The Survival Garden: How To Start And What To Prep.

Discussion in 'Gardening' started by DirtDiva, Aug 30, 2021.

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  1. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    the operative word is "eventually"!! like I said over a 10 year period never had any problems.
    dont use them now as they are harder to find in the required number, but in Somerset was falling over them everywhere I went.
     
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  2. Max rigger

    Max rigger Master Survivalist
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    Remember me saying exactly the same thing about re-using water bottles not long ago? I do LOL ;)
     
  3. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    water bottles are a different thing to tyres, its plastic against rubber.
    plastic pollution is everywhere and it breaks up into really small pieces quite easily, some of it so small we cant see it, and it gets into the food chain, it'll take a tyre a long time to break down, much longer than a single use plastic bottle.
    I assume you dont use tyres so you have nothing to worry about.
    other people can make their own minds up about using tyres, it was just a suggested option.
     
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  4. TMT Tactical

    TMT Tactical The Great Lizard ! Staff Member
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    The life span of the used tire verses the life span of the gardener. I think the tire wins out. LOL Yes all items will eventually degrade but with the tires, I think it will take decades. The nutrients in the soil used in the tires will be exhausted long before the tire degrades.
     
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  5. Max rigger

    Max rigger Master Survivalist
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    Go do your homework, the tyre is a lot worse than the perceived (and realistically unfounded) risk from a plastic bottle. :)
     
  6. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Guys it don't matter . Unless someone has a acer or two of piled up and filled tires , they will not be around long anyway because they will not be able to grow enough food to survive . A dozen or so filled tires simply will not grow enough food .
     
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  7. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Among the obvious high calorie plants that you must have to provide nutrition you also need SPICE type plants to make things that you might not prefer taste better. Peppers of several varieties, garlic, onions, dill, rosemary, coriander/cumin, oregano… I also have a couple of hundred pounds of coarse rock salt that is sold for salt water pools. I can grind or crush it into a finer grit. It seems that fine ground salt soaks up humidity and you end up with a sort of rock salt over time so save the money and just start with rock salt.

    There is a reason why in the past that people traveled thousands of miles to import spices from all over the world. We are spoiled now by such easy access to spices. THINK for a bit if you were limited to only what you can grow yourself. Without spices your food is going to be pretty bland. Most of it is not easily available locally. Salt in the past was in some ways more valuable than even gold. Animals will travel hundreds of miles to find a salt lick. I have seen salt blocks attract more deer to an area than a deer feeder.

    Figure out what you like to eat now and then find out what spices are needed to make it and check and see if you could grow it yourself. Once things settle back down spices will be like gold except a LOT more useful and precious. I was raised near the coast and so never had to worry about salt but where I live now there is no natural source of pure salt. Rock salt is almost dirt cheap and stores almost forever. Throw a couple hundred pounds in a corner of your attic or garage and forget it. If things ever go bad it will be an amazing resource.
     
  8. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    I agree with TEXDanm on the spice issue . I splurged years ago and put in the stash boxes of table salt reasoning salt wasn't that expensive at that time anyway . Hanging on a string from my ceiling is hot peppers drying that I grew , with plans to crush them up for use as spice . They of course or heirloom and I have saved my seeds for next year . In the garden is Egypton walking onions that reproduce themselves so I have no need to worry about starting onions every spring . --- Tried but failed this year growing oregano and garlic .
     
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  9. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    most people dont know what an acre looks like, and you dont need acre s and acres to grow enough fruit and veg for 2 people, the average sized UK allotment is large enough to feed a family of 4 and thats from the British Allotment society, you only need more if you are keeping large animals and in a post collapse world we would not be keeping large animals.
     
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  10. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    My post on the tire issue was with the assumption that the garden was the only food source . Anything grown will help , even if it is just a supplement . Many people just have an unrealistic idea of how much food they could grow in a small space . That is why people need to be gardening " not just thinking about it " , so as to get a clear grasp on reality .
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2022
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  11. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    you should see just what I am growing in a small space in a concreted yard and next year I will be increasing the quantity I grow. that dosent include what we grow in the garden proper, the only think I lack so far is animals, which will come later. even if someone only have a balcony they can grow some food.
    I realise everything is larger in America but so is the population.
     
