Survival Gardening Lessons Learned

Received this e-mail from a reader: My wife and I started a survival garden this year. I learned so many things which will come in handy if I have to rely on growing my own food. Not only do we learn good lessons, but we can stretch our shrinking dollars and get just tickled seeing things grow.

UrbanMan's comment: Absolutely. I highly encourage growing a survival garden to help reduce food costs, gained lessons learned and have those skills when it IS a life and death struggle.

1. Give pests more credit than not. Use rabbit proof wire - this is a one time purchase as it can be used time and time again.
2. Pull weeds as soon as you see them. Don't wait or you'll be over whelmed. I can see that on a Survival Team, a designated person primarily responsible for the garden with labor from the rest of the group is the way to go. You have to have some in charge that knows what they are doing. Heck our lives may be in the balance.

3. Buckets cut in half to make two donuts are good containers in the ground as they direct water directly over the roots and won't let any seeds gets washed away. You can buy store bought edging to make a donut and they can be used over and over but if you are trying to make your garden as monetarily efficient as possible then improvise with buckets.



4. During 100 degree heat most plants require watering in the morning AND evening. So be as water efficient as you can.
5. Be creative for your soil. In my sandy area I use horse and cow manure that I get for free, minus the gas for my truck to go get it, to mix with the sand. My wife is now used to saving vegetable leftovers and skins for our compost heap.
6. My experience is if the seed packet says "fruit in 60 days", plan for 90 days, or even more. Most of our vegetables produced very late.
7. Beans too much water and care for the output.
8. Onions easy to grow and do not use a prohibitive amount of water.
9. Squash and cucumber are easy to grow, produce good product for the required care and water.
10. Corn - easy to grow. Be careful where you grow it as other people can see the stalks,....they may be thinking "where there is corn there may be other vegetables as well."
11. Carrots, for me, were hard to grow. In fact, this endeavor was a failure. Could be the soil and lack of nutrients, but then again most of the other crops grew. Next, I'll start the carrots in- doors until they sprout.
12. Finally, my tomatoes are my prize vegetable. They are growing well in half shady area. I am growing two different types.

Our plan is to can some of the vegetables and dry others so we developed lessons in the preservation techniques. I have a canning setup with 24 mason jars and a dehydrator.

FEMA Alert on Zombie Threat Preparation

Looks like UrbanSurvivalSkills.com isn't the only site preaching survival preparedness that is talking about the Zombie Threat,.......

From CDC - Preparedness 101: Zombie Apocalypse
Editor's Note: We wanted to share a blog post from our friends at the Centers for Disease Control. Preparing for a zombie attack, or other fictional disasters, can provide useful tips to get prepared for a real disaster. The following is an excerpt of the original blog post on the CDC Public Health Matters Blog May 16th, 2011 by Ali S. Khan.

There are all kinds of emergencies out there that we can prepare for. Take a zombie apocalypse for example. That’s right, I said z-o-m-b-i-e a-p-o-c-a-l-y-p-s-e. You may laugh now, but when it happens you’ll be happy you read this, and hey, maybe you’ll even learn a thing or two about how to prepare for a real emergency.

The rise of zombies in pop culture has given credence to the idea that a zombie apocalypse could happen. In such a scenario zombies would take over entire countries, roaming city streets eating anything living that got in their way. The proliferation of this idea has led many people to wonder “How do I prepare for a zombie apocalypse?”

Go to the FEMA Blog and see what they recommend to prepare against the threat of Zombies:

http://blog.fema.gov/2011/05/from-cdc-preparedness-101-zombie.html

Urban Survival - Counter Surveillance and Situational Awareness

I was sent the below video seemingly because it supports the Right to Keep and Bear Arms with a Concealed Weapons Permit holder fighting back against an attempted murder/robbery. So watch the video and see what you think.

Robbery Attempt ends in shootout

What I see, hear and feel is several things unrelated to the 2nd Amendment.

1 - The citizen who fought back with his own handgun, just got plain lucky. To draw after being shot, let along drawing against a drawn gun is much more often than not a losing proposition. Sure, nothing else the citizen could have did at that point, but plenty he could have did prior to the confrontation.

