.
Lettuce and other greens grow quickly. In the Upper Midwest, the South side of a building with a cold frame will provide greens in a few weeks and they can be planted out in February, as soon as you can feel the sun on your back on a mild, windless day.
Farmers will always farm and since greens are so easily produced, they will likely be available for barter.
I tried AeroGrow countertop hydroponic machines. They are a toy, IMO. You can harvest a couple of salads worth of Baby Bok Choy or the like in about 6 weeks if you have power and spend a lot of time keeping the nutrient solution up to par. You can start seeds in rock wool insulation, but you do need the liquid nutrients. I have a machine stashed, but I’m not that reassured by its presence.
I have just moved and we have poor, sandy soils here. I will put in raised beds next Spring, but I’ve gardened enough to know, aside from tomatoes, not to expect much beyond our immediate needs during Summer and fall. However, this soil is good for cukes and I prefer pickling cukes in salads, anyway. A bumper crop of small cucumbers can be fermented (half sour dills)and will keep well over winter. Dill itself is a weed, easily grown and it can be frozen as well as dried.(Beware: it will scent your entire freezer, even in plastic). You will need garlic, pickling spice, Kosher salt and distilled water, as well as canning jars. Instructions are all over the web.
Tomatoes can be easily dehydrated. They will reconstitute come winter and the dried tomatoes take up a lot less room than either canned or frozen sauce. The green ones at the end of the season also do well as fermented pickles.
I’ve done container gardening, too. Cherry tomatoes and mini peppers did well. Full sized fruit suffered from the containers due to the likelihood of inconsistent watering. They are heavy and you can’t always protect them from heavy rains. I’ve used plastic greenhouses and fuchsia shade cloth, both of which helped for different situations, but I still needed to buy produce.
Remember, that crop of greens does well until hot weather and later on in the Fall, but won’t produce in high summer.
I do want to try barrel or trashbag potatoes, but I haven’t done those yet.
My main approach to the need for fresh greens is sprouts. I have several bags of various sprouting seeds in the freezer. I also think microgreens grown on the north side of buildings with shade cloth would be viable. Probably, microgreens could be successful in a small way in an inside South-facing window if protected from the intensity of mid-day sun.
But we will all have more pressing problems if it comes to that. Supplies of Vit. C stashed in a freezer take up little space and would work. Sumac is everywhere in the Upper Midwest and is full of Vit. C. It is an ingredient in Middle Eastern spice mixes, is prolific and can be dried and then stored for winter.
If you have A LOT of milkweed, judiciously harvest the green flower heads, which can be lightly steamed and taste like broccoli. Just let enough fully flower to create seeds for the next season. Again, this is available in the Upper Midwest.
Many of us are already too old for extensive gardening in summer heat or are headed that way, so look for younger people to barter with. No matter what, we are not going to replicate our former life style during times of extreme civil disruption.
Lol...or gold.
Christ’s return, and the beginning of His Worldwide Millennial Reign will deliver liberty and freedom to China, and to every other nation on the planet. On every square inch of it.
i see what you did there
lettig the days go by
According to some news reports, the Dam has developed a wave. It’s obvious it cannot sustain the water pressures against it. There are pics.
“I tried AeroGrow countertop hydroponic machines. They are a toy, IMO.”
Agreed. I was really excited to find one for cheap - but what a waste of time. I’ll stick with cold frames, learning to use my unheated greenhouse as efficiently as possible, indoor seed starting, growing sprouts and growing in the dirt. (I grow in Zone 4/5 SW Wisconsin.)
Message/Ping me if you want to be added to our Weekly Garden Thread. You’d have a lot to offer the group!
Thanx, Diana!
I was on that list until a few years ago. I just don’t have the stamina any longer to weed in the heat and humidity. It’s such a change from my Vernon County river valley *frost pocket* micro-climate & heavy clay soils to the Adams County flat woodlands and sand. I’m going to need a season or two to understand growing over here. Still zone 4/4a, but it’s really different. We have so many oaks here, I am assuming the soils are acidic, but I don’t really know. I think we’re a bit West of the peatlands.