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  12. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    Tire Gardens are a controversial subject and I see both sides of the argument reflected in all your comments. I will post a link below to an academic garden myth site on the subject. However the takeaway is this:

    • "It seems as if nobody has ever tested the movement of toxins from tires to plants. Some studies have looked at the movement of tire toxins into the environment while we drive, but that includes a lot of friction and higher temperatures, so you can’t really extrapolate that data."
    • "There is not enough scientific data to answer this question with any certainty. The best we can do is make an educated guess. Except for zinc, heavy metals are probably not an issue since tires don’t leach them in significant amounts. There is no indication that zinc levels will reach toxic levels in soil or the plants'"
    • Leaching of chemicals from tires is a slow process.
    • The growing time of vegetables in tires is relatively short.
    • Microbes in the soil are able to degrade many organic pollutants.
    Here is an excellent link from the academics on the subject

    https://www.gardenmyths.com/tire-gardens-safe/

    SO like so many controversial subjects in this age of too much inaccurate information I see very few hard facts or scientific studies out there to support the leaching theory. Like so many of these subject you simply have to gauge your own level of comfort with the risk that is actually there and how much risk you as a gardener are willing to accept.

    For the record I see this exact same conflicting opinions on the SAFE use of cardboard in the garden and also the use of treated lumber for raised beds. In all of these subjects again I have not seen valid scientific information or studies to definitively prove that these practices are unsafe.

    I personally have not used tires to garden however I have and continue to use cardboard to smother weeds and have used cardboard as an addition to my compost piles when I have it laying around. I also do not personally use treated lumber in my garden beds. My main reason I will say is cost. I can buy local lumber from the mills in my community and even seconds for a portion of the price that I can buy treated lumber. This local lumber will last me 5 to 7 years.

    I will say that in a survival situation where tires were all I had readily available and I needed them I would use them to survive by growing in them.
     
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  13. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    I also stockpile salt of 3 different kinds. I have a stash of rock salt, iodized salt and canning salt all 3. I also readily dehydrate homegrown onions, garlic, green onions, peppers both sweet and hot and store in mylar in buckets with gamma lids. In my gardens you can find growing basil, oregano, dill, potato onions, garlic, mint and lemon balm every year.

    I also allow mustard to go to seeds and collect seeds for homemade mustards.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2022
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  14. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    As many of you know I am a cancer surivor. In my 40's I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer that had metastasized
    and spread to my lymph nodes and other organs. They gave me 3 months to live. I had a doctor (not mine) pull me aside and give me some really good advice to go along with my traditional cancer treatments of surgery, chemo and radiation to change my lifestyle.

    This included a small amount of meat consumption and a good quality meat, lots of green veggies, very little sugar.

    Reduce carbs and sugars and increase green veggies limiting the starchy veggies that grow under ground (potatoes, carrots, turnips etc).

    Cook in cast iron, copper or stainless ONLY.

    Eliminate plastics as much as possible from your kitchen and food supply.

    Never microwave food or drinks in plastic and do not freeze food in plasic containers.

    I got rid of all my plastic bowls and containers. I do use vacuum bags in my freezer sometimes but prefer to can my food in glass jars or dehydrate.

    I do stockpile some bottled water for emergencies but prefer to use a Berkey filter and stainless waterbottles every day for my water consumption. Life straws and water filters are a much better alternative.

    That is my take on plastics and am cancer free for several decades now. Just passing on some good advice that worked for me.
     
    Last edited: Aug 24, 2022
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  15. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    once the growing season is over I used to empty the soil from the tyres and use it as mulch on non food areas, the tyres were then stored away for the winter, the following year fresh new soil was used in the tyres and the process started again. I dont think the soil had enough time for anything to leech into it. mainly used for growing potatoes.
     
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  16. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I was raised in one of the most poluted places in the US. Every chemical and fuel company there is had a refinery spmewhere near by and you could tell the direction of the prevailing wind by the smell. Both of my parents had cancer. Lung cancer or emphesima there was an almost inevitable problem if you lived long enough and didn't die of some other cancer.

