Grow an Garden?

We are growing an big garden,this year.Also buy powder milk and can meats or chicken,dry soups and alot of baby wipes,they will work great,your dogs and cats,now start buying 50 pounds of bags of food,ive bought 7/50pound bags of the dog food and 15,bags of cat food.my dogs will eat and my 2 cats.start now and worry later on

Originally posted by payinblack
start buying 50 pounds of bags of food,ive bought 7/50pound bags of the dog food and 15,bags of cat food.my dogs will eat and my 2 cats.start now and worry later on

You are stocking up to feed your animals? I am stocking up for my family knowing if it comes to it, dog and cat don't taste too bad. I have eaten one or the other once I'm sure.

Yeah, worse case scenereo and I'll count on eating my animals.

[edit on 3-5-2006 by think2much]

I too have begun a large garden this year - growing all kinds of veggies. There sure is a lot to learn though. I am making some great progress, everything is finally growing pretty good.

As far as my pets - they will become food if need be - sadly.

I have even found a place in the woods to go if things got THAT bad. I finally own a shotgun and have powdered milk, beans, rice and some dried foods and MRE's. Books on survival and several guides on edibles in the wild.

Also, a bugout bag and many other things I never would have owned before 911.

I believe it is important and I see many who say this is coming and that is coming, but are not prepared.

I hope nothing happens where I will need to depend on this, and if not, then I enjoyed gardening, camping and hunting anyways.

Make sure to stock up on the genetically modified so as to produce mind control hormones plants out there!

(j/k)

Can't explain it, but I'm also trying my hand at gardening this year, just
felt "compelled" to do so..lol Told my family, I didn't want to plant anything that wasn't edible. So far, everything looks nice and green. Water purification is next on my list of things to research and plan a course of action, in case I need it.

My garden is loooking good also,its growing early this year?,we now have 3 growing,my dogs will eat even if i need to kill deer,for them to eat.But ive been buying alot of dog food and cat food,they are my kids,how can you eat your friends?.We are all differnt people in this world...

Strange, I've started a garden in my appartment myself. I'm growing tomatos and various herbs to start. I wonder if there is a pre programmed start point for the gardening urge.

What was once before, repeats again.

Don't forget the bees if you have room for a hive.
Pollinators increase crop yieds, plus supply honey.

Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit and herb gardens planted at private residences in Canada, the United States and United Kingdom during World War I and World War II to reduce the pressure on the public food supply brought on by the war effort.

en.wikipedia.org...

Have I just slipped into another dimension? Whats going on? What's all this talk of growing gardens, stocking up on food, eating cats and dogs, shotguns. What do you guys thinks gonna happen? Funny thing is I've just bought loads of vegetable seeds to make a vegetable patch, but I live in England. Does that count?

[edit on 3-5-2006 by Xeros]

My garden is covered in black plastic right now, waiting for some weeds to germinate and die. Friends rototilled it for me on the weekend and I got the big goonies raked out and smoothed over.

Up front will be the herb and flower section. Then the onions, garlic, cabbage and snow peas (sugar snap). I have a trellis for the peas and will probably put marigolds around the cabbages to help repel some vermin. These are cold weather plants and can take a light frost yet.

Later in the month, I'll peel some more plastic back and start the more tender crops. my beans (animal fodder to southerners). Pole beans for another trellis in the middle, surrounded by a variety of green and yellow bush each--and more marigolds.

Then I'll lay down some black fabric mulch and put in the tomatoes and peppers from a greenhouse/roadside stand, and sunflowers for the birds. I always like the sunnies on the back row where they tower over everything else. Think I'll start them in a pot, they're very easy to transplant, and I'm not quite ready to dig up a row back there yet.

So far I've sunk about $30 into seeds, plants, supplies, and tools (a new rake). That'll pay for about half of the first tomato...

The $64 Tomato, that is.

Heirloom seeds are the only seeds worth buying, and they are getting harder and harder to find. We are doing a raised bed garden this year, it's a lot of work but the raised beds are well worth it and you really only have to make the beds the first year. Ebay is actually becomming a good source for heirloom seeds

Perfect small biosystem package...

Breed rats to feed to cats, then after the cats are fat, you have your little "herd" of "cat tle" to cull from... ;

Actually, cats will be worthless in survival, but dogs, they can help hunt, and protect.

Gardens are only valuble if the weather isn't the threat...
a nice cold snap, and all is toast.

I say, keep a fishing pole handy, and learn how to live off local nuts/berries/roots if it comes to it...
pine nuts are prevalent, many tubers are edible, some weeds are (but know your plant identification) mushrooms as well, some grasses...

Also, to those that are keeping huge amounts of dog food/cat food...

be careful, many pet foods are very vulnerable to a bacteria called vomitosis something or other... and that is what it does, causes them to vomit. If the food is old, or is not rotated, then it can harm your beloved pet, and since he/she is infected, then you cant even eat em, afterwards.

My dad had a huge garden every year of his life. Picking rocks and weeding was something to escape from when we were kids. When he died he left a row of undug potatoes and when I took over, they infested the place with potato bugs. Best way to get rid of those is by smushing the eggs that you can find on the undersides of the leaves.

No, the BEST way is to dug up the spuds by the roots and never planting them again. Radishes and green onions were the two things we had on the dinner table every night. He'd bring them in and scrub them up at the sink, cut and peel and stick in a dish of water to keep fresh.

The Old Farmer's Almanac is a wonderful resource to tell you planting times, along with old folk's tales like planting root crops by the dark of the mooon, and above ground during a full moon, but I just like to get stuff started and see what takes hold.