2 - Developing situational awareness to "read" your environment in order to determine what is out of place and what may be "too" in place. What and who is trying hard to seem "in-place" and not arouse your suspicion? If you were in the service you have certainly been asked by a Drill Sergeant "Hey Boy, you looking for your discharge?" as a reminder to keep your head up and eyes forward. Same thing here,...don't go through life looking on the ground or fixated on where you are going. Cultivate the ability to observe all around you. Use peripheral vision and the mirrors on your vehicle. Don't just consider what is close by, say within 50 yards,.....observe and identify possible threats past your immediate area - this is called your area of influence or an area where things can occur in that can influence events in your immediate area. We have previously talked about this as the OODA Loop. In short a continuous process of Observing, Orientating (on possible threats), Deciding and Acting. Apply this now; get good at it; and it will become second nature.

3 - Know the common and routine vehicles in your area. Do the drivers match up to the vehicles they drive. Three scruffy young men in vehicle that make too much eye contact with you, or avoid making any eye contact at all should elevate your spidy sense.

4 - A cursory scan of concealed places around where you park and along your route to your front door is, necessarily, in order. Very common tactic is to wait in shadows and attack the target (meaning you) while you are in the light and especially when artificial light blinds you to the attack.

5 – Be aware of people reconnoitering your home or survival site as they are looking to complete a target package. Seemingly harmless interactions such as sales calls, religious people giving away written material, or people asking for directions can get someone legitimately close enough to gather details such as types of door and window locks; presence of dogs; you general security level; look at the interior of your house for valuables or a visual of your floor plan.

6 – Another recon technique is to do a slow roll by in a vehicle and use a video camera to film for later study. I have used video glasses for walk up visual recons on structures, so I’m sure the bad guys can too.

7 – Develop a duress code with your family or survival group members so as a routine measure or if you are suspicious of someone being in your home you can call and your family members can use a benign, innocent one word code word built into a sentence to cue you that they are under duress. Duress simply means someone has a gun on them. This is one way you have a chance at avoiding walking into a home invasion in progress.

Urban Survival Preparation - Baby Boomer Couple Preparing

UrbanSurvivalSkills.com received the following interesting letter: "I read your site several times a week. Allow me to introduce myself and my wife, call us Jim and Maybelle. We live in the desert Southwest and although my house and plot are not fenced, and we have on open field on one side, and we are across a two lane state road from a sub-division we still call ourselves urbanites.

I am 63 years old, my wife 61. I did well enough in several business enterprises to retire early with a small pension from a 401k and now rely on rental house income, a home based business income and early social security. I am an outdoorsman and have hunted for nearly four decades including the hunt trip of a lifetime in Africa. I saw the way this country was going several years ago and started to position much of my assets for better short term control.

I like the Chapters on Jim and more recently the discussion on whether or not to have Gold and Silver. Actually it is a no brainer. All should have at least a small quantity of Silver, the easiest and cheapest to procure. A small amount bought each month can stack up fairly quickly. I did not start buying either until three years ago. I am certainly glad I did. I own a few rifles and sporting shotguns but never bought anything for "personal defense" until a couple years ago. Now my wife and I are pretty competent with Springfield XD-45 pistols and I just bought a Ruger Ranch Rifle in .223 and I am incredibly impressed by this little, lightweight gun.

I am not quite to the point where my wife and I are willing to give up our great life accessing restaurants, close friends, the local gym and swimming pool but understand very well that where we are at may be an untenable place to live due to close proximity to a large population who will surely be "have nots". Thanks for the constant reminders about building a survival team but for many people this is not feasible. I have a private joke about building a survival squad of geriatrics! I did however buy a Range Rover and am getting better prepared all the time to "Bug Out" as you call it. Also have started a garden which is the first time we have grown anything at all besides flowers.

If you can manage it, how about writing something on vehicle preparedness, tools, maybe some common supplies to keep vehicles running during a collapse where maintenance providers will not be available? Thanks for all the information so far!"