    When I was a kid I was sick all of the time with upper reseratory infections. I figured that eventually my lungs would get me one way or another. We left there when I was in my late 30s. we moved into a place that had almost zero polution. I live nesteled into a national forest surounded by open pastures and uncut forests.

    Over time my lung and sinuses cleared out. The only time that I would have problems would be when we went back to visit my parents. They just woudn't move until they laned in a nursing home My Mom by then only had one lung left and my Dad had emphisima so bad that he had to live on oxygen.

    I'm 70 now and disgustingly healthy so even my good genes from my parents were not able to deal with the constant endless attack that is air polution. In the end it killed them both. I have lived for 30 years in a near pristine environment. Other than a few cow and horse farts there just wasn't any air polution. I look back now and realise how many people that I knew that died young from cancers and lung issues. I had friends when I was in elementry school that lost parents to cancer of their lungs.

    We need the refineries and the things that they provide to us BUT why don't they build them away from major population places? They should be forced to move them and their employies should only be allowed to work in them for a few years and then trained and moved to other jobs in the company. The true cost of our cheap gas is paid for by the people and families that live and work in their polution.
     
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  17. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    TexDamn I grew up in South Louisiana under the exact same conditions. My father died of cancer, my mother a brain tumor. Both died younger than I am now. I left at 24 fresh out of college. There were 5 children in my family and other than the youngest I am the only one left. Each and every sibling died much younger than I am now and they all stayed in that environment all their lives.

    The cancer rate in my extended family is phenomenal as well as many of the people I grew up with and my parents neighbors and friends. Those chemical plants and refineries take a huge toll on the surrounding populations and communities. Best thing I ever did was leave just maybe not soon enough.
     
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  18. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    Only the people that live in those places understands the real cost in human misery. Youdon't hear about it in these sort of terms. They TALK about it but don't rub peoples noses in the real truth. I was fortunate. Both parents had serious health issues related to their lungs but managed to at least got to know my daughter.

    Before I left I always was having bronchitis and was sick. After about a year in the clean clear air from the national forests all that disapeared. I have not had any of that sort of problem now for 30 years. I believe that had I stayed I would be dead before now.
     
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  19. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    I am up a couple hours before daybreak this morning sipping on my coffee and waiting for dawn , to pick some climbing string beans that my wife couldn't reach high enough to get yesterday . Just for fun a couple of years ago decided to see how high I could get the string beans to grow and got them over 20 feet high . My daughter laughed this early spring when I told her I bought some metal rebar to support my tomatoe cages as I was expecting them to get tall and heavy . They are now about 6 foot high and growing and will likely continue to grow for another 2 or 3 months and these are not climbing tomatoes " Cherokee purple and ace 55 " . --Now dead and gone , but my squash got about 6 foot high , making that part of my garden look tropical .
     
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    1. DirtDiva
      I still have beans on the vine also that I am waiting to turn red. Same thing with melons ripening. Cherokee purple is an heirloom indeterminate tomato and will continue to grow upward until frost. I tend to cut the top out of mine about this time to force the plant to concentrate on sizing up and ripening existing tomatoes on the vine instead of putting on new ones that do not have time to size up and ripen. Same things with figs! I try to limit my vegetable height to about 6 and a half feet to eliminate any need for ladder time.
       
      DirtDiva, Aug 27, 2022
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  20. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    I see there is a report out today that says "night owls" have a 10% higher chance of mortality than Early Birds, I remember the old childhood saying, "early to bed makes one healthy, wealthy and wise"!
    I've done night shift work and it was very detrimental to my health or so I thought at the time.
     
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  21. TexDanm

    TexDanm Shadow Dancer
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    I am a night person and I think that I was born that way. I always hated getting up with the sun. For most of my life until I started my own company I worked night shifts. 3:30 to Midnight or Eleven to seven in the morning. When I started my company I had a company rule that I never had a job before 9am. When I could I would schedual everybody for after noon.

    I like the quiet of the nights. I read and walk and just don't have to deal with people. Now I live totaly outside of the clocks. I sleeep when I'm tired and wake when I wake up. I seem to only need 4 or 5 hours of sleep a day. Most days I sleep like 7am to noon...OR like today have just skipped sleeping at all. I might get a nap in while I am on for dialisis. That is 4 hours or so on the long days and 3 on the short days.

