# garden set-back



## tenntex (Oct 27, 2011)

I had just finished planting my garden, and setting out my tomato plants. That night (two nights ago) we had series of thunderstorms pass through the area. We got over 4 inches of rain in a 3-hour period. We also received nickel-sized hail for all of one hour! Never seen anything like this before. The garden didn't wash much, so I think it will be mostly okay since nothing had sprouted. But the tomato plants were gone! I could see almost no traces of them!

Not a big deal now, but it underscores the uncertainty of making a living from the land. For the past three years, grasshoppers have destroyed my garden, to the point I got nothing from it except squash and okra. Both of these events are sobering reminders that there are forces way beyond anything I can control, while I try to provide for my family. If this had happened in a PAW scenario........

How can one plan for / survive the destruction of your food crops?


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## GroovyMike (Feb 25, 2010)

Be ready to replant. Diversify (above ground and root crops). Forage - don't forget kudzu and comfrey!


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## tenntex (Oct 27, 2011)

I didn't know you could do anything with kudzu, except stay out of its way. What can you do with it?


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## UncleJoe (Jan 11, 2009)

I had the same thing happen to me back in 2010. Planted the warm weather stuff one Friday morning. That afternoon we had torrential rain and small hail. Everything above ground was destroyed but all the root crops recovered. All you can do is start over. You'll just have to wait a couple weeks longer to get that fresh BLT.


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## Davarm (Oct 22, 2011)

Grasshoppers can be show stoppers, they got so bad here a few years ago that they started gnawing the bark off trees after everything else had been eaten. I've even seen them trying to eat the wooden handles of garden tools!

What I have started doing is to get the garden planted as early as possible to get it producing before the pests and heat start taking their toll. Some things will produce all winter(here), like collards, chard, beets and other cold hardy plants and you can beat the pests that way.


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Small greenhouse will help. You can even screen it in the summer if insects are a problem,also it protects from too much rain ,can be used from planting early seedlings.

May even counter some of whatever the hell it is they are spraying on us and our food in chemtrails.

We started out with small leanto,now working on a larger one.

We had a huge hoop style greenhouse a few years ago,it worked fine and held up to some very powerful storms. We took it down because it was too far from the house and we were traveling alot so it got too hot or cold with us gone.You can feed a small family in one if designed right for optimal space usage.

Just some pvc piping,plastic,the first one had 6mil poly from hardware store, it worked great for at least the 2 years we had it up. Now we use the greenhouse poly and its twice the price but also last longer.A 20X100 roll is about $275 with S&H. Best deal was at JM Leonards,shop around .We like pvc,because they bend easier than metal.

Leanto below,


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

GroovyMike said:


> Be ready to replant. Diversify (above ground and root crops). Forage - don't forget kudzu and comfrey!


What can you do with kudzu?


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## Meerkat (May 31, 2011)

Heres another idea.


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## Grimm (Sep 5, 2012)

Hydroponics indoors as early as possible.

Check out WWHermit's hydroponic lettuce thread. He and Meerkat have some great posts there with lots of pictures.


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## boomer (Jul 13, 2011)

I have had tomatoes come back from the root after a hard frost and produce better than the replanted ones. I suspect it depends on how deeply planted they were. Mine were planted up to the top couple of sets of leaves as it was a dry spring and I wanted as much root as possible for the little water that would likely be available. Watch for a sign of life about 10 days following. 

For grasshoppers letting the chickens into the garden for very brief times can save a lot of produce, at least until things are in fruit. They will stay too busy eating the hoppers to bother the vegies until they get the hoppers thinned out.

Generations of arid and semi-arid gardening in these parts.


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## tenntex (Oct 27, 2011)

Meerkat, nice greenhouse! I've wanted to make one, but don't have the money to build a good one, and I wasn't sure a plastic one would hold up to the near-constant 10-20 mph winds we have here.

Thanks for all the replies!


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## Wellrounded (Sep 25, 2011)

tenntex said:


> Not a big deal now, but it underscores the uncertainty of making a living from the land. For the past three years, grasshoppers have destroyed my garden, to the point I got nothing from it except squash and okra. Both of these events are sobering reminders that there are forces way beyond anything I can control, while I try to provide for my family. If this had happened in a PAW scenario........
> 
> How can one plan for / survive the destruction of your food crops?


We depend on our garden, life would be very difficult without it. But I NEVER rely on one crop or one planting. We try to keep at least 2 or three years ahead with canning just in case. 
We also plant much much more than we need. I aim for 1000lb of tomatoes minimum, plenty to can, dry, give away. This year we only had about 200lb, the previous year I was ill and couldn't can and the year before we had 3 floods over the growing season but I still have canned, ketchup and salsa on the shelves from 4 years ago as I started rationing it when I had the first bad crop.
We had some nasty storms when our apricots were flowering last year so had a greatly reduced crop. Enough for jam and a few canned but not enough to dry so we'll use what I have from the previous year then go without.
We also have a lot of edibles scattered around the rest of the garden, we could eat solely out of the flower borders if we had to. 
We have enough bird net to cover our entire garden stored (we don't use it often as they don't do a lot of damage in normal years), enough insect barrier cloth to cover 10 12 foot x 25 foot beds (use this mainly to keep caterpillars off the cabbages plus a heap in storage), I use homemade sprays/dusts and keep plenty of ingredients on hand and we also keep quite a few commercial sprays etc but would only use them if it was absolutely necessary. 
My advise is store a lot, have plenty of alternative crops, learn to do without if a crop isn't successful and have lots of ways of controlling pests and diseases.


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## lilmissy0740 (Mar 7, 2011)

I do pretty much what you do Wellrounded. If I can 100 acts of juice and only use 20, I will plant eye same the next year and can as much as I can cause you just never know what will produce well and what won't. 

It is early enough to replant. They might look small compared to others but they will catch up. If you see the roots of the tomato plants, let them be, I think they will come back up. It is discouraging, but don't loose faith.


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## k0xxx (Oct 27, 2011)

Meerkat said:


> What can you do with kudzu?


Eat it, drink it (make wine), or feed it to your animals.
Kudzu Recipes
Kudzu Recipes 2

Here is a link to some good information on consuming Kudzu. It has some important information for those new to Kudzu.


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