Creating Your Own Compost

I would suggest doing as dirtDiva and I already do , go to the farm store and buy some bagged up fertilizer and store it . I suppose depending on what kind of fertilizer it is as to its useful life expectancy but expect something like lime would last a long time as it is actually ground up limestone . Most fertilizer should store well for years . One fifty pound bag of something like 13-13-13 or 8-8-8 would help grow a lot of food and might supply enough fertilizer to garden for two people for a year depending mostly on what type of crop you planted . Those numbers signify the amount of 3 different ingredients and those ingredients can change from region to region .Personally I seldom use 13-13-13 because it is stronger than I prefer . If you put down too much fertilizer than needed then it will kill your plants . That is where experience comes in as to know how much fertilizer to put down , enough but not too much . Using store bought fertilizer , you put it down sort of like sprinkling salt out of a salt shaker trying to get the correct amount out but incorporates a different hand motion . Like stored food however when stored fertilizer is gone , it is gone . I usually use a combination of rotted animal waste , compost and store bought fertilizer. -- When the stored commercial fertilizer is gone and buying more is not an option then that is the tipping point of going to using strictly home grown fertilizer . Someone that has never used commercial fertilizer might want to consider planting an experimental garden so as to get the nack of how much fertilizer to use . Compost and animal waste is more forgiving in the application amount .

 

Most fertilizers and soil amendments store well in just trach cans. In one of my sheds I keep 4 large metal trash cans that are full of soil amendments and fertilizers. The organic fertlizer recipe that I posted earlier would be a good one as most of it is available anywhere and would be prone not to burn most plants. I have stored most of it for years with no problem. Between that and homemade compost I manage to maintain and keep the fertility high in my garden on an ongoing basis. I think the suggestion to have a run at a practice garden is an excellent one as I do believe there is a great learning curve to gardening. I also think if I were just starting out I would do exclusively raised beds. Lonewolf is correct also in that most things organic can be composted. I personally just do the Berkeley method of hot composting but a cold compost pile works also with less work. Don't forget that seed stash. You want open pollinated varieties that grow well in your agricultural zone. THEY DO NOT HAVE TO BE SURVIVAL OR HEIRLOOM. Just open pollinated is fine. I vacuum seal my seeds personally and store them in the freezer. They stay viable like that for years. Don't forget to prep a couple good gardening hand tools. I would suggest a good hoe a couple extra handles for it as most are wood handled. A good pair of pruners and a sharpener and a good trowel.

 

That would be a great thread to start as I would be curious what people prep for their survival gardening in the future and why!

 

Thanks for your contributions to this vital topic of prepping the soil to grow crops. As other members have written, amateurs beginning gardens are usually unaware of how important this initial step is in the involved process of gardening. It sure isn't tossing seeds on the ground -- one can't even get grass to grow without prepping the soil. Just last night watched a movie wherein the main character moves up into the Rockies thinking she can just live off the land.

May the Good Lord bless your garden.
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For those reading that do not know the difference:

For seed saving, you need heirloom or OP varieties. These will grow true from saved seed, meaning you will get the same plant as the one you harvested seed from. If you’re not interested in saving seed, a hybrid might work for you.

OPEN POLLINATED SEEDS
Open pollinated means the flowers are fertilized by bees, moths, birds, bats, and even the wind or rain. The seed that forms produces the same plant the following year. Some OP plants are self-pollinators. This means the structure of the flower allows fertilization before it opens.

OP varieties grow out true every year. They are genetically diverse, so there can be a lot of variation in the plants and fruits. Since agriculture began about 12,000 years ago, people have been choosing the qualities they like in a plant, such as fruit size, flavor, growth habit, heat and cold tolerance, and uniformity, saved the seed, and continually grew it out year after year. This is plant selection and can only be done with OP seed.

HEIRLOOM SEEDS

Fast forward to the 1700s and1800s. In the burgeoning United States, families grew food on their subsistence farms. They saved seed, selecting for the best traits. As seeds from this era got passed down through the generations, they became heirlooms. This is no different than passing down heirloom furniture or jewelry! So the definition of an heirloom is seed that has been grown and passed down over many generations.

All heirlooms are open pollinated, but not all open pollinated plants are heirlooms. Only a small fraction of the plant world is considered heirloom.

F1 HYBRID SEEDS

Farmers have selected seed for thousands of years to improve the crop. Hybridization came about to further improve food and flower crops. F1 hybrids are the result of two plants with specific characteristics being deliberately crossed to produce a new third variety. If you save seed from a hybrid, and grow it out, you will get one of the parents, not the plant that produced the seed.

Hybrids are usually more productive and vigorous than OPs and heirlooms. They sometimes have disease resistance bred into them, and their growth and fruiting habits are uniform. You have to buy hybrid seed every year and now organic hybrid seeds are available.

There is a misconception that hybrids are genetically modified. They are not! GMOs are modified in a lab setting, but they are not hybridized. You can feel safe buying hybrid seed.
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On the Chillington hoe I had to google an image. Wow that is one serious hoe there I would have to be a body builder to wield that thing

My favorite hoe is a light weight, long handled half moon shaped hoe sometimes called a dutch hoe. I own several different variations on the design and all are razor sharp. A dull hoe is absolutely useless.