    I like doing it at home. I can relax and sleep or read or watch TV as I wish. A lot of days that is all the sleep that I get for that day. Doing it in the clinic I'm nailed down to THEIR schedual. At home I can do it at whatever time is best for me and my wife. I can see where it wouldn't work for everyone but for us it has been nice. Fortunatly my wife is good with a needle and isn't bothered by blood.
     
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  22. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    I used to be a night person in my night clubbing days, 30 years ago, sometimes I wasnt home until 3 or 4 AM and slept till noon.
    since meeting and marrying my wife 24 years ago I have converted to being an early bird, we see more wild animals if we are up early, and we now get things done in the morning then have most of the rest of the day to ourselves to do what we each want.
     
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  23. paul m

    paul m Expert Member
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    3 am is what time I go to work!
     
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  24. Max rigger

    Max rigger Master Survivalist
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    I can 'sleep on a chickens beak' as the saying goes and am happy with four hours sleep, five is a luxury for me but people's needs vary. Generally speaking I work two weeks on and two weeks off so around thirty flights a year and can just switch off for the duration of the flight; I'm one of the lucky ones. I know some fella's who really suffer with any sort of shift rotation.
     
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  25. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    If one has gone hypochondriac about tire rubber leaching whatever chemicals, then use a non-tox silicone sealant to isolate the vulcanized rubber from the soil. If sulfur leaks into the soil, then the sulfur will make onions hot, i.e. not sweet. One can also start with fresh soil each year.

    In a survival situation, quite frankly, one cannot worry about minor crap. Holy crap, one's just trying to stay alive. Gimme a break! Something gives a 50 yr old man cancer in 30 or 40 years -- so what, they're gonna die of heart disease before then anyway. :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
     
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  26. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    "Sleep deprivation accelerates Alzheimer’s brain damage"

    https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/sleep-deprivation-accelerates-alzheimers-brain-damage/

    "Poor sleep has long been linked with Alzheimer’s disease, but researchers have understood little about how sleep disruptions drive the disease.

    "Now, studying mice and people, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have found that sleep deprivation increases levels of the key Alzheimer’s protein tau. And, in follow-up studies in the mice, the research team has shown that sleeplessness accelerates the spread through the brain of toxic clumps of tau – a harbinger of brain damage and decisive step along the path to dementia.

    These findings, published online Jan. 24 in the journal Science, indicate that lack of sleep alone helps drive the disease, and suggests that good sleep habits may help preserve brain health.

    “'The interesting thing about this study is that it suggests that real-life factors such as sleep might affect how fast the disease spreads through the brain,' said senior author David Holtzman, MD, the Andrew B. and Gretchen P. Jones Professor and head of the Department of Neurology. 'We’ve known that sleep problems and Alzheimer’s are associated in part via a different Alzheimer’s protein – amyloid beta – but this study shows that sleep disruption causes the damaging protein tau to increase rapidly and to spread over time.'

    "Tau is normally found in the brain – even in healthy people – but under certain conditions it can clump together into tangles that injure nearby tissue and presage cognitive decline. Recent research at the School of Medicine has shown that tau is high in older people who sleep poorly. But it wasn’t clear whether lack of sleep was directly forcing tau levels upward, or if the two were associated in some other way. To find out, Holtzman and colleagues including first authors Jerrah Holth, PhD, a staff scientist, and Sarah Fritschi, PhD, a former postdoctoral scholar in Holtzman’s lab, measured tau levels in mice and people with normal and disrupted sleep."
    .
     
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  27. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    stuff that!!!
     
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  28. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    it has been said that anything less than 7 hours sleep can cause chronic illnesses, including strokes and cancer, someone sleeping less than 6 hours has a 13% increased chance of early mortality.
    we generally get about 8 hours sleep every night, we go to bed early and get up early, early mornings are the best part of the day.
     
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  29. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    A few days ago , I searched by computer as to what was the most productive okra . That was the only criteria I searched for . My result was a okra named " jade " . As a bonus it is heirloom . So I have ordered and now have Jade seeds to try next year . My search said Clemson spinless was a heavy producer but Jade was even heavier . I like getting any seeds that I want early as in my prepper and paranoid mind am always wondering if seeds will be available at some point .
     
