Urban Survival Planning - Growing Your Own Food

Growing your own food. Our ancestors, or at least their neighbors, did it. Doesn’t sound too hard, does it? After all, most of us are planning on being able to grow our own food and most of us stock plenty of non-hybrid seeds to achieve that goal. I sure have a good stock of non-hybrid seeds. Plus I always buy a pack or two other vegetable seeds when I am in the local hardware store. Been doing that for so long, I now have a large ammunition can full of hybrid seeds packages. I plan to use the hybrid seeds first and especially at locations that I may have to vacate (Bug Out from) so I won’t waste the seed generating capability of the non-hybrids. I can also use the hybrid seeds as barter material.

Many people I talk to are basing their stockpile of food, e.g.. dehydrated – vacuum packed – canned goods,....on what they feel is a necessary 6 months supply. Their reasoning is that, worst case, food supplies will dry up in the fall – too late to plant, so they only need six months supply to get them through to where they can grow their own food in the spring.

I have two comments to that:

1. Growing food is not as easy as you think. I would not base my existence and my family’s survival on being able to grow all the food I need.

2. Growing food is so important, and if successful, allows you to save at least some of your stockpiled food, that starting to grow food need to be immediately when a collapse hits, if not starting now. You need to be able to preserve your crops as well, through canning and dehydration.

Starting now allows you to do a rehearsal for when you really need it to survive. And the simple fact is that growing some of our own food is enjoyable and rewarding. Note: I have had some people tell me “I ain’t no farmer! I’ll barter with someone for the food they grow”. I say okay and good luck. I’m thinking in the back of my head,……if you’re hungry enough to eat another person, I think you’d be hungry enough to grow your own food.

Being prepared to start growing food immediately when a collapse hits means you need the ability to erect and grow crops out of a green house as in many places the growing seasons may even be a short 3 months. On my immediate purchase list when indicators are strong that a collapse is imminent, are materials to build a green house. It would be great to have an acre crisis garden under glass, but the simple reality is that this is just not affordable without multiple survival families putting up the funding and effort. But what is possible is a small enough green house that you can afford to build or purchase and maintain.

Probably a lot of you have heard about Northern Tool and Equipment with all their excellent deals on solar panels, wind generators, fuel storage units and such. Northern Tool also offers a wide variety of greenhouse kits. I am now looking at buying one these kits and either erecting it now, or building it when the time makes it necessary.

Much like the novel “One Second After” where the people started much too late in planning for a continued food supply…..don’t get caught like this. It is obviously much better to be ahead of the curve, especially where you you help other people and keep them from becoming a burden on you.

Northern Tool advertises this hobby greenhouse as having a strong aluminum frame that supports UV-stabilized twin-wall polycarbonate panels. These 4mm-thick walls provide excellent heat retention and create even, diffused light that your plants will love. The corrosion-resistant aluminum frame is easily assembled and stays sturdy thanks to bolt-together connections. This kit includes a galvanized base kit to anchor the greenhouse to a concrete or wood foundation. With an adjustable roof vent and sliding door provide it provides ventilation.

There are many other models to choose from. The fact remains if you buy a greenhouse kit or build your own, this will come in handy unless you have many years of stocked food in your supply.

Seeds and Growing Food Needs to Be Important to the Urban Survivor

Possibly the hardest things for Survival Preppers, especially Urban Survival preppers to get their heads around is stockpiling seeds in order to grow their own food.

I know many Survivalists who have stocked food, suitable firearms, plenty of ammunition, Bug Out Bags packed, and all the latest tactical and survival gear. More often than not the biggest deficiency in Survival plans is planning to grow your own food and to stockpile seeds to enable this.

Growing your own food is also a very good and viable way to reduce your dependency on commercial foods and this would become important during a slow gradual economic collapse, as we are in right now.

The Urban Survivor has two choices when it comes to stockpiling seeds; hybrid and non-hybrid seeds.

Non-Hybrid Seeds: Are natural, non-engineered seeds that when they grow also produce seeds that can be collected and used to grow more food. They are also referred to as Open Pollinated seeds, which generally are more robust and hardier than hybrids. It is thought that non-hybrids produce vegetables or fruits with better flavor.

Hybrid Seeds: Hybrid seeds are intentionally bred to create a better yield, better resistant to disease and drought and product a more standard fruit or vegetable with uniform color.

The Survival Planner should stock non-hybrid seeds – and a lot of them. One of the reasons to stock hybrid seeds, as well, is to be able to grow food in temporary locations that you may depart before the harvest is completed and seeds for the future can be recovered. Hybrid seed’s are cheaper and available at most any hardware or home improvement store, and, can be excellent barter material.

There will be some people that advise Survival Planners to only buy non-hybrid seeds. I think the priority should be: 1 – have seeds, hybrid or non-hybrid, 2 – have seeds both hybrid and non-hybrid, 3 – have hybrid seeds for year to year grows. Get my point?

But planning on a continuous food supply doesn’t stop with stockpiling seeds. The complete Urban Survivor should have a working knowledge about composting (creating your own fertilizer); container gardening, indoor gardening, hydroponics gardening, harvesting and preserving vegetables and fruits through canning and drying.

You should start your own garden immediately, indoors if necessary and when the frost threat and cold weather ends, plant outdoors. The experience will be invaluable, the achievement in growing your own food is substantial and the feeling that you can cut the threat of inflation and food shortages is a great feeling.

Having seeds and the ability to grow your own food IS survival!