This evening I put in some spinach, but I'd rather have swiss chard. They make good border plants. And for those of you making the raised beds, clover helps keep the earth sides up and makes good mulch to help keep the weeds down. And if you really want to give your plants a boost, try composting. You can do that with old chicken wire, doesn't have to be a big fancy box.

Companion planting on raised beds is an interesting way to grow too:

When deciding what to plant in your beds, consider companion planting. Companion vegetables and herbs will help control insects and improve the overall health of your garden.

Has anyone here used the "topsy turvy' method for veggies? I'll be giving it a go later today. The concept certainly has an appeal to it and if my tomatoes do as well as this fellows, then I'm really going to have a bumper crop of grape 'maters. Yee haw! I've provided a link below to his site~

www.minifarmhomestead.com...

My dogs were my babies before we had real kids-now we're down just to one hound and he's pretty much just a huntin' dog now and he's getting old. The cats are stray wood cats, so I'd not loose any sleep over eatting them if I had too. Eating domestic animals aside, I too have started a garden this year.

I put in about 25 everbearings and 25 junebearing strawberry plants and all but about 4 plants are thriving well so I should have two nice strawberry patches (for next year, I'll nip the flowers this year)

I have tomato plants to xplant into the garden and a ton of seeds yet. Wish I knew about gardening, the whole black tarp thing and getting rid of weeds and when to plant what *sigh*

I had asparagus roots but damn what a pain they are to plant, huh? Being new to gardening, I just couldn't bring myself to start them-if someone tells me it's not that bad, I will...anyone?

It's just the whole dig a trench and plant them 8" under and then gradually fill up to crown as it grows periodically all the way into July doing that? Just to establish them for eating next year? Ugh. Admittedly delayed gratification is not my strong suit-the only reason I can nip the strawberries in the bud so to speak is because at least all I had to do was plant them once and not mess around with them otherwise and I really want the plants to grow and spread this year.

Anyway, anyone start asparagus before? Not so bad? Worth it?

The garden attracts deer and rabbits so there's more food too when needed huh? My kids love venison anyway and rabbit tastes just like chicken!

lol i read all this an it further supports my beliefs that we are all Connected...(Internaly) lol

i am as well growing but have been for a while (2 years) i grow herbs, succulents, an catci, and yer normal great smelling houseplants, u know many plants that arent edible are still very useful, they have succulents that are good for Needles, thread, and smokebathing, anticeptic, and much more, lol thats just one plant, many others are easy to grow, just do some research, Rubber trees would be more then gold if u can get a Orchard, Climate can be modded if u know yer science enuff.

Honestly You all must feel it in the wind, becuz your Noises are Twitchin..........

We need a SURVIVAL Thread.

Originally posted by think2much
Anyway, anyone start asparagus before? Not so bad? Worth it?

I have. I thought it was worth it, especially at three dollars or more per pound. I had two patches, 16sq ft each, one green, one white. Make sure to plant your root stock no deeper than 6in, however, you will benefit from digging in copious amounts of peat moss, and compost to a depth of 18-24 inches. Asparagus prefers soil that can drain easily, soggy, waterlogged soils will rot the roots.You should also make sure to dig in plenty of fertilizer with the peat moss, to ensure that the plants are continuously fed.

I used lots of bone meal, because I prefer organic. It is a natural slow release fertilizer so you don't have to worry about fertilizer burn, when digging to 18" you can go ahead and use twice the amount you normally would. This ensures fat spears, and no need for supplemental fertilizer for years. Also dig in blood meal,or some other high nitrogen fertilizer as well. Just make sure that you sprinkle a 6"layer of soil or peat on top of this so that when you plant your roots, the new roots are not burned by the blood meal.

This was in hard, deadpan, california clay soil though, so all the above might not be nec, depends on your soil.

You can harvest the year after planting, but don't get your hopes up, it won't be much and the spears will be thin. Besides, harvesting at this point is mainly to stimulate second season growth. What you will find over the next few years though are healthier fatter spears, which are much better than the pathetic, thin, overpriced asparagus usually found at most grocery stores.

ohioline.osu.edu...
[Edited to add link]

[edit on 4-5-2006 by phoenixhasrisin]

Originally posted by phoenixhasrisin
What you will find over the next few years though are healthier fatter spears, which are much better than the pathetic, thin, overpriced asparagus usually found at most grocery stores.

WOW-see, you make it sound easy and at the same time like too much! I'm like 'do I want to dig deep, and deal with fertilizer, bone meal and blood meal, and pete moss and compost? Ugh (actually our soil is black and rich-the village once dumped leaves here so supposedly that is pretty good for the soil...but...ugh...I dunno)

It's not that I'm lazy, I just tend to be unmotivated to do things that don't provide more instant gratification! Plus I just hate doing things when I am unsure if I am doing it correctly. Fear of failure? No, more fear of a waste of time and energy when I finally find the free time alone to do such.

But dang...I would like to be harvesting some strong healthy asparagus from my own garden one day wouldn't I? Ah yes, I would.

Thanks Phoenix-I'm nearly motivated to go plant some asparagus today!

*nearly*

Is it advisable to save seeds from tomatoes and other veggies for next years garden? If so, how do you save your seeds? Is there a time frame that seeds need to dry before they can be used?

haha we're starting the garden plot up this year too - just put a few tomater plants in the ground yesterday. I'll probably till up the land and start helping my wife with it in earnest this weekend.

It's good to go outside and work with nature, and I gotta echo the "we're all connected" sentiment and everyone picking up on whats going on with our world.

I hope to God I'm just nuts, but I've STRONGLY felt for at least 2-3 years now that I need to start preparing for society to crumble and man being forced to return to living off the land.