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    1. DirtDiva
      I tried a new variety called "Heavy Hitter" for the last two years. It was developed from "Clemson Spineless" by an independent grower over years. So far it is producing pretty good. It is also open pollinated. Also like you I am saving every seed I can produce this year just because I can!
       
      DirtDiva, Aug 30, 2022
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  30. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    Autumn in the Garden

    For those that choose to live an Agrarian lifestyle Autumn/Fall is a busy time. The days have started getting shorter and temperatures for us anyway have dipped down into the 50's at night. I have started to see a few leaves start to turn and fall. In the garden crops are winding down and I start to put the garden to bed. When the leaves are falling in earnest composting is a priority thus adding nutrients back into the soil and improving fertility. Leaves are just too imprtant of a free compost additive to ignore, burn or haul away.

    Fall is the time for butchering and soon I will butcher some of my rabbits and my older hens to make way for the 6 young pullets I raised this spring to replace them as egg producers. They should start laying between 5 and 6 months.

    Garlic is planted in the fall as well. Mine is hanging in the top of the shed awaiting October planting. Any remaining after planting will be dehydrated for kitchen use.

    Sweet potatoes have been allowed to sit in a shed and the skins toughen up. Now they have been moved to banana boxes and brought indoors. I store my sweet potatoes in banana boxes under the bed in the guest bedroom. I keep it cool in there because rarely does anyone sleep in there and under the bed where it is dark. They usually store all winter there without a problem. In January I will use one or two to start next years sweet potato slips.

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    The winter squash are hanging heavy on the vines and I let the vines pretty well die then I pick them. I want the skins/rinds to harden well to improve the storage capability of the squash. They too once picked and dried will be stored in the bottom of a closet or under a bed somewhere. They can also be canned. My preference is Butternut squash which can be baked with simply a bit of butter and maybe brown sugar but my family love a butternut pie and these will become my Thanksgiving and Christmas seasonal replacements for pumpkin pie. Similar taste but for me easier to grow vertically and easier to store because they are smaller. They are ready to pick once you cannot put your thumbnail through the rind and the stem dries up. They do have to be picked before frost though.

    100_7864.JPG

    Tomatoes continue to be a regular daily harvest. I planted fewer plants this year (20) but they have kept me canning for weeks. With a bumper crop of tomatoes last year my preps are full of jars of homemade tomato sauce so this year I have concentrated on other things such as Rotel tomatoes (with Chilies), Taco soup canned in jars with corn and black beans, okra and tomtoes, Baked Beans in tomato sauce, with maple syrup and spices, salsa and canned Chili with beans. I found Navy beans on sale recently at a local supermarket for $0.50 a pound and stocked up just to use with tomatoes. As the main stream media has announced a possible nationwide shortage of tomato products due to drought I just have to smile secure in the fact that things will be fine and no tomato shortages in my pantry in the near future.

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    Taco Soup

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    Baked Beans

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    Okra and tomatoes, rotel tomatoes, canned chicken, canned Louisiana red beans, watermelon seeds drying and cantaloupe, sweet peppers and tomatoes.

    This week (9/12/22) I will be working on Spaghetti sauce in jars. Also picking right now figs, blackberries, cucumbers and freezing lots of okra. I finally just pulled up my yellow squash as I had frozen gallons of it. One more picking of redbeans. And not to forget watermelon!!

    100_7884.JPG

    I grow an old heirloom yellow variety called Royal Golden. They turn yellow when ripe and run about 20 pounds we love them.

    Soon it will be time to can pears and apple sauce and apple butter.

    I actually look forward to winter about this time of year. I anticipate long days of sitting in my recliner and knitting and quilting to occupy my time until that next gardening year.

    Happy Gardening DD
     
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    1. TMT Tactical
      DD you are an outstanding wealth of information for the rest of us. I am learning so much from your posts. Thank you for being such an inspiration to all of us.
       