It isn’t lush, here, that’s for sure, except for trees. Although it’s kind of nice to not actually watch grass grow overnight after a rain. Grass on my property is scant. That’s what you get on the bottom of Glacier Lake Wisconsin.
If my husband makes good on his resolution to build raised beds, I will be asking for advice from those who already do that.
I do lurk occasionally, tho. I miss growing tomatoes. We were selling and triaging 45 years of *stuff* the past few summers, so I didn’t even attempt my usual container tomatoes. Kind of looking forward to cukes and fermentation for next year. Just realized, I could add cabbage for natural kraut, too, once I figure out a small-sized version of a kraut crock.I would need to find space for an old freezer or fridge to convert to a winter storage space for cabbage, I think.
Still getting used to this down-size situation. Not missing all the building cleaning and land maintenance, tho.
“Seismic” ?
.
the Horror,
the Horror.
That old adage;
“People are Starving
in China.”
I added you to our Ping List. Join us when you can.
Also - keep campaigning for the raised beds. They will save you SO much trouble based upon that sandy soil...unless you just want to grow root crops, then You’re Golden, LOL!
I have raised beds now, and had to go to them at my last farm due to Black Walnut Trees.
Not only their future.
Been in a Walmart or target lately?
Why do you think all those shelves are empty?
Fascinating that the MSM are not reporting that shortages and empty shelves.
it is almost like they want to get closer to the election for some reason....
Hope all their dams blow. Suck wind China!!!!!
I don’t get it. I’ve never bought ANY food produced in China. Why should I be worried?
“Why do you think all those shelves are empty?”
Recently I read an article saying besides the China/virus/transportation issues, many stores were not sure about recession issues here. They didn’t want to be stuck with lots of inventory during a recession so were keeping very low inventory for now.
Would really appreciate what you’ve learned about raised beds up here in the zone 4 areas.
This property has some decorative plantings around the South and West sides and some started on the East side (just the board edging, no plants), plus a few odd plantings of native spreaders (butterfly plant) here and there along the woodland edges. They have those snap-together rubber edges (which were not all that easy to do back in the clay soils, as the things had to be trenched in deep to keep out grass, but work well over here in the sand country), lots of pretty cedar mulch and the bed soils stay moist. Grass does volunteer in the beds, but it’s not the dense root mass I’m used to, but single blades easy to pull out. I have some volunteer milkweed, which I’m nurturing & Queen Anne’s Lace. Thinking of putting in some thyme for ground cover in some areas outside the decorative beds.
So, I infer that 4 foot square beds won’t be that hard to set up and won’t need to be set all that deep.
We will have a problem with the scrub oak. They just pop up everywhere and have interconnected roots and can form very invasive mats of bushy oak on wiry stems that are difficult to get rid of. This is all reclaimed woodland, so no one ever tried to keep the scrub oak in check.
On the plus side, I haven’t even seen a nettle over here. Or, come to think of it, a bull thistle. Some yucca, here and there, but no goat beard (which I like) and no elderberry (sob).
Watering? The native *soil* is so porous, the stuff is dry within hours of a drenching rain. But the decorative beds are almost too wet. Would appreciate some insight on drainage and drip setups. The real farmers over here even irrigate row crops, although most seem to concentrate on hay and veggies (not sure what-all, as I’ve just seen it driving past, but I think there may be a lot of broccoli & other cabbage family varieties).
Good point on root veggies. Maybe I will try carrots along with cukes? Not sure of mineral amendments for carrots. I gave up on them in the wet clay. They were deformed unless the soil was tilled within an inch of its life. Clay also can hold so much water for so long, things just rot without a lot of sand tilled in. I had years when some areas at the base of low rises/slopes became like jello. Scary.
It’s sort of nice to have some flat and rolling land, for a change.
Anyway: any tips on raised beds appreciated. I am a tomato lover, so that’s a good place to start. I’d love to not battle BER every summer. Also, we’re old, so anything that cuts the weeding down is appreciated. Maybe I’m in for a pleasant surprise and there won’t be a lot of volunteers?
Feel free to cross post this post into the next Gardening thread for answers.
At this point in time I don’t give a crap.
Karma is a bitch.
Not as much as you think.
I honestly PRAY this forces our businesses home!!
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