      TMT Tactical, Sep 12, 2022
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    2. Old Geezer
      A pumpkin that is red on the inside or a watermelon that is orange on the outside. DirtDiva is causing me to hallucinate!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek::eek:
       
      Old Geezer, Sep 12, 2022
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    3. DirtDiva
      :D:D:D
       
      DirtDiva, Sep 13, 2022
  31. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    It is interesting to see some seeing the food crises approaching , but still failed to grow a garden of any significant size . Then I read what they " will " do . --- I have now replaced some of my crops with fall / winter greens . Mustard greens are up as well as spinach . I am new at growing spinach but last year I planted spinach and it survived the entire winter and was providing food the next spring , so I am repeating the spinach crop . I am expecting to continue to harvest tomatoes and okra until it finally gets too cold for them to survive . -- I followed DirtDiva 's example and planted cabbage at about the same time she did , even though it seemed awful hot to be doing that . It has all survived and is looking good . Fall cabbage may soon be on the menu .
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2022
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    1. DirtDiva
      Lol there is a method to my madness!

      Fall cabbage, breaded and fried pork chops and purple hulls!!!!
       
      DirtDiva, Sep 12, 2022
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    2. DirtDiva
      You have to plant that fall planting while there is still enough heat to get some size on it before the days shorten. Once those days shorten growing slows down thus the cool tolerant plants will continue to grow such as cabbage and greens. I know it seems strange to plant fall crops in July but is some places it is necessary. It may not work all the time but when the stars align and it all comes together you will be eating clear up until Nov and Dec with fresh produce.

      Once you lose those long summer days the chickens slow down laying too. Ducks however lay right on through the winter.
       
      DirtDiva, Sep 13, 2022
  32. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    DirtDiva you definitely need a perimeter!!! Get out the concertina wire and pillboxes!

    If you live where I think you live, there's a whole lot of folk who are also gardeners.

    Too, all you'd have to do is offer-up some canned goods and you'd raise a small army in no time! ;) Tennessee is the Volunteer State. Just yell "Help!" and your enemies will soon beaten-down or dead.

    Tennessee story: Two guys pull off a major hwy head down a rural road. Stop their truck, lift the hood. Neighborly guy comes out to help the stranded fellows. It was a ruse. The "stranded" fellows were robbers and started to beat the good Samaritan. His wife, VERY pregnant at the time, starts screaming her head off. Two brothers living nearby hear her screams, run out, and commence to beat the robbers, and beat them, and beat them. Before the county mounties get there, the two robbers are just blood-soaked rags and unconscious. The brothers were a work-mate's cousins. Don't mess with Tennesseans!

    Tennessee the Volunteer State

    https://tennesseehistory.org/volunteer-state/

    https://www.unitedstatesnow.org/why-is-tennessee-known-as-the-volunteer-state.htm
    -------------------------

    The following Davy Crockett is a fine and honorable man. When a young man, I voted for him several times. He's as honorable as his famous ancestor who was born near (10 or 15 miles) where my own kin came from and are now buried.

    https://www.elizabethton.com/tag/david-crockett/

    "Several constables from Carter and neighboring counties recently gave former attorney general David Crockett a plaque in recognition for his decades of service in Tennessee’s law enforcement and his work with the Constable Association.

    “'His door was always open,' 7th District Constable Ken Potter said.

    "Crockett said he has spent over 50 years in law enforcement, spending much of his time in the district attorney’s office as both an assistant and then full district attorney.

    “'I am honored anybody remembers what we did,' Crockett said."

    ------------------------

    Seems Dirt Diva is a great Tennessean, also!!!!!!!!!!!!
    .

    (IF, I've guessed her home state right, East Tenn I'd wager. Gosh, I just KNOW that's she's gotta be Southern Appalachian -- I'm not wrong about that. :))

    .
     
    Last edited: Sep 12, 2022
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    1. Old Geezer
      My "Y" chromosome was traced back to Ulster. Ulster-Scots (primary people who leased land the earliest), German, English, and Cherokee (First People) still occupy Southern Appalachia. The Europeans' Cherokee kin were not sent on the Trail of Tears. They're still here on the N.Carolina side of the mountains. Come to E.Tennessee/Western-North-Carolina to harm the Cherokee and you were dead -- every local white, black, red would make sure that you'd end up dead. My kin leased land from the Cherokee; the Watauga Association. The Cherokee women the Ulster-Scots trappers married kept white folk alive. Everybody had their disputes (duh!); White vs white; white vs Native, Native vs white; Native people vs Native people.

      https://www.electricscotland.com/history/ulster_scots/ulster7.htm

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cherokee,_North_Carolina
      .
       
      Old Geezer, Sep 12, 2022
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    2. DirtDiva
      Born actually high in Northern Georgia not far from the last capitol of "The People" (Cherokee). My paternal ancestral ties are to the Cherokee and those Ulster Scots trappers you mention. My GGG grandmother was one of those Cherokee women that married a trapper and explorer. His family dated all the way back to William Penn. I am a true daughter of the American Revolution and someone from my family has fought in every war since.

      While raised in the swamps of Louisiana with my mother's people my ties are strong to these mountains and always have been. I am actually in North Central Tennessee high on the "Plateau". About 2,000 ft above sea level and not far from the Kentucky border. I am not 2 hours from my birthplace. I was born in these mountains and shall die in these mountains.
       
      Last edited: Sep 13, 2022
      DirtDiva, Sep 13, 2022
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  33. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Yesterday I bought 200 lb. of commercial fertilizer and stored it back for the coming years of famine and fertilizer shortage . I like to use a combination of chicken litter , compost and commercial fertilizer . Last spring I followed Dirt Diva's scheme and also put cotton seed meal on the garden . If Cotten seed meal is available and affordable this winter I will repeat that plan . I put the cotton seed meal and compost a bit later in the year last spring than I should have and had a problem with critters digging in the garden as they smelled the additions to the soil . Mid winter is when I plan to add the dirt supplements this next time , other than commercial fertilizer .--- I appear to be set on heirloom seeds and fertilizer for the lean times ahead . Those that just talk about what they would do are being left behind in the scheme of survival as things deteriorate , they will just have to pay those high grocery prices or die .
     
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    1. DirtDiva
      Good Job! I will admit to a certain satisfaction to remove my family pretty well from the grocery shortage merry go round. I don't know in many cases if these shortage are real or manufactured to excuse rabid price increases but producing your own pretty well makes shortages of items such as tomatoes and potatoes for example this year a moot point. I can't produce everything but we won't do without.
       
      DirtDiva, Sep 22, 2022
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  34. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    I have never used commercial fertiliser in all my years of allotment growing, I use mostly compost and horse manure.
     
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  35. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    There is actually a learning curb in using commercial fertilizer . It take surprisingly little to go a long ways . Too much and you will kill your plants , too little and your plants will suffer from lack of needed supplements . Survival of an entire family likely means a lot of food needs to be grown which translates in most areas as needing a lot of fertilizer of some sort . Most people will not have access to that much compost or manure . Compost or manure will be highly coveted if the grocery stores close down as people try to grow food . Home made fertilizer or commercial fertilizer may be more valuable than those shiny pieces of metal called " silver and gold " .
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2022
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  36. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    in a survival post event situation all commercial feeds and chemical fertilisers will be used up, I have always made my own compost and gathered manure from wherever it was available (human waste is also compostable), if one is near the sea seaweed has traditionally been used in the past as a compost alternative, and it is possible to make soil enhancers using natural materials and a water butt/barrel, it smells pretty rank but it works.
    human urine - of which we each have a life times supply-contains Nitrogen and can be used diluted to enhance leaf growth.
     
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  37. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Hopefully some of our silent members will find some of these posts useful . It is a bit frustrating to see so few of our active members , actually got down in the dirt and gardened this year . After all the bravado when the food crises actually arrived , didn't follow through as they had boasted and gardened . Now they are suffering from inflated prices much greater than the gardeners . Perhaps next spring they will take more initiative into growing their own food . -- If they plan a future garden , they need to be getting their garden area ready now as well as trying to accumulate their fertilizer for planting time .
     
    Last edited: Sep 22, 2022
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  38. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    winter is a good time to prepare the garden, the old time gardeners used to dig over the garden then leave it for the frosts to break down the soil.
    if someone is thinking about raised bed growing then these things have to be made, the timber purchased, before they can use them.
     
  39. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    there is an annual event in my area, its called "MUCK spreading", old traditional method of spreading manure on the fields.
     
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  40. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    When living in the MidWest, there came a time of year for the spreading of manure. Miles away the smell would knock the top of your head off ... if you could get miles away from fields. That state is one of the U.S. states that is virtually ALL agriculture.

    Composted or not, this stuff stank.

    upload_2022-9-23_11-18-53.png

    80,000 sq.mi. = 207,200 sq. km.

    England is 130,279 km2

    Immagine ALL of the United Kingdom covered in manure.:D:oops:

    [​IMG][​IMG]
    .
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2022
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    1. Old Geezer
      .
       
      Old Geezer, Sep 23, 2022
  41. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    when its muck spreading time around here you can smell it, and smell it for about a week!!!
     
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  42. Old Geezer

    Old Geezer Legendary Survivalist
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    I'm trying to get this image to stick in a frame. Not having success.

    Here we go, it's working.

    Just before planting, the manure spreading happens. So we're talking Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, ... :eek::eek::eek::eek:


    upload_2022-9-23_11-37-38.png
     
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  43. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    Applying manure to the fields is a time honored tradition you still find on many smaller farms. I owned a medium sized acreage in Missouri for about 20 years and although most of my property was wooded I would allow the neighborhood pig farmer to apply hog poop to my hay fields. They have what locals call a "honey wagon" and the liquid is applied to the fields and you are all right the smell is awful but the results are great.

    As a child in Louisiana I always hated the time of year when they applied chicken litter to the hay fields on my father's farm from the local chicken houses. My Dad would walk out and take a deep whif and laugh and tell me it was the smell of "money".

    I think the point I am making is that on a small scale tis continues to happen all over America in more rural small farming communities. I still see old manure spreaders abandoned in fields occasionally when traveling through rural areas especially Amish country.

    [​IMG]
     
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  44. DirtDiva

    DirtDiva Master Survivalist
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    You can continue to buy small dry manure spreaders.

    [​IMG]
     
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  45. arctic bill

    arctic bill Master Survivalist
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    this year i went hard on compost , here is the results [​IMG][​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 26, 2022
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    1. TMT Tactical
      can't see images.
       
      TMT Tactical, Sep 26, 2022
  46. arctic bill

    arctic bill Master Survivalist
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    [​IMG][​IMG]
     
    1. TMT Tactical
      can't see images.
       
      TMT Tactical, Sep 26, 2022
  47. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Just my guess , but believe we are at the edge of a full blown Nuclear War , 50 / 50 chance . That means cooler and cloudy growing conditions . So with this in mind suggest our members have plenty of cool weather heirloom seeds on hand before teotwawki . Spinach and mustard greens are on my plan for teotwawki .
     
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  48. lonewolf

    lonewolf Societal Collapse Survivalist. Staff Member
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    if its a full blown nuclear war "cooler and cloudier" wont even cover it, permanent night and a mini ice age more like!:D
    actually, the more times Putin and his cronies mention nuclear war, the less I believe them.
    it was the Nazi Goebbels who said, "repeat a lie enough times and eventually people will begin to believe it", so I dont.
     
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  49. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Spinach is a particularly cold hardy plant . Last year mine survived sub-zero temperatures and being buried under snow " for a few days " . and was still producing food the following spring . Varieties seem to vary widely in flavor and the nature of the plant . The variety I have settled on tastes great produces for months and the seeds are easily saved . I will go back and see if I can find the name of this variety . --- found it - through amazon -Gaea's blessing seeds - " Giant Winter Spinach " open pollinated , heirloom . -- Touted on their advertisement as being extremely cold hardy and to that I can confirm . It would fit right in the global winter garden after the Nuking is done .
     
    Last edited: Sep 27, 2022
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  50. poltiregist

    poltiregist Legendary Survivalist
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    Gardeners may want to plan on something to cover their garden up with when they either receive a warning or feel the ground shaking from Nuclear impacts , so as to shield the dirt from contaminated dust that might settle down on your garden . Also weights to hold down your selected garden cover will be needed